CBNNews.com - What we saw tonight was a free-for-all between these Republican candidates over Iraq, immigration and a number of other issues. But the guy in the middle of the brawl was Mitt Romney and he got beat up pretty bad. If this was a prize fight, they would have stopped it. His nose was bloodied.

 

While all of the candidates got their shots in, it was really John McCain and Mike Huckabee who leveled him. McCain looked Romney right in the face and said, "You are the candidate of change." Man, that went right to Romney's flip flop image. Then McCain tussled with Romney over immigration and told him that Romney could spend his whole fortune calling McCain's immigration plan amnesty but he'd be wrong. Man, going after him for being rich, that's a blow. We'll see if voters think McCain's attacks crossed the line. Either way, Romney looked stunned that McCain would go personal. And McCain did it with a smile on his face. The Feisty McCain is back. He's loving life once again.

 

Mike Huckabee came into this debate with a target on his back but it was Huckabee who fired a major dart right at Romney. At one point Mitt Romney told Huckabee to not criticize his position. And Huckabee replied back, "Which one?" Ouch. That's called a "flip flip shot" The whole press filing center let out a collected, "oooooooooooooooooooo" It was the line of the night.

 

Huckabee also needed to show the country that, beyond his folksy charm, he has the bonafides on national security and foreign policy. In this debate, you could see him really making a serious effort to talk tough and he even threw in some bonus extra credit on radical Islam history by naming the year of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian radical who was executed in 1966. Huckabee's answer on the differences between himself and Barack Obama was classic. He highlighted the many differences but then gave Obama credit for the new discourse in dialogue (something The Brody File has been talking about forever) and then transitioned into how he's trying to do the same thing. It was a night here in New Hampshire where Mike Huckabee showed he's definitely Presidential material.

 

For Giuliani, this was an opportunity to get back on the national stage again. Romney and Huckabee stole the headlines in Iowa and McCain is stealing them here in New Hampshire. We saw a strong performance from Giuliani tonight. It looks like he is not going to fade into the sunset but instead lurks right around the corner. You can find him at the early bird special in Florida and his message is, "Gentlemen, I'm waiting for you."

Giuliani did tonight what he does best; he laid it out straight. He eloquently defended Bush for the most part on foreign policy and he went after Ron Paul on 9/11 which is always a good moment for him.   Plus, he made an impassioned plea for not turning in the kids of illegal immigrants.

 

Fred Thompson has really turned into the guy below the radar. He's free to take shots without getting hit himself. And that's what he did tonight. The sign above his head is, "Hello, I'm right here if anybody is looking for a conservative".

 

Ron Paul is the wildcard here in New Hampshire. In this Independent state, Paul can do well here. He could even clock in with 15% of the vote. If he does, who does that hurt the most? You have to believe he probably hurts Huckabee the most because Huckabee has taken more of a critical view of the Bush White House and wants to get rid of the IRS…just like Paul. Paul probably had one of his better debate performances. It was controlled, passionate and not so whiny.

 

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