Observations from last night's debate

Well, the kids at @bloombergtv had their evening in the sun with last night's GOP debate. I liked the structure quite a bit. However, this turned out to be a real showcase of this network's increasingly hard-left leaning, from ex-NPR moderator Charlie Rose to the downright rude interruption of Mitt Romney by @juliannagoldman. Here's a hint, Jules: The viewership isn't tuning in to hear you. Let the candidate speak and DON'T INTERRUPT. Even more nauseating was every Bloomie reporter with a Twitter account (yes, @lizzieohreally, I'm talking to you) praising her for this little bit of classlessness. Et tu @tomkeene? I expected a little more from a varsity letterman. We know which side of the aisle y'all fall on. Please humor us by masking it for at least a few seconds every now and then.

So how did everyone do?

Jon Huntsmann: There's no truth to the rumor that they had to squeeze in an extra chair at the table for him because debate organizers totally forgot he was still in this thing...but there should be.

Rick Perry: You showed up to a debate on one huge issue-the economy-without any semblance of an economic plan or any vision or insight. Camera cuts showed you as bewildered as Joey from Friends when he only bought the "K" volume of the encyclopedia and his other 5 codependents were talking about something that started with a "C" (or the other way around? Different letters? You get the idea). Cowboy down, li'l dogie.

Rick Santorum: He sounds like a guy with true knowledge and compassion about life an industry in a large swing state combined with an insider's knowledge on navigating Congress. If he didn't look like he was gonna snap into a full-blown nutty every time he spoke he may have a shot at bottom-billing on the ticket.

Michelle Bachmann: Spot on with ObamaCare. Reservations about adding a sales tax pipeline through Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan are legitimate. I don't think she's the right messenger. "Sarah Palin with experience and a brain" is still damning with faint praise.

Ron Paul: Three words: VAGABOND...RIGHT...EYEBROW.

Listen, buddy. I get it that you were excited that your Andy Rooney Halloween costume arrived early...but on national (or at least the subsection of "national" that actually knows which channel Bloomberg is) TV at a time when your support is marginal (yet still at least a little vigorous) is no time to break the thing out unless you're certain the glue will hold up in 2 hours of heat from studio lights.

Ronnie stuck to the libertarian script admirably. I want to unleash him like the Tasmanian Devil as Secretary of the Treasury just to see what would happen.

Mitt Romney: Mitt held serve. I applaud him for not backing down to a downright rude Julianna Goldman in defining "hypothetical," but acknowledge that her cronies had a field day with it. In the end, it doesn't matter. Herman Cain questioned the unwieldiness of his 59-point plan, which is entirely valid. Mitt came back with a thoughtful response that did no damage. Still the frontrunner.

Herman Cain: HC got the biggest bump in brand recognition last night. Every time a moderator or fellow candidate mentioned "9-9-9" it was a win for him. His biggest flub was a deadpan answer of "Alan Greenspan" as the Fed chief he respected most, but he qualified his answer with...ummm..."reasonable sufficiency." He, like Romney, held serve.

Newt Gingrich: Y'know when someone asks you to list something not entirely obscure but something you're not used to rattling off every day...like "all the members of the Ivy League?" There's always one on the list that's harder to remember than all of the others. For me and the Ivy League list, I always forget Brown. Sorry, Newt. This morning you're Brown. It's not that you didn't do well last night. Your answers were those of a skilled debater that knows how Congress, DC as a whole and the US economy and healthcare system work. It's just that...well, in the list of GOP candidates, this morning you were Brown...and that's that.