Romney Goes 'Out of Bounds'

Now that the dust has settled on Tuesday’s feisty Republican debate in Las Vegas, we can get down to assessing its winners and losers. Most commentators think Mitt Romney, once again, came out on top: “Romney has won every debate so far, and tonight was no exception,” Ramesh Ponnuru writes at the Corner, while New York’s Jonathan Chait writes, “Mitt Romney remains vastly better than his antagonists.” But if you’re looking for a key exchange in the debate, we’d suggest Romney’s moment of greatest weakness: “[F]or the first time ever he showed anger in public,” the Corner's Rich Lowry writes of the exchange in which Rick Perry accused Romney of hiring illegal immigrants and Romney, in frustration, reached out and grabbed Perry’s shoulder—“the kind of physical contact that should always be out of bounds.” Romney’s grab may have accidentally anointed Perry—probably the most dangerous alternative in the field—as his main opponent.