Updated post: Santorum may have won the debate; Romney a close second; Newt, third and Paul is Paul

Update:  I really cannot say enough about how well Mitt Romney did in the CNN debate . . . . . . especially since I didn't say anything about his effort in the original text.  Romney not only appeared the most presidential,  he gave Newt a serious butt-kicking.  As an example,  after Newt came up with another anti-capitalist argument ("You [Mitt] invested in Goldman Sachs.  How many Floridians have lost their homes because of Goldman Sachs")  --  an idiot's argument coming from anyone,  especially a supposed pro-growth Republican. He was actually criticizing Mitt for having invested in the stock market.   Romney responded by turning and reminding the Speaker that,  he too, had investment capital in Sachs and other Wall Street entities to which Gingrich had absolutely no response. 

At another moment in the debate,  following Rick Santorum's scolding of Wolfe Blitzer for asking petty questions, Wolfe asked Newt to defend a criticism of Romney leveled by Gingrich on local television,  during the week.  Newt decided to refuse to defend his accusation, appealing to Santorum's criticism of Wolfe,  just moments before.  Newt raised his arms and something along this line, "What say that we four move on from these trivial questions and talk about substance."  While Blitzer defended his question in a brisk exchange with the speaker,  Romney butted into the Blitzer/Gingrich exchange by saying,  "Wouldn't it be nice if we did not say things about the others that needed defending here?"  or words to that effect.  

I thought this point was great.  Gingrich was trying to create another South Carolina moment,  in which he jumped all over the major media host,  and used that moment to propel himself into a huge victory in that state's primary.  Romney was having nothing to do with that effort.  And his timing was perfect.  Mitt injected himself into the conversation just before a positive response from the audience and took the moment away from Newt.  

Anyway,  Mitt Romney showed himself a superior debateman (word ??) and proved to me his ability to more than hang with Obama.  He appeared presidential,  as I said above,  and,  more than that,  he was unflappable, maintaining a calm, level headed demeanor in the face of Newt's baseless assaults and Santorum's intense criticism,  saying to Rick,  "You don't have to get angry about it,"  leaving Santorum with no rebuttal.  

On point,  Santorum had a great night, perhaps winning the night on substance  but Romney was most impressive for all of the above and Newt was the night's Biggest Loser. 

Original text:  

Even with crowd noise,  Newt was not able to pull off that sense of the incredible that had been his in South Carolina.  Two days ago,  he was up on Romney by 6 points.  Going into the debate,  tonight,  he was 8 points down and the debate did not help his cause.  

While Santorum had his best debate of the campaign,  even better than the Monday night event,   he has so little money that he really has no chance except to win out at a brokered convention but he will have enough delegates at the National Convention in the end of August,  to be a major player.  

Ron Paul is  in the race to gain ground for his cause and to strengthen the Libertarian position and he is doing much better,  this year,  with that agenda than in the last campaign.  He will go to the National Convention with a healthy collective of delegates and make his presence known there,  influencing the convention on matters important to him.  

As things stand tonight,  Newt has 31 delegates and Romney has 32.  After the Florida primary,  one of the two will have an addition 50 delegates.  Florida is a winner take all convention and "50" is the delegate count that is up for grabs.  

Here is what remains between now and June 26.  

February 4–11, 2012	Maine (caucus)
February 7, 2012	Colorado (caucus) Minnesota (caucus) Missouri (primary) – *See note below on Missouri
February 28, 2012	Arizona (primary) Michigan (primary)
March 3, 2012	Washington (caucus)
March 6, 2012 (Super Tuesday)	Alaska (caucus) Georgia (primary) Idaho (caucus) Massachusetts (primary) North Dakota (caucus) Ohio (primary) Oklahoma (primary) Tennessee (primary) Vermont (primary) Virginia (primary)
March 6-10, 2012	Wyoming (caucus)
March 10, 2012	Kansas (caucus) U.S. Virgin Islands (caucus)
March 13, 2012	Alabama (primary) Hawaii (caucus) Mississippi (primary)
March 17, 2012	Missouri (GOP caucus) – *See note below on Missouri
March 18, 2012	Puerto Rico (primary)
March 20, 2012	Illinois (primary)
March 24, 2012	Louisiana (primary)
April 3, 2012	District of Columbia (primary) Maryland (primary) Wisconsin (primary) Texas (primary)
April 24, 2012	Connecticut (primary) Delaware (primary) New York (primary) Pennsylvania (primary) Rhode Island (primary)
May 8, 2012	Indiana (primary) North Carolina (primary) West Virginia (primary)
May 15, 2012	Nebraska (primary) Oregon (primary)
May 22, 2012	Arkansas (primary) Kentucky (primary)
June 5, 2012	California (primary) Montana (primary) New Jersey (primary) New Mexico (primary) South Dakota (primary)
June 26, 2012	Utah (primary)

It is to our advantage to drag this process out.  The moment the Obama slander machine sees who the GOP candidate is,  it will begin its process of lies, lies and more lies.  If we can put that off until well into the month of March or the end of that month,  we will be able to go toe to toe with this bunch of Chicago based goons.  There has been much talk of Obama spending a billion dollars in this campaign.  What people don't know,  apparently,  is that he spent 3/4 of a billion last time plus another billion from private money partners.  Nothing will be new with this election in that regard.  

But,  because of Citizens United (Corporations are people too  -- dang right !!!).  the GOP will have PAC money in large enough amounts (hundreds of millions of dollars) to offset the Dark Side with its overseas accounts and hidden treasure.