Ah. Finally. Someone put the entire debate on YouTube. I was having the worst time getting the original video to embed properly and it was slowing down this site's load time. The perils of amateur web design...sigh...
Anyway, read my post from yesterday, and then I really recommend that you watch the debate when you get a chance. FYI there's some introductory remarks from the debate organizers and Frank Luntz, and the actual debate starts at about the 35 minute mark:
...there are signs Newt Gingrich has come out ahead in the race to become the candidate behind whom social conservatives unite behind in their drive to stop Mitt Romney.
Discussions with some social conservative leaders after the forum brought praise for all of the participants, particularly Gingrich and Rick Santorum. But it turns out that pollster/strategist Frank Luntz, who conducted the forum, also ran a focus group after the session, and it appears Gingrich scored very well with the group. "I think the focus group that Luntz did afterward would bear out that Newt Gingrich came a long way Saturday night," says Family Leader president Bob vander Plaats. "I think it would bear out that Gingrich won the forum."
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Gingrich...is shooting upward in the polls, mostly on the strength of his performances in debates and the problems of Cain, Perry, and Bachmann. What is happening now is that social conservatives are working their way through his liabilities, particularly his three marriages, and trying to decide if they can support the Gingrich of today -- not the Gingrich of 15 or 20 years ago -- without compromising social conservative principles. In the Family Leader forum Saturday, it appears that all involved made a big step toward doing that.
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