MSNBC / Meet the Press Debate Highlights (Debate #2)

So the Republican candidates went to bed after their ABC debate in which Mitt Romney inexplicably escaped unscathed and woke up to address that problem. If Romney skated during debate #1, he was checked multiple times in debate #2.

In this exchange, Mitt Romney is seeking to take the high ground by saying that he left public office to pursue private sector experience. Both Santorum and Gingrich call him on it.



Santorum then goes after Romney for not running for reelection in Massachusetts as Governor:



In this exchange, Newt again rips Romney, this time for the negative ads. David Gregory asks Newt if the latter is willing to stand by his claim that Mitt is a liar. Romney was place squarely on his heels here:

Via Huffpo:

This video includes a portion of the above exchange but with more fireworks from Newt:




This happened after the debate. It was an exchange between Chris Matthews and former New Hampshire Governor, John Sununu, who appeared more than just a little agitated. It's possible that Sununu, a Romney supporter, didn't like the attacks other candidates levied against his choice. The Meet the Press debate was not a good one for Romney and Sununu seems to reflect that.

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