ABC Debate Highlights (Debate #1)

Two debates within twelve hours. The first one came courtesy of ABC on Saturday night, moderated by George Stephanopolous and Dianne Sawyer. Though there were some good exchanges, Mitt Romney came out of this one virtually unscathed as the other candidates decided to go after each other instead of bringing the frontrunner (Romney) back down into the fray.

First up, the issue of contraception got far too much time. This was actually one of Romney's better moments; he took a shot at Paul and had some funny lines as Stephanopolous wouldn't stop pressing:



As always, Newt always seems to be at his best when going after the media for its hypocrisy. He does that here after the issue of whether gay marriage should be permitted:



Here is a heated exchange between Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich over the former's charge that the latter is a 'chicken hawk'



In perhaps the most ill-advised comment of the night, Texas Governor Rick Perry said he would send troops back to Iraq:



Here, Ron Paul is asked why he won't rule out a 3rd party run. His response is that he doesn't like absolutes. Santorum nails him by chiming in that Paul has asserted he would absolutely not raise the debt ceiling:



This is where Santorum gets Paul again. Paul was asked if he wanted to stand by one of his ads in which he called Santorum corrupt. During his response, there was some audio feedback and Santorum hits Paul with a quick-witted one-liner:



h/t MRC and Right Video