Berkeley Forum

The GOP debate in Florida turned out to be more civil than expected. Despite fierce competition between McCain, Romney and Giuliani , the debate went on without any personal attacks as we saw a few nights ago on the Democratic side. So who was the winner of tonight's debate?

Romney has been moving up steadily in the polls while Giuliani has managed to lose his lead and is now trailing in third place after Romney and McCain. Romney did a great job tonight, while staying away from direct attacks he managed to focus on his record as a true conservative.

McCain and Huckabee exchanged a few friendly remarks and McCain praised Giuliani on his leadership after 9/11. So, who won? I'd say Hillary Clinton! She was mentioned in this debate more than Ronald Reagan. She is the right's boogie man or to be politically correct, boogie woman! The right hates nothing more than the Clintons back in the White House. Although Hillary Clinton does not really represent the left wing of the Democratic party, yet the Republicans despise the Clintons for their political skill, sleekness and Bill's successful presidency of 8 years. They don't hate Hillary for her tax policies now as much as for her involvement in policy making as the first lady. After all she deified the traditional role of the first lady while Bill was in office.

So she was mentioned several times at the GOP debate. Why? To mobilize the Republican base who passionately dislikes the idea of Hillary Clinton as the Commander in Chief. So Berkeley Forum declares Hillary Clinton the winner of tonight's debate. She received free air time and was presumed to be the Democratic nominee.