Perry Quits, Endorses 'Not Perfect' Gingrich

Strong performance leaves Gingrich looking like top anti-Romney

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney emerged largely unscathed from last night's Republican debate in South Carolina, while consensus pegs Newt Gingrich as the best of the rest. A breakdown of the chatter:

• This was Gingrich's "best debate of the entire race," decides Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post . The former House Speaker "let ‘er rip tonight," he writes, winning applause from the boisterous audience for calling President Obama the "food stamp president" and for slamming "elites" and "liberals" who don't want to help poor people find good jobs.
• Writing at Hot Air , AllahPundit agrees, citing Gingrich's bold responses to Juan Williams and Ron Paul among his shining moments. "I’m thinking he might have turned South Carolina from a solid Romney lead into a nailbiter. Has any candidate at any debate had the crowd more riled up than this?" (Watch videos at left.)

Because Rick Perry obviously did

(NEWSER) - The moment that will live in infamy from last night’s debate , the gaffe that overshadowed everything else, was Rick Perry’s utter meltdown as he forgot one of the agencies he himself wanted to eliminate. But there were other people onstage, and here’s how people are grading them this morning:

• Herman Cain, Loser: “It’s hard to imagine what Cain could have done to change the conversation,” says Brian Montopoli of CBS News . “But he didn’t do it. Cain brought no new ideas Wednesday,” focusing instead on 9-9-9—which now draws laughter.

Tea Partiers, evangelicals starting to panic

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney now has two wins under his belt, and some conservative activists are starting to panic. Many see South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary as their last chance to unify support behind a conservative candidate, but there's no agreement on who that candidate should be, the Washington Post finds. Tea Party groups are leaning toward Newt Gingrich, while the GOP's evangelicals want a social conservative like Rick Santorum. More»

Rivals don't exactly hammer the frontrunner in GOP debate

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney was supposed to be the prime target at tonight's ABC debate, but it didn't quite work out that way, writes Steve Peoples at AP . His rivals took some shots at him but squabbled among each other just as often. Romney, for his part, focused most of his fire at President Obama. ("His policies have made the recovery more tepid.") Romney "never appeared flustered," writes Michael D. Shear at the New York Times , and his display of "perfect calm" was tailor-made for a front-runner. "Shots so not fired," adds Elspeth Reeve at the Atlantic blog. Some notable moments:

• Paul-Santorum: Ron Paul accused Rick Santorum of being a "big-government person" who also was "corrupt" for taking lobbyists' money. Santorum called the corruption charge "ridiculous" and said his record was "pretty darn good."

Anti-Romney voters might have found their candidate

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney snatched an 8-vote victory in Iowa , but a lot of analysts say "man of the hour" Rick Santorum looks like the real winner. He can now portray himself as the clear alternative to Romney, and to win the nomination he "won’t have to outrun the bear, as the old joke goes, he’ll just have to outrun Mitt," a GOP strategist tells Politico . Other takeaways from last night:

• But Santorum shouldn't gloat just yet, writes James Hohmann for Politico, because this pesky thing called reality is also in the room. "He doesn’t have the money or infrastructure to keep up with Romney in New Hampshire, and he hasn’t been in South Carolina since Nov. 12." Sure, he'll grab a ton of headlines this week, but he needs to "dramatically expand his campaign apparatus virtually overnight."