Tonight's Debate Is A Turning Point In The Election

Between Romney, Perry, and Cain, someone is going to win (or lose the least).

Perry can right his ship and begin building back up to front-tier status. Or he could stumble again, and consign himself to also-ran status.

Cain has had a problem handling questions that can't be answered with the numbers 9-9-9. He's said some constitution-scorning things about Muslims, and he has been baffled about elementary knowledge (the Right to Return) or major issues he really needs to have some kind of a position on (continuing the fight in Afghanistan).

In addition, he hasn't often been challenged, as he was viewed as a nice guy of virtually no threat to win the nomination. So none of the contenders challenged him. They were all playing nice, to curry favor with his supporters.

Given that Cain is now in second place, that should change. Whether Cain rises or falls might be the storyline of the night.

And then there's Mitt Romney. As Romney makes few actual mistakes, whether Romney "wins" depends on whether Perry and Cain both lose.

As boring as these things are, tonight's might actually be important. It's also supposed to be almost exclusively on the economy.

posted by Ace at 12:09 PM

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