Did anybody else get the sense that Newt was angling for disaffected libertarian voters? There were a couple times in the debate where he tried to align himself with Ron Paul against Santorum and Romney. His diction struck me as sounding a libertarian note too - lots of noises about “coercion” and “the state” (which has a distinctly libertarian resonance among republicans, I think, in contrast to “the government” or “Washington”).
Also, I have to say, he had a great moment last night. When the candidates were asked to describe themselves with one word, Paul chose “consistent”, Santorum chose “courage” (making him the only candidate to describe himself with a noun, but whatever), and Romney chose “resolute”. Gingrich looked at them like they were all a bit nuts and chose “cheerful”. It deflated his opponents without attacking them directly. Clever. And the timing/delivery was perfect.
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