McCain looks and sounds old and bitter, Thompson (Tommy) comes off sounding very well-versed on issues but needs to work on delivery, Hunter appears more polished, Romney continues to sound like a robot, Brownback sounds insipid.  Huckabee is siding with the military’s expertise, but otherwise has conventional foreign policy answer.  Gilmore goes out of his way to bow before the shrine of Reagan.  Ron Paul waves the flag of non-intervention and “humble” foreign policy!  He is talking about the Constitution!

McCain’s delivery is sometimes broken and stilted, but he’s hitting all of his points.  Tancredo refers to Ahmadinejad as a “gentleman” in a standard pro-Israel answer.  His delivery was not very sharp.  Giuliani makes Iranian nuclear weapons an entirely personalised issue about Ahmadinejad (dutifully invokes Reagan).  Gilmore dodges a chance to bash Romney (missed opportunity, if you ask me) on his Bin Laden quote.  Gilmore does speak convincingly.  Romney backpedals like a fiend to escape his gaffe.  The Politico questions are not terribly good so far.  Romney engages in shameless Reagan invocation.  Huckabee makes a pretty good conservationist appeal.  Tancredo continues to stumble.  Duncan Hunter calls himself a “compassionate conservative” and then engages in obnoxious sabre-rattling against Iran.  Paul knocks the role of government question out of the park.  Giuliani manages to make a point that he doesn’t really care about the repeal of Roe when he could have just gone along with the crowd.  Gilmore advances a strong pro-life message.  Thompson argues for a federalist solution.  Romney repeats his lame conversion story, and continues to be unpersuasive. 

Brownback gives a fairly solid defense of fusionism.  McCain continues to make his points strongly, but he still sounds awfully old.  Hunter pitches his defense credentials.  Ron Paul makes some solid points on defense and foreign policy.  Romney blathers about separation of church and state and segues into religious freedom.  Huckabee somehow manages to get hung up on explaining the importance of faith in politics. 

Good grief, Romney is horribly cloying.  How can the other candidates stand it?  Brownback makes a decent point about religion in the public square.  Hunter pitches his border control credentials.  Gilmore handles a question about Karl Rove fairly capably.  So far Hunter and Gilmore are performing the best, and McCain is doing decently.  Thompson has the best record of accomplishment, and he is making sense about the need for new ideas, and he is beginning to sound more confident.  Tancredo throws down the gauntlet on immigration.  McCain gives pat answer for “comprehensive” reform.  Romney is weak on ESCR, Brownback naturally takes a strong line against.  McCain supports funding for ESCR.  Ron Paul gives the constitutionalist answer! 

Surprisingly, Romney embraces his health care bill.  McCain continues to be the only one who talks about spending.  Romney makes a strong point on having no taxes on dividends and capital gains.  Gilmore talks up his elimination of the car tax (which Virginians who had to balance the state budget probably aren’t so excited about).  Hunter hits free trade deals.  Ron Paul pushes for sound money! 

Blech–Brownback talks about compassionate and aggressive foreign policy.  Giuliani engages in a totally shameless invocation of Reagan.  Brownback blathers about “Big Ideas” that guarantee Republican victory–they are more clueless than I thought.  Huckabee makes an unexpected protectionist and anti-corporate point.  Tancredo continues to do poorly.  Romney makes shameless plug of his Olympics experience in the context of talking about an ID card for aliens.  Ron Paul strongly repudiates that, and Tancredo backs him up.  Everyone dodges the Libby question except for Gilmore, who actually gives a decent answer.  Tancredo pathetically uses the Libby item to shill for Ramos and Compean.               

Brownback continues to defend the Schiavo intervention.  McCain gives a smarter answer.  Giuliani basically dodges the question.  Hunter goes out of his way to defend the intervention.