Michele (Ma Belle)

. . . those aren’t words that go together well—yet. But Bachmann won the debate in New Hampshire. She seemed like a sane, competent, charming, extremely conservative woman with all the right experience as the uncompromising chair of the Tea Party caucus. (She’s much better than Palin.) She manipulated the heck out of the event and acted like a poised but enthusiastic front runner. I’m not for her at all, but I don’t know why she doesn’t get the Tea Party vote in the primaries—which could, after all, be enough to transform her from a marginal figure into a genuine front runner.

Pawlenty gave it his best shot and was more than Pawlenty of nothing. But he still seemed tonedeaf. He seemed too scared to go after Romney. And he’s now O for 2 in debates—losing the first one to Cain and this one to Michele. (Cain seemed like an articulate but empty suit this time—compared to guys who really know stuff like Romney and Santorum and Newt and even Pawlenty.)

Romney was cool, confident, hyper-competent, and a little condescending. There was more evidence still he’d be a good president but will have a hard time connecting with the primary voters.