GOP debate on the surface

The Republican debate Wednesday night was everything you probably expected. To recap the sticky sweet side of things:

1. It was Rick Perry's first debate and since he's leading most polls, he got more airtime from the moderators than Michael Jordan did in his entire NBA career.

2. Jon Huntsman said he's electable. Meaning moderate. He talked that talk. Even dressed that dress. Politicians usually dress like American flags (see above) and use red, white and blue color schemes in their campaigns. Check out Huntsman's post-partisan tie selection:

Not to draw any policy parallels, but here's the first (and last) guy who colored outside the conventional campaign lines:

3. Granted, Herman Cain also wore a gold tie, albeit a much lighter shade. But he's not going for post-partisan like Huntsman. His image is businessman, not politician. That's why he's ditching the traditional colors.

4. Mitt Romney is only a single, perfectly coiffed hair behind Perry in the polls. Naturally, he got more face time than an iPhone. Unless that iPhone belongs to Anthony Weiner.

5. Every time we saw Rick Santorum we thought about "The Game of Life":

6. We'd bet a lot of money Ron Paul could win the election by a landslide if his sole issue was abolishing the TSA: "These TSA agents are abusive," he said. "Sometimes they're accused of all kinds of sexual activities on the way they maul people at the airport."

7. Michele Bachmann showed up with her crowd-pleasing blowout hairstyle, but didn't make any waves substantive wise:

8. Newt Gingrich demonstrated that he's a GOP shaman, per usual. But he's more interested in debating the moderators than his competition in the primary. A few of us here at THE BLAZE think he's looking for a VP nod already.