Michele Bachmann took command in Republican 2012 debate

A big night for Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney came across as the assured frontrunner he wants to be and Tim Pawlenty appeared to lack the courage to push home an attack on Romney.

Debates are highly subjective and they often matter a lot less than reporters thinks – and certainly, with eight months to go until the first primary vote is cast nothing that happened tonight will be remotely decisive. For most of the candidates (Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich would be the main exceptions), it was introduction night.

But tonight’s debate in New Hampshire will subtly alter the shape of the race.

Until now, Bachmann has been something of a Palin-lite figure and has often been portrayed as a Tea Party loon fixated on ultra-conservative issues and apt to shoot her mouth off. Tonight, she relentlessly pushed her experience as a tax lawyer, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, a decision-maker not afraid to buck her own party on TARP and a leader of the charge against Obamacare – not to mention being a mother of five and foster mother of 23.


An unspoken part of the Bachmann strategy was Sarah Palin. Her aides realise that the spat between the two campaigns last week was bad news for Bachmann. And it was noteworthy that the offender in precipitating that, her new campaign manager Ed Rollins, was conspicuous by his absence from the spin room.


But Bachmann clearly needed to draw a contrast with Palin and the focus on policy and experience did just that. I’d say that after Bachmann’s performance tonight Palin is less likely to run.


Tim Pawlenty was given a chance by John King to land a punch by repeating his “ObmaneyCare” line from last Sunday. He didn’t have the guts to do it and tried to turn it into an attack on Obama. I would have thought his team would have anticipated that question and come up with a better answer. In fact, given what he had on the line, I think Pawlenty was the loser of this debate.