The impressions on a Myrtle Beach carnival are undoubtedly as constricted, for reasons I don't even known. Efforts to identify with various segments of the GOP felt at times to be a zenith of pandering, even as the inherent contradictions were whitewashed with accusation and oneupmanship.

The GOP debate; the third in a week, was redundant at best. There were SC and Michigan accents, scattered among fresh sound bites, but little else that was new. It was scrappy and laser-like on the reasons each was unelectable; the network questioning and candidate choices instantiated "politics" more than informing "reasoned decisions." In this atmosphere the observations below seem in the same stratum.

I. I have an aversion to interruptions of debates for commercial advertising; making candidate debates more akin to a sport match game than civic responsibility. Yet I was amused with tonight GOP debate. Some argue that advertisers have the best data on who watches and why. Ad after ad was for cholesterol, erectile dysfunction, and enlarged prostrates. Maybe it is just a demographic artifact of the FOX network but may have been mining futile ground of Republican demographics.

II. Frank Luntz does it again. He hosts a focus group and presents them as a product of groupthink. Tonight uncontested, overwhelming, surprise winner was Fred Thompson. Last week's Fox debate he crowned Mitt Romney in no uncertain terms. Get a grip. Fred was funny, but for much of the debate he was often adrift, more concerned with a practiced litany of political barbs aimed at Mike Huckabee. I guess that makes him more "true blue", but presidential?

III. The conventional wisdom is that Ron Paul plays the clown. In many ways that has been the case in the debates, but at the risk of dismissal by consensus, an argument can be made that he won the debate last night. I did not watch the debate, just listened, which changes impressions. In the interchanges he held his ground, often exposing the posturing of "toughest" and "doctrinaire kowtowing" litmus tests as silly. He drew audience applause (and occasional groan) but I expect the dismissive tone of questioner and opponent alike will prevail.

IV. Mike Huckabee was in the cross-hairs. I'm not sure how much tougher the questions could have been, as every issue on which he is challenged, including the 527 Victim's Voice ad "Lois Davidson Tells Her Story" ad (Wired gives backgrond), were marshaled. Huckabee responses, including a deft answer to Baptist doctrine via wives were a cut above. But will that matter. My guess is the charges stick by virtue of presence, answers be damned.