I thought the article linked in the first post matched pretty much what I saw in last night's debate.
The other candidates hit Perry very hard on the mandatory vaccine issue. There was no way he could defend his stance and he got a deer in headlights look as the others went at him.
It was also pretty low when Perry just made up what he claimed Romney said in his book about Social Security, all for some applause which wasn't warrented. And how can Perry write just a few months ago that Social Security and Medicare shouldn't be federal programs and try to back out of it now?
The format of the debate ended up working better than I expected. It started out too easy as they were asked very basic questions by the Tea Party members which they could simply answer with their standard stump speech responses. But then the other candidates started to get into it in response, and that opened things up. Also, there were some tougher questions asked later on (like "how much taxes do you think I should pay?").
I think Romney continues to do well, from what I've seen.
I liked the way he stuck to his guns on the issue of in-state tuition for children of illegals as long as they are working towards citizenship and a degree. As he said, it is a state's rights issue and it is in the interests of Texas to educate these kids. He stuck in the face of boos from the crowd and sniping from the other candidates. He has some other issues, but that went a long way in my book towards leadership.
