The Loser in the New Hampshire Republican Presidential Debate was CNN's John King

Contrary to the claims of many in the media, this is a strong field of Republican contenders

In all of the speculation before the debate the media positioned the debate as between the candidate they have called "front runner", former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and the rest of the field. Perhaps the story of the evening was that although former Governor Romney did well, so did the other candidates.

P>MANCHESTER, NH (Catholic online) - On Monday evening, June 13, 2011, at St Anselm's College, the CN CNN/WMUR/New Hampshire Union Leader presidential debate occurred. First, from this observer's perspective, there was a clear loser, John King of CNN. He did the worst job of hosting a debate I have ever seen.

Every time the man asked a question he could be heard emitting strange noises in the background while one of the candidates tried to answer. You know what I am referring to if you watched any of this debate. It was almost as though he was grunting. It was very strange.

Even if you didn't watch the debate, picture that annoying experience we have all had when a rude person who is supposedly asking us our opinion, doesn't really want to hear it - and keeps breaking in with interrupting sounds pushing his or her own agenda.

That was not the only annoying mannerism demonstrated by the CNN host, John King. He also mischaracterized the responses of the candidates. In at least two instances, one with former Speaker Newt Gingrich and other with former Godfather Pizza CEO, Herman Cain, he was excoriated and corrected by the candidates.

Finally, apparently in an attempt to expose the American public to the "human side" of the candidates, he asked what he called "this or that" questions which were simply silly and a waste of air time.

The questions from the people of New Hampshire were often quite good. The problem was the host would not let these candidates answer them.   

Participants in the debate were declared presidential candidates former Governor Mitt Romney, Businessman Herman Cain, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

Just before the debate Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann announced in an E Blast to supporters that she is indeed a candidate. She wrote, "We cannot risk giving President Obama four more years to dismantle our nation. We must act now, that's why I've made the decision to get in this race." Her performance was confident in this debate and at times quite feisty. She will be a formidable candidate.

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, it did not appear there was not an equal distribution of questions or time allotted to the candidates. Once again, former Senator Rick Santorum was not really given the opportunity to respond to as many questions as, for example, Ron Paul Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty. However, his answers were solid and he showed his oratorical skills, presenting his positions and convictions with clarity and conviction. 

In fact, that was true of most of the Republican candidates on that stage. The whole field of Republican candidates came across as well prepared. They certainly have a very different approach to dealing with economic issues than the current administration.

In all of the speculation before the debate the media positioned the debate as between the candidate they have called "front runner", former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and the rest of the field. Perhaps the story of the evening was that although former Governor Romney did well, so did the other candidates.

The other scenario painted by the media was that former Speaker Newt Gingrich, still reeling from the shakeup in his campaign staff, would have to perform some sort of miracle to even survive. In fact, he did quite well and showed some real strength of character and courage.

Overall, this field of candidates, though mocked by establishment pundits in the current media culture, all demonstrated that they are in this race to stay. This will be an interesting Republican race to see who takes on President Obama in 2012.

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