Mitt Romney on Saturday turned into something of a cakewalk, as none of his nearest competitors -- and none, really, are that near -- chose to take a whack.
Indeed, at one point the moderators managed to do what seemed unthinkable: bring Romney and his most aggrieved detractor, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to agreement, albeit on the issue of anti-Catholic bigotry. At another point, the former Massachusetts governor was able to recite large swaths of his stump speech as everyone else simply looked on.
"Mitt Romney by far and away is the best debater, best advocate for the Republican Party on that stage," proclaimed one of his top surrogates, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. "There is no question about it. It's like the varsity playing the junior varsity... Having debated him I know a little bit about that."
Hosted by ABC and Yahoo News, Saturday night's debate was exactly the type of non-eventful affair desired by someone comfortably in the lead in the New Hampshire primary polls and expanding his lead in South Carolina. And it raised the question, yet again, as to whether the rest of the field is wary of attacking Romney head-on for fear of alienating the next GOP nominee or, potentially, president.
I don't think he goes into it with a tactical strategy that I'm going to go after a certain candidate or anything."
For Romney, it wasn't all luck that he drew a toothless field. Having run for the office before, he is simply better at electoral politics than anyone else in the GOP field. Sometimes, his political acumen gives off the distinct wave of insincerity. Oftentimes, it's a huge asset. The quote one of his advisers pointed to, when asked about the former governor's good fortune, was from the famed golfer Ben Hogan: "The more I practice, the luckier I get."
That certainly seemed to be the case Saturday. Take, for instance, the bizarre exchange between Romney and moderator George Stephanopoulos on contraception and states' rights. At first, Romney pleaded ignorance.
"George," he said, "I don't know whether a state has a right to ban contraception. No state wants to. I mean, the idea of you putting forward things that states might want to do that no -- no state wants to do and asking me whether they could do it or not is kind of a silly thing, I think."
When that didn't work, he pulled out one of the debate's most memorable lines: "Contraception, it is working just fine. Leave it alone."
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