- The room full of tea baggers at last night’s debate in Florida did not cheer at references to executing people or letting the uninsured die, but they could not pass up an opportunity to hate on the gays. The crowd booed during a video question from an active-duty U.S. serviceman who said he was gay. “I guess we only respect the troops Republicans approve of,” wrote Digby. “Good to know.”
- The soldier’s question was put first to Rick Santorum, the infamous homophobe. His response was typically bizarre: “I would say, any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military.” (Tell it to the Marines, Rick.) David Weigel wrote, “The truly odious moment on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — possibly the first ever booing of an active duty soldier at a Republican debate — will be remembered beyond [Santorum’s] predictable attacks on the patriotism of anyone who doesn’t favor constant aggressive warfare.”
- “As with all the Republican debates,” wrote Jonathan Chait, at his new digs at New York magazine, “this one devolved into a contest to see whether Rick Perry or Mitt Romney could most persuasively paint the other one as reasonable.”
- “My take: a horrible night for Perry. Therefore another great night for Romney,” Andrew Sullivan wrote in the final entry in his live blogging of the event.”Now I want to go somewhere dark and slit my wrists.”
- “That was a really weird encounter between Perry and Romney on who’s the biggest flip-flopper,” Josh Marshall posted toward the end of the debate. “I mean, this should be one you can just hit right out of the park for anyone running against Romney. And Perry was clearly prepped with a series of attack lines. But he stumbled over them like you’d woken him up in the middle of the night. Or maybe he was a punch drunk heavyweight at the end of the 14th round. Then Romney comes in — an amazing flip-flopper if there ever was one — and manages to just run circles around Perry. It was almost sad.”
- Taegan Goddard also thought Perry was running on empty: “Romney was the clear winner of this debate… Perry looked tired and was barely able to finish a two hour debate. He stumbled badly over his attack lines on Romney — almost as if he never practiced them. Not looking at Romney while attacking him was a big mistake. If this was Perry’s chance to convince the GOP establishment he could win the nomination and defeat President Obama, he didn’t come close to sealing the deal.”
- Kevin Drum agreed that Perry was last nights big loser: “He remains completely unable to say anything really substantive, and stumbles badly when he’s trying to dredge up a new talking point from the depths of his brain. I know that deep policy expertise isn’t his big selling point, but he’s really starting to sound like a schoolboy who memorized a few index cards ten minutes before show time, delivers them haltingly when the teacher calls on him, and then tries to joke and grin his way into a passing grade.”
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