Gingrich Survives, Romney Blows It: Opinion Makers in Iowa and Afar Dissect Saturday Night's Debate

The biggest debate remaining before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses is in the books. Now all that's left is the debate post mortem.

(Need a recap of Saturday night's ABC News/Yahoo/Des Moines Register debate? .) 

Speaking of The Des Moines Register, Register columnist Kathie Obradovich said Mitt Romney's spur-of-the-moment $10,000 bet challenge to Rick Perry was a very bad one for his image. Obradovich also gives grades to the rest of the debaters in that article.

Romney disputed the claim and when Perry persisted, he jokingly offered a $10,000 bet.  Perry didn’t take the bet, but he won the point.   Romney was casually offering the equivalent of about one-fifth of the average median income for an Iowa family. Romney’s privileged background was driven home later when the candidates were asked whether they’d ever had to cut costs in their own family budget.

“I didn’t grow up poor,” Romney said, and noted that if voters are looking for someone who did, they’ll have to vote for somebody else.

A lot of is being made of the $10,000 bet line by various pundits, which, as innocuous as it seemed live, created a on Twitter. One debate coach writing for CNN joined others in saying Romney was the only real loser of the debate.

He is behind in national polls, and this time it's serious: His main rival, Newt Gingrich, is polling well not just in Iowa, but also across the country. Saturday night's debate was on a major network, with a wide audience, in the first state in the nation to hold a caucus -- and there is only one more debate before that voting. The conclusion is inescapable. Romney blew it.

Nate Silver, on his New York Time's blog, argued using Intrade political futures numbers that in a debate that was billed as Gingrich versus Romney and both versus the field, Gingrich gained and Romney faltered slightly, with an interesting note that it was the punditry echo chamber that led to Romney's drop.

The decline for Mr. Romney was not nearly as bad as the one Mr. Perry experienced on Nov. 9 following his “oops” moment in that night’s debate. Mr. Perry’s price at Intrade declined to 4 percent from 9 percent almost immediately after he uttered that word. Also in contrast to the earlier debate, the bettors had a somewhat delayed reaction to Mr. Romney’s $10,000 wager. Most of the decline in his share price came not when Mr. Romney first offered the bet, but instead after the debate ended and it became clear that it would be the focal point of post-debate spin.

As for Gingrich, the consensus was that he survived a debate where he was the primary target for most of the night. Jonathan Bernstein on a Washington Post blog graded Gingrich quite highly.

To my eyes, Newt gave his strongest debate performance. Now, the interesting part. Will GOP opinion leaders who don’t want Newt as the nominee be able to control the post-debate spin, perhaps ignoring his strong outing and emphasizing the others who did well? In his drawn-out back-and-forth with Romney on Israel, Newt clearly got the better of it as far as I could see. That is, in terms of what GOP audiences are liable to reward.

As for the other candidates, this CNN run down argues that Santorum and Perry are continuing to fade, and that with conservatives still searching for a candidate, Ron Paul is poised to do well.

Neither Rick Santorum nor Rick Perry did much in this GOP match-up to change his standing.

Aside from a few notable moments, the two Ricks largely faded into the background in a high-profile contest that could have helped either build on low poll numbers in Iowa -- a state that both men hope could turn around their campaigns.

Here's an Associated Press fact check article for the debate from Boston.com.

Now, with this major debate behind us, Holly Bailey of Yahoo! News writes, the next 10 days will be the most critical part of the campaign season as candidates prepare to make their closing arguments to Iowa voters.

Another Republican debate will be held this Thursday in Sioux City. It will be broadcast by Fox News.