I just wrote a response to an email from my father concerning the FOX News debate, the state of the race right now, and where each candidate goes from here. Without meaning to, I wrote what turned out to be a pretty comprehensive review of the situation, so I’ll put the bulk of the email right here:

Here’s how I thought the candidates did:

1. Mitt - he pushed back against attacks against him pretty well without looking mean (like McCain). He made a fool out of Huckabee by forcing him to acknowledge that he raised taxes in Arkansas by a net of $500,000.

2. Fred - he didn’t get his fair share of speaking time, but when he did he was his same laid back yet knowledgeable self. He schooled Huckabee on Habeus Corpus in the U.S. versus Gitmo, and looked like a law professor chiding a “know-it-all” student. His answer on immigration was great and had substance behind it concerning Mexico, which Mitt completely missed in his immigration opinion. Mitt had more at stake in this debate, since he’s battling McCain for NH and Fred isn’t running in NH at all, so Mitt gets 1st.

3. Rudy - His answers were pretty good, but he is like McCain on immigration. He managed to stay out of the Huck-Mitt-McCain brawl but still got some good material in. He is waiting for Florida to compete so he didn’t really have much to gain or lose in this debate.

4. McCain - he came across as a bully (even more so Saturday night, don’t know if you saw it, but he tempered it Sunday night). His retort to Romney about leading for patriotism rather than profit was a cheap-shot and unnecessary and childish. Patriotism and military service is all well and good, but so is creating jobs and managing a giant company. He is still terrible on immigration and taxes since he voted against both Bush tax cuts. If he loses NH to Romney he’s toast.

5. Huckabee - he came across as ignorant on foreign affairs. He’s clearly the lightweight in this race since all he does is spew populist John Edwards-style rhetoric. He was owned by both Thompson and Romney concerning Guantanamo and taxes respectively.

From here, Mitt has to win NH and if he loses he’s not quite out, but severely damaged after losing 2 states that he poured millions into.

Rudy has to hope that his waiting-til-Florida-and-Super-Tuesday strategy works. For him he wants different candidates to split victories in IA, NH, SC, and MI so that there is still no “frontrunner” when his strong states come into play.

Fred has to win SC or get 2nd within just a few percentage points to be seen as a viable candidate. He has a Southern State strategy so SC is crucial and will determine whether he continues or not.

Huckabee needs to be stopped at all costs. He is terrible on economics (trade policy, taxes, spending, bashing CEO’s and corporations like a Democrat) and I personally really dislike him for blatantly exploiting his religion and having a holier-than-thou attitude while acting innocent. Evangelicals better wake up to realize they are being exploited, not embraced, by Huckabee. Huckabee is alllll about big government.

UPDATE: I realized something I left out and also emailed my father this quick email:

One more thing - if I here the words “Ronald Reagan” (especially from Giuliani, who must have a shrine to Reagan and a requirement to say his name 10 times daily) or “change” one more time I’m going to throw something.