...was a dud. Though not a candidate is to be blamed.

The presumably last chance for multi-candidate sparring before the Iowa caucuses ended up allowing for virtually no interaction between candidates, thanks in part to the facilitation of lone moderator Carolyn Washburn, Editor of the Des Moines Register. What kind of "debate" is that? Lincoln-Douglas this was not.

It takes a special person for Republicans to long for Chris Matthews running the show. Like ride-the-short-bus special.

Worse yet, the mind-boggling decision to allow Alan Keyes into the debate set the tone for what a clown-show the event would ultimately become, with Keyes playing the biggest waste of space (and air) this side of Tom Tancredo at a Cinco de Mayo party. Is the Des Moines Register trying to make itself look as incapable as possible to the rest of the political world?

The only good thing that can be said about the affair is that unlike the blinder-wearing folks at CNN and YouTube, there was a host of questions on the economy, education, healthcare, the federal budget, etc. You know, those wacky issues voters actually care about instead of gays in the military, Confederate flags, and the literal truth of the Bible. Taking Iraq and immigration completely off the table like Washburn did at the start is arguable, but given the overweight given to those topics at past debates it wasn't the end of the world.

So, aside from the fact the debate format and moderator were terrible, how did the candidates do?

Fred Thompson was excellent.

Really? Yes, really. Thompson didn't truly separate himself from the rest of the field, but thanks to what are now low expectations he looked quite good: substantive, serious, and authoritative. His refusal to play the game of "let's have a show of hands on a complex question" was a long-overdue moment this campaign season. Good for him.

Mitt Romney also cleaned up.

Even more so than Thompson, he actually benefited from the lower key format and heavy dose of domestic policy questions. He was at his former-executive best, nailing questions on jobs, reducing federal spending, education, and rallying Republicans together. Other commentary throughout the conservative blogosphere has actually been more superlative than my first impressions. In addition, Romney blew the doors off the Luntz focus group dials that were side-by-side with the candidates on the Fox News TV screen during the debate and whose results were a big part of that network's post-debate coverage.

Huckabee was Huckabee, which wasn't always a good thing.

A more somber format was not his strong point, though he still had his standard debate appeal. Nor was him being clearly more guarded, by his own admission, thanks to the flap over his "don't Mormons believe...?" comment (for which he apologized after the debate). He's an immensely likable guy, but at a certain point, a collection of endless folksy quips does not constitute an agenda upon which one bases a campaign for the office of President. I am mindful of the fact he could well be the Republican nominee, and as such I want to see his strengths. Apparently, being Presidential while running for President isn't one of them.

That said, the format also kept other candidates from laying a glove on him and thus let him do his now standard, populist shtick with little resistance. In the end, that might be the best news of all out of today for the current Iowa front-runner.

Giuliani and McCain disappeared.

I swear they lace the water at all PBS studios with a sedative (and the moderator must have chugged a gallon of it prior to showtime). But whether it was a function of an Iowan moderator not paying much attention to two candidates not making a mark in the Hawkeye state, they just didn't bring a commanding presence to today's debate.

Giuliani usually shines in these formats. He seemed muted. McCain was almost as drowsy as the moderator, which is the antithesis of the feisty persona he showed in 2000 - and even during the first Republican debate at the Reagan Library.

It will be interesting to see if the moderator sticks to the same wretched approach in tomorrow's Democratic debate. Of course, somehow the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public TV found a way to create a formula that excludes Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich while giving Alan Keyes - not to mention Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo - a podium.

Sheer genius.

P.S. "Hey, you forgot Ron Paul!"

Who?

UPDATE: bogus comments from someone claiming to be Joe Fuiten, in this post and others, have been deleted.