Republican Presidential Debate: Some Candidates Gained Traction, Others Lost Ground - Christine's Chronicles

Who won the Fox News Republican Presidential faceoff? It's difficult to pick a clear winner in a debate when nine candidates are all squeezing condensed answers to complex issues into a one-minute time allotment. However, the Sept. 22 debate did supply American voters with a new layer of information, which is important because many people are still forming opinions on which candidate to support.

Each time these politically-inclined personalities share the stage, some gain ground, and others seem to lose their footing. This particular event resulted in some fairly heated exchanges between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, who got down to the tricky business of nitpicking statements out of each other's books.

To offer a brief glimpse into how this two-hour forum unfolded, here is an alphabetical breakdown by candidate of some of the things that were said:

Michelle Bachmann, who had gained steam after winning the Iowa straw poll, did not seem to fare as well in this debate as she has in others. It should also be noted that she did not appear to be presented with an overflow of opportunities to convey her views.

When asked how much of a worker's dollar should be kept by the worker, rather than go to taxes, she said, "...You earned every dollar, you should get to keep every dollar that you earn. That's your money. That's not the government's money. Barack Obama seems to think that when we earn money, it belongs to him, and we're lucky to keep just a little bit of it."

Herman Cain wins the distinction of prompting the most applause. One of his quotes that was well-received was: "Peace through strength and clarity....If you mess with Israel you're messing with the United States."

He also received sustained applause when his bout with cancer was raised. Cain's assertion is that he would have died under slow-moving Obamacare because the time element was crucial in saving his life in 2006.

Cain's "999" economic plan was also applauded. "It starts with throw out the current tax code, and pass a 9% business flat tax, 9% personal income tax, and a 9% national sales tax...it eliminates or replaces corporate income tax, personal income tax, capital gains tax as well as the estate tax. Then, it treats all businesses the same."

Newt Gingrich displayed an element of suave smoothness in both his responses and his demeanor. He didn't complain about lopsided press perspectives as he has in past debates, and presented his statements with wit.

After Megyn Kelly asked Gingrich a question regarding how futile it would be to cut Washington spending, he replied, "It you assume Washington remains the way Washington is right now, it's all hopeless. We might as well buy Greek bonds and go down together." He received laughter and applause at that point.

Gingrich reiterated that he was part of an effort which resulted in over a million jobs created in the 1980s, then drew this comparison: "Obama's socialist policies, class warfare, and bureaucratic socialism created zero (jobs) in August."

John Huntsman seemed to be comfortable, and may have gained some attention this time around after a somewhat lackluster showing in the last GOP debate. Regarding early childhood literacy, he garnered applause after explaining, "If you can lock in the pillars of cognitave development around reading and math before age six you're giving those kids the best gift possible as they then proceed through education."

He described himself as "...the only one on stage with any hands-on foreign policy experience, having lived overseas four different times."

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, has not appeared in the past two debates. He earns a hat-tip for delivering the best zinger of the night, which resulted in laughter and applause. "My next door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration."

He continued, "Balance the federal budget now. Not 15 years from now, not 20 years from now, but now. And throw out the entire federal tax system, replace it with a fair tax, a consumption tax, that by all measurements is just that. It's fair. It does away with corporate income tax. If that doesn't create tens of millions of jobs in this country I don't know what does."

Ron Paul's responses during this debate didn't really touch on his views regarding foreign policy. He addressed concerns regarding education, emphasizing that the government should not be involved in the classroom. Most of his answers resulted in applause, and one of his responses that seemed to really strike a chord revolved around the federal government and it's infringement on state and individual rights.

"The responsibility of the President would be to veto every single bill that violates the 10th amendment," said Paul. "Government is too big in Washington D.C., it's run away. We have no controls on spending, taxes, regulations, no control in the Federal Reserve printing money...But there is no authority for them to run our schools, no authority to control our economy, and no authority to control us as individuals on what we do with our personal lives."

Rick Perry's cage may have been rattled when the debate raised the topic of immigration, and the fact that Texas foots the bill for illegal foreign students to attend college. Mitt Romney raised the point that it costs U.S. students around $100K to attend the University of Texas for four years, and questioned Perry's stance that it is acceptable for Texas to cover this expense for about 16,000 students who are offspring of people in the country illegally.

Perry responded by explaining, "If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart. We need to be educating these children because they will become a drag on our society. I think that's what Texans wanted to do."

Perry added that he still supports this program "greatly," a comment which was met with some booing from the audience.

Mitt Romney was confident, and snappy when it came to pointing out inconsistencies in Perry's book. He also criticized the President's handling of foreign affairs. "He went around the world and apologized for America. He addressed the United Nations in his inaugural address and chastized our friend, Israel, for building settlements, and said nothing about Hamas launching thousands of rockets into Israel."

Romney added that he thought Obama "threw Israel under the bus." He added that the correct course of action for the U.S. is "not to try and negotiate for Israel. The right course is to stand behind our friends, to listen to them, and to let the entire world know that we will stay with them, and that we will support them and defend them."

Rick Santorum was feisty and occasionally aggressive. His answers remained consistent with other issues he has discussed during the previous three Republican presidential candidate debates.

When asked if Perry was soft on illegal immigration, Santorm said, "Most folks who want to go to the state of Texas or any other state have to pay...The point is, why are we subsidizing? Not that they can't go - they can go. They just have to borrow money, (or) find other sources to be able to go. And why should they be given preferential treatment as an illegal in this country?"

This rebuttal resulted in resounding applause, and Santorum stated that he thinks Perry is "soft" on immigration, and said that Perry is "very weak on issue of American sovreignty and protecting our borders, and not being a magnet for illegal immigration."

Moderators for the Sept. 22 Fox News-Google debate were Brett Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace. The event was hosted by Fox News and Google, and it was highlighted with search clouds that showed some of the top search engine key words. The debate featured a handful of well-prepared questions which were asked of the candidates via internet videos.