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In the hours and days following the first GOP presidential debate, most have declared Mitt Romney the winner.  The win was not completely unanimous however.  Some blogs and vote tallies have Senator John McCain as the winner.  Others did not pick a winner but simply said that Romney and McCain had the best performances.  What I heard and read was that Mitt Romney was poised, confident, articulate, looked presidential, and he edged out all of his competitors.

On the Sean Hannity radio talk show the day following the debate, the question was posed to all of the callers, “Who won the debate last night?”  The answer by the overwhelming majority was that Mitt Romney won.  There was the occasional caller in the mix who would respond that a different candidate won.  I can only assume it was because that candidate made a profound connection to the caller.  For example, an anti-war Republican likely would have said that Ron Paul won the debate because he was the candidate to talk about a non-interventionist foreign policy.  A war veteran Republican might have said that John McCain won the debate because of the type of connection he felt to the war veteran’s comments.  A pro choice Republican might have picked Rudy Giuliani as the debate winner due to the fact that he did not share the same enthusiasm as the other candidates for the overturn of Roe vs. Wade.

The debate was held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.  The debate was sponsored by MSNBC and politico.com.

At least one representative from both MSNBC and politico.com declared Romney the winner.  Joe Scarborough of the Scarborough Country program on MSNBC commented…

I’m not saying that Romney is Reagan anymore than I’m predicting the collapse of John McCain’s campaign. But there were clear winners and losers in last night’s contest. Among those Red State Republicans (who will elect their party’s next nominee), Mitt Romney won while McCain and Giuliani failed to meet expectations.

That may not be how it looks in Georgetown or the Upper West Side, but that’s how it is playing in Kansas. And what’s the matter with Kansas? Not a damn thing. –Romney is the winner in Kansas, if not D.C., May 4, 2007

John Harris, Editor in Chief at POLITICO.COM said “Well, I thought Mitt Romney, who’s introducing himself to most Americans who are not familiar with him. … I thought he gave a very polished, forceful performance that clearly is going to attract a lot of second notices.”

Please see the full debate coverage here with lots of video, commentary, and quotations.

http://www.mittromney.com/News/Debates/Reagan_Library_California/index#index

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