A few days ago the New Hampshire Republican debate took place and I’d like to take a moment to recap what happened. In the race to see who will go up against Barack Obama on behalf of the Republicans is beginning to look like Mitt Romney. After the debate it was clear that he cemented his place as the front runner while the rest of the candidates were left messing among themselves. Romney preferred to focus on the issues and much less on the other candidates. This was a smart move just ahead of an important poll. He focused on the target of the Republican Party, Barack Obama, rather than on infighting. Because he was the only one who stayed on the message of taking him down, the other candidates seemed disorganized and distracted by infighting of the Party.

It was clear that Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman were all vying for the spot as main competitor to Romney. While Romney only had a slight lead coming out of Iowa, has done very in pre-primary polls in New Hampshire. This went well for Romney, its the last debate before the state votes on Tuesday.

As I said this debate involves a lot of infighting. Attacks back and forth among candidates that made many feel they were off track. Gingrich and Paul went at it over military service. Gingrich is pro-war while Paul is anti, and Paul took a shot at him for never having served. Romney pointed out his business background while Santorum replied that president is a different job; it requires leadership and the ability to inspire. Which I felt was a lame excuse for a criticism. A CEO of a large company actually would be fulfilling those roles, but in a different way (so I hear). Gingrich joined in questioning his management skills during the time he was in charge. Romney pointed out that he created 100,000 jobs while in management, which he used as evidence that he could do better than a career politician.

In an interesting moment Rick Perry said that he was the only one who was a real “outsider” in the race. Basically he was claiming that all the other candidates were so similar and had the same policies. Personally I don’t find this to be true at all. The only person who could be considered an outsider is Ron Paul. That is pretty obvious.

Basically Romney walked out the winner while all the other candidates battled it out among themselves to see who was going to come in second to him.