First, I think you have to say that tonight’s Republican debate didn’t hold a candle to yesterday’s in terms of entertainment firepower. That said, all jokes aside, Mitt Romney did much, much better than he did last night. It didn’t take much of course. That was the worst debate trainwreck I’ve ever seen in a national race. I think I may have to go back and watch Lord of the Flies to fully understand what was going on there.
But tonight he didn’t get attacked that much. He made his case well. He had some solid answers.
But then something weird happened. I thought Mitt did a good job and repaired some of the damage from last night. But then after the debate Fox had Frank Luntz on hand with a focus group at the Merrimack Restaurant (where I usually ate meals when I was reporting New Hampshire primaries) in Manchester. And basically the focus group was unanimous that Mitt had had a crushing victory. No kidding. The Mittmentum was palpable.
Now, it was clear that a lot of the people in this particular focus group were as dumb as posts. One of the guys Luntz interviewed explained how Mitt was obviously more credible on the pro-life issue than Mike Huckabee. I mean, I had no idea Mitt could do so well bamboozling these folks. Seriously, it was so surreal that I had to consider whether Mitt had possibly forced a leveraged buyout of the restaurant or possibly the members of the focus group.
But if these folks were at all representative of New Hampshire Republicans I think there’s a possibility that Mitt really changed the dynamic with 36 hours left to go.
Here’s the focus group, you make up your own mind …
Feel the Mittmentum!
