Who Won the GOP
Debate?
New Hampshire
political observers offer their take on the CBS contest.
By
Marc Fortier
Rick
Perry and Newt Gingrich were the biggest winners, and CBS the biggest loser in
Saturday night’s GOP debate, according to one New Hampshire political activist.
Jennifer
Horn of Nashua, a former Republican congressional candidate and founder of the
We The People liberty group, said she thought Saturday may have been Perry’s
strongest debate performance to date.
“Perry
was strong and focused, handled his previous
poor performances with humor, and probably actually did repair at least some of
the damage,” Horn said. “This might have been his debate performance overall so
far.”
Former
State Rep. Jim Splaine, D-Portsmouth, one of the few who predicted that Perry
would be able to rebound after last week's debate gaffe, said he was also
impressed with the Texas governor's performance on Saturday night.
"Rick
Perry didn't miss a mark, and effectively made fun of his brain freeze of the
previous debate," Splaine said. "He's in this race as long as his
money holds out."
The
biggest loser, according to Horn, was CBS. She called it “unbelievable” that
CBS went to a repeat of “NCIS” instead of showing the final 30 minutes of the
debate.“Apparently, dissecting fake crimes is more important to them than
evaluating real candidates for the position of leader of the free world,” she
said.
Horn
added that the moderator, Scott Pelley, was “awful – rude, condescending and
more than once, misinformed… If I were a candidate, I would not accept another
debate invitation from CBS.”
