Third GOP Debate Summary.

Rudy Giuliani dominated the evening with his preaching-to-the-choir attacks on the Democratic candidates supposed weakness towards "Islamic fundamentalist" terrorism. His response to a question on abortion may have been weak, but no one will ever know, due to the fact that lightning knocked his microphone out about three times during his response (his humorous rebound from the mic failure could win him a few points).

John McCain was attacked by just about everyone on stage because of his stance on immigration, but seemed to handle himself quite well, although he did say "my friends" a few too many times for comfort (at least he didn't pull out the stale "drunken sailor" joke). Worst moment: dodging a question on what to do if the troop surge fails, essentially admitting he has no plan B for Iraq.

Mitt Romney tried to appear Reagan-esque with his rhetoric about being a visionary with a plan for the future (which apparently consists of selling American products to Asia), poorly dodged a question on whether he would have supported an invasion of Iraq if he had known then what he knows now, and invoked JFK while defending his faith. Flip-flopped on yet another issue: gays in the military (he's against it now... imagine that!)

Mike Huckabee distanced himself from the current administration by dissing it's handling of Katrina, Iraq, the border, and just about everything else, gave more canned speeches on the "culture of life", and defended his views on creation (his use of Martin Luther's "here I stand" line might be popular among evangelicals). Still smooth, still canned, still Huckabee.

Sam Brownback's statement that abortion is the key issue of our time and that the Republican party shouldn't think about nominating an anti-life candidate made him look like a strong, principled pro-lifer, but his admission that he will ultimately support whoever gets the Republican nomination (including Giuliani), made him look less so.

Ron Paul was his usual anti-war-libertarian self (dubbing himself "the champion of the constitution"), but seemed to be trying to capture a piece of the evangelical pie as well, saying that preemptive war was a violation of the "just war principals of Christianity" and that Roe vs. Wade was incorrectly decided

Duncan Hunter revealed that he was the only guy on stage who had actually read the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq before voting on the war, attacked Bush for having "a case of the slows" on the border-fence project, and initiated a last minute attack on the so-called "big three" candidates (referring to them as the Kennedy wing of the Republican party).

Tom Tancredo stunned everyone by attacking the Bush administration with unparalleled bitterness (called Bush a liberal, attacked just about all his policies, and said that Bush won't be allowed to "darken the doorstep" of the Tancredo whitehouse), and went a tad overboard with respect to immigration (says he wants to halt all legal immigration). Tancredo didn't have a chance in the past, and certainly doesn't have a chance now.

Tommy Thompson served up another sizable portion of his trademark arrogant bluster, delivering yet another forgettable debate performance. Reiterated his cryptic line about turning our health-care system into a system centered around prevention rather than treatment (still won't mention how).

Jim Gilmore remained the most obscure of the "little seven", although his Rudy McRomney line was brought up yet again (and it still wasn't funny). He should quit now and give more debate time to the candidates that people actually want to hear.