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The Florida debate was very different than any of the GOP debates we have seen so far. The format of the debate itself is not that different, but rather the circumstances surrounding it make it one of the most important discussions amongst the candidates thus far. This is the first debate to occur in either party after one of the major candidates dropped out; Fred Thompson was the only candidate perceived as having a chance to obtain his parties nomination who has so far dropped out. Unlike the past several debates in South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire this event was more of an introduction for the candidates than a closing argument. Due to the tight primary schedule, none of the candidates with the exception of Giuliani have invested great amounts of time in the state thus far and it was their first opportunity to reach Floridian GOP primary voters on their local broadcast stations. Finally, the primary this debate is intended for has the potential to kill off another presidential bid; of course that is if Rudy Giuliani does not win in the sunshine state. With the high stakes surround tonight’s MSNBC debate it is also curious that it was such a passive event, indeed the whole affair was quite civil compared to Monday’s CNN run Democratic blood bath. The question worth asking is, with all of the pressure and importance of this debate, who came out on top? It was without a question Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney

It should be first noted that Governor Romney has done something significant over the past three-weeks he has changed his image. In what has to be one of the more impressive political come backs in modern history, the Governor has recovered from two embarrassing defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire and has done so with a whole new approach. As one of his supporters from the beginning, I saw his comprehension of the economy along with his private sector experience and logical consultant based thinking to be his greatest strengths. For far too long his campaign marketed him as something he was not, the GOP candidate least offensive to the many different colored elephants underneath the GOP tent. He won Michigan and Nevada because he spoke to the voters in those states about the economy with a resonance, passion, and understanding that none of the other candidates can. Just as John McCain can discuss the war in Iraq with more authority than his rivals, Romney can do the same on the economy. Luckily for Romney, the focus of the election has shifted in the past two months from the war to the looming economic crisis. This truth along with his new found confidence in himself enabled him to steal the debate from McCain and Giuliani.

The first half an hour of the debate focused on the economy and Romney dominated those first thirty minutes. It became quickly evident that he has made a commitment to tell Floridians that he will turn-around their hurting economy and he was very effective in conveying that message. The fact that Romney has been able to remove some of the shine from his almost too polished demeanor has made him more appealing to voters, but what really helped him tonight was that none of his opponents questioned him on his record. In fact, they did something even stranger than not attack him-they engaged him in ways that provided him with openings to explain even more of his policies and to have even more air time. No one did poorly in tonight’s debate, but Romney just did better than his opponents. At one point I recall Governor Romney received two questions from the moderators and then two from the other candidates; because of this attempted gang up he was given an almost five minute monologue with the voters.

Participants in the GOP Debate on Thursday (L to R): Romney, McCain, Giuliani, Paul, and Huckabee

Romney walked away with the debate because he was able to differentiate himself from the other candidates through his discussion of the economy, his witty attacks on the Clinton’s, and his well-versed rebuttals to Tim Russet’s criticisms of his personal wealth. McCain and Rudy did not win because neither of them were able to grab an issue, the war is McCain’s strong suit but with the shifting focus towards the economy it is clear that he needs to branch out onto other issues. Giuliani’s problem is that he did nothing to convince Florida voters to support him over Mitt Romney for economic reasons; in fact Giuliani talked less about his economic achievements in New York than he has in past debates. Mike Huckabee went into this debate knowing that he will not do well in Florida and I believe he made a wise choice to stick to his social conservative stances and not try and promote himself as an economic or national security candidate. As usual, the other candidate who did very well was Ron Paul; like in most of the debates he partakes however he received very few questions. Another fault of McCain and Giuliani was that neither of them made an attempt to convince former Fred Thompson supporters not to drift towards Romney and polls indicate that the 9% of support Thompson had may be enough to put the Massachusetts Governor into first place. There are still several days until the Florida primary, but if I was a Floridian GOP voter with many foreclosed homes in my neighborhood and tonight was my first introduction to any of the candidates I believe I would have only seen one viable candidate on the stage.

Editor’s Note: Images were added to this post at 4PM on Friday, January 25th.

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