GOP Debate Helps Huckabee

The clear winner of last night's GOP debate was Mike Huckabee. (That's him, at right, working on his winning--and slimming--form.)We're not basing that on the debate itself--are you kiddding, do you really think the Curmudgeon would waste two hours sitting through one of the Republican debates?

[We can barely stand the Democratic ones--we were delighted to see the one with CBS's Katie Couric get cancelled. There's just too many.]




Instead, we're basing it on the post-debate commentary on the right. Here's what we found:


"Yepsen: Huckabee Shows He Belongs In Top Tier" from the Des Moines Register. Iowa's leading newspaper political analyst compliments Huckabee and says "[a]fter Wednesday night, don't be surprised if Huckabee starts opening more of a lead in Iowa."





Then there's "Big Night For Huckabee" from MSNBC's Chuck Todd. We also liked the first comment on this article, from someone else who must've not watched, because he said "most conservatives are saying Romney won" [we couldn't find ANYBODY outside the Romney campaign saying that] and repeating the silly claim that Huckabee is a "liberal." These folks are giving us liberals a bad name!





And how 'bout "Huckabee Is For Real," from Real Clear Politics' John McIntyre, who says "It is not about Iowa only any more. Mike Huckabee has a real shot to be the Republican nominee."





Time Magazine's Mark Halperin, graded Huckabee highest, with a B+--tied with McCain--in his evaluation of the debate.





Even the Weakly Standard's Fred Barnes, who mostly railed that the debate format was "humiliating," backhandedly labelled Huckabee the winner: "The other candidates, with the exception of Mike Huckabee, were losers. They came off as a bunch of squabbling cousins.
Huckabee, though, knows how to conduct himself in TV debates. He's genial, funny, extremely likable, and not very substantive. He seems to understand that a CNN-You Tube debate is not a serious forum at which serious people discuss serious issues. So he doesn't get worked up, and this posture works."





Clearly, Huckabee will continue to be a major character in the Republican storyboard as the race gets focused in the next five weeks.