Irascible frontrunner Newt Gingrich was less irascible tonight, but maybe that’s because he faced the civil questioner Brian Williams instead of the manipulative Juan Williams or the hostile John King. Former vote leader Mitt Romney saved most of his attacks for the Obama administration but spent much of the first half hour accusing Gingrich of being a lobbyist. Gingrich accused Romney of making at least four inaccurate statements in this regard but added, “I’m not going to spend the evening chasing down his misinformation.” Ron Paul and Rick Santorum mostly touted their own respective achievements.

When asked if Iran were to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, would it be an act of war, Mitt Romney said of course, and it would be “appropriate and essential for us to maintain open seas.” Ron Paul disagreed, saying: “We’re blockading them. This is retaliation.”

In explaining how he would end the war in Afghanistan without talking to the Taliban, Mitt Romney gave perhaps his best answer of the night: “By beating them; by standing by our troops and making sure we have transitioned to the Afghan military the capacity to be successful in holding off the Taliban.”

Rick Santorum was asked what happens if we get into a war to take out Iran’s weapon sites: Where do we limit the target list, airstrikes, etc. In his homerun of the night, Santorum countered by simply asking: “What happens if Iran gets a nuclear weapon and the entire world changes?”

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, who both print campaign materials in Spanish, agreed that a central language was necessary to unify the country and that ballots should be printed in English only. Romney added that English immersion classes are the way to go for new immigrant children, and that not speaking English keeps people from being successful.

On other subjects, Rick Santorum noted that overland or undersea pipelines are much safer for the environment than transporting oil by tanker. Newt Gingrich said he would not veto the Dream Act but would make changes to it. Rick Santorum disagreed, noting that illegal aliens break the law not just once by entering the country, but continually by having to obtain forged documents to stay. Mitt Romney said he would release two years of tax information in the morning, and Ron Paul stated he would not support a federal program to save the Everglades, which will no doubt cost him some votes in the Sunshine State.

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The two big stories, though, as you may read anywhere, are 1) the exit of Rick Perry and 2) the ‘Caining’ of Newt Gingrich by a vindictive ex-wife, whose charges he denies, resulting in his second rousing standing ovation of the debate season – and a sound scolding of a talking head who ought to be working for the National Enquirer. When women make unfounded accusations against men’s character, it’s called news. When men make unfounded accusations against women’s character, it’s called slander. ‘Nuff said.

When we last saw them in New Hampshire the candidates had split into two factions, the Liberals (Romney and Huntsman) and the Conservatives (Santorum and Gingrich). Ron Paul continued to be his own faction and Rick Perry continued to appear irrelevant. Now that Jon Huntsman has dropped out, Romney has moved to the center, deferring to his opponents more than attacking them: “Newt is right … Rick (Santorum) is right.”

Although not asked many questions, Rick Perry seemed to emerge somewhat from his irrelevancy tonight by giving at least one solid answer. Asked about whether Turkey belonged in NATO, he replied no, and added that we should also cut off foreign aid to that country and other Islamist states. “There should be no space between the U.S. and Israel, period,” he added. Incomprehensibly, however, he volunteered that the U.S. Marines who urinated on enemy bodies should be “punished” but that their actions were “not despicable.”

Ron Paul clarified his proposed defense cuts by saying he wanted to cut overseas bases, not domestic ones, and might even support reopening some domestic bases that previously had been closed. He explained that he did not oppose the killing of Osama Bin Laden, but he thought it should have been done according to international law, or that we at least should have captured him first and gotten some information out of him.

He soft-pedaled U.S. policy on the Taliban by saying that they had once been our allies, that they simply resent foreign presence in their country, and that we should apply the Golden Rule and treat them the way we want to be treated. Newt Gingrich disagreed, saying we should treat them the way Andrew Jackson advised treating your enemies, i.e., kill them.

Rick Santorum said the U.S. should remove Bashir Assad as dictator of Syria, but he did not explain how this should be accomplished and, incredibly, nobody asked him.

Mitt Romney said he would veto the Dream Act (amnesty for illegal aliens), repeal Obamacare, refuse to sign any new laws against gun ownership, and refuse to negotiate with the Taliban. However, when asked if he would have signed the NDAA as written, which permits the detention of U.S. citizens without being charged or having recourse to an attorney, he replied “Yes.” Santorum and Ron Paul both stated that they would not have. Romney also refused to release his tax records until and unless he becomes the nominee.

When whining reporter/race baiter Juan Williams tried to get Rick Santorum to admit that blacks are inordinate victims of poverty, Santorum’s comeback was that, regardless of race, Americans who work, graduate from high school and get married before having children constitute only 2% of those living under the poverty level, and he cited his source.

Undeterred, Williams then tried to corner Newt Gingrich, asking if he didn’t see how having to work as janitors “belittles poor people.” In the other best response of the night, Gingrich replied, “No, I don’t see that,” and recalled that his daughter’s first job had been as a janitor at her high school. He went on to explain that, for every full-time union janitor a school hires, it could hire 30 part-time low-income students to do the same work, which would also furnish the students with cash while giving them work experience.

Williams got audibly booed; Gingrich got a standing ovation.

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