Round 3: GOP debate on the surface

It was the third debate of the fall season Thursday night. Here's your recap of the kibbles and bits:

1. The debates have been getting increasingly substantive. And this debate was the most. The questions from the moderators on immigration and health care were solid. Like Mitt Romney's hair.

2. Speaking of the moderators, Brett Baier gave an intro like his name is Michael Buffer. The acoustics of the auditorium didn't help.

3. Times are hard. Budgets are tight. There's no denying it now. Jon Huntsman and Herman Cain wore the exact same suits from the first debate. Huntsman pulled out his gleaming gold post-partisan tie again. Cain did the same.

Here's from the first debate a couple weeks ago:

And here's from Thursday's:

4. Not to dwell on appearances, but  Michele Bachmann is now "BachBAM!" because every time the camera panned to her (which wasn't very much; BachBAM! got less play than a kid with no feet in a kickball tournament.) viewers needed sunglasses:

5. Newt Gingrich stuck it to one of the moderators again. It was Megyn Kelly on the receiving end this time. When Kelly asked Gingrich about his ability to take on spending cuts, he answered, "Well, the way you described the question, you can’t." It's still unclear Gingrich understands he's running to be the next president, not the next moderator.

6. Gary Johnsonwas able to scrape together 1% of public support in the polls so he got a spot in the debate. This means one thing: ...

7. Rick Santorumshowed some fire, taking on Rick Perry over illegal immigration. Will it help? Who knows? But he deserves to be called by his full name rather than "Rick who?" for now.

8. The winner was: Google. Half the debate was a debate. The other half was Google "clouds," YouTube (owned by Google) videos, and Google search results graphics. We haven't seen this kind of rampant self-promotion since Donald Trump tweeted five seconds ago.

Check out the last "GOP debate on the surface" posts from Round 1 and Round 2.

UPDATE: Let's not forgot about Ron Paul! But who didn't?