After a month of growing mythology surrounding Newt Gingrich as the one Republican who could debate rings around Obama, the Iowa Family Forum—the first debate of this season that allowed the candidates room to move and time to explain—ought to have changed the game significantly. The Forum had flaws, but it shone a light on something hidden by the formats of the previous debates: For all his ersatz erudition and ready-to-hand citations, Gingrich’s actual positions are vague, his statements of principle confusing, and his bravado derivative—unsurprising discoveries about the most Machiavellian candidate in the race. By contrast, the truth surely did set the other candidates free, as they spoke without fear and without reservation, in some cases for the first time during this debate season.
