Mitt Romney: For the first 90 minutes of the debate, Romney was at his very best. After going after Gingrich last Saturday, Romney seemed to scrap that strategy, using every question asked of him to paint himself as three things: 1) a big picture thinker and 2) the anti-Obama 3) the de facto nominee.

The hiccup came when moderator Chris Wallace pushed Romney on his alleged flip flops on things like abortion, gay rights and guns. Romney started off well - he acknowledged he had "changed his mind" on abortion - but then got too into the weeds with an extended discussion of why his position on gay rights had been consistent. Not good.

Still, taken as a whole, Romney reasserted himself in this debate and , because he came under virtually no criticism, was able to effectively portray himself as the guy most ready to take on President Obama next fall.