At least this is what the people who voted by text messaging said. Last night Fox News had a Republican debate that featured all contenders except Duncan Hunter. The debate was pretty feisty at points with candidates attacking each other. Fred Thompson finally showed a bit of spark and he was, in my opinion, the clear winner of the debate and the focus group also believed Fred had won. Mitt Romney had a good night, McCain was solid and Huckabee was strong on domestic issues but weak on Foreign policy as was Ron Paul.
Ron Paul had some supporters in the crowd and he, in my opinion, performed OK for most of the night. There were a few times though, where he looked like an angry, out of control old man. I don’t think the message is that far off but the messenger needs to find a better delivery. He ranted for 90 seconds about rushing to fight with Iran before being told that the others had praised the restraint shown by the military. I think it was a very subtle moment where Brit Hume was able to take him down a notch. It made Ron Paul seem out of touch or as if he was not paying attention. Paul said he could not hear the moderator but I was reminded of Admiral James Stockdale, Ross Perot’s running mate, when I saw that exchange.
At the end of the debate Fox had text messaging voting set up so that people could dial in to vote for the winner. The results that were posted about 45 minutes post debate were Ron Paul ahead with 35%, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee tied at around 17 or 18%. I laughed when I saw those results because there is no way that Ron Paul won the debate and there is no way he is polling that high without the Ronulans voting over and over again.
The post debate text voting was exactly the same as the way Fox allows voting on American Idol which returns very soon. Perhaps Fox was tuning America back up so they could prepare to vote in that show. Whatever the case, Ron Paul was in the lead for one reason and one reason only, multiple text message votes by those who support Ron Paul and his revolution.
But believe me when I say, Ron Paul did not win the debate.
What was Fox thinking?
UPDATE: Several commenters have pointed out that one could only vote once. Another commenter pointed out that Paul supporters were more likely to be young and tech savvy. They are also the same people who will not show up on election day (not in the numbers that the less tech savvy will). Also, there were a number of posts in the Ronosphere telling everyone to be sure to vote. The fact that Ron Paul had more people willing to use a cell phone to vote does not mean he won the debate.