1. Huckabee. He won this and it wasn't close. In past debates he'd try to be all folksy in his national security answers, which really deflated his gravitas. But the issue terrain was a target rich environment for him, from his strong rebuttal to Mitt on not punishing children for the sins of their parents, to his eloquent and authoritative answer to the ill-conceived Bible question to the quip about Jesus not running for public office. Though clearly on his game, Huckabee seemed to benefit from everyone else being off theirs.

2. McCain. His recipe for success: take his mallet and whack Ron Paul over the head with it. Then repeat. McCain's rivals practically ceded the national security ground exclusively to him. With the exception of Romney on torture, 90% of the red meat national security points were left to McCain. This earned him pretty much automatic applause each time he hit one of those, including from me. But I don't support McCain and was not particularly swayed by his performance; he was winning those battles by default.

3 (tie): Rudy. The one thing he needed to do with the "sanctuary mansion" offensive: muddy the waters. Not win, but muddy the waters. That he did, though it was ugly. In the end, Romney was totally incoherent on the issue: embracing the education and health care exceptions that were the essence of Rudy's "sanctuary city" policy. And one Rudy point rung true: Romney wants government to take extraordinary steps to expose and deport illegals, but if private employers do the same that is some sort of egregious invasion of personal privacy? Again: incoherent.

Rudy got too far into the weeds on the infrastructure and gun questions, and on the gun question, it hurt him.

Though personable, no real standout moments beyond the first few minutes of fireworks.

3 (tie): Romney. I was thoroughly unimpressed by Romney debating in person, and I have a theory why.

To me, he was a tall figure vaguely visible on the stage. I couldn't see his face, or experience his stage presence, just digest his words.

And lo and behold, there was nothing memorable. At other times, you could cut a knife through his wishy-washiness: his hedge on the gun answer (I have them, but my son owns them -- very similar to what Kerry said about his family SUV in 2004), his lack of sure-footedness on the Bible question (excusable, since the question was so bad), and his dodge on his past position on gays in the military.

5. Fred. It was like he wasn't there. McCain and Paul were fighting in their own corner. Cooper would always seem to call on Rudy, Mitt, and Huck -- in that order. And Fred seemed off in his own world. Every point he made about his conservative record seemed to go back to his eight years in the United States Senate -- as if the Senate was ever a proving ground for conservative ideals. Again, I'm fully willing to accept that I wasn't able to see him up close, which might have skewed my perspective.