Interesting takes from everyone about the GOP debate last night, but I think focusing only on the campaigns’ strategies to win Republican primary voters may result in missing a larger, important point. GOP activists and movement conservatives may feel upset or betrayed, they may want to see some anger and passion, they may even want “our” SOB to take on the enemy SOBs. But I don’t see a lot of evidence to suggest that Republican primary voters as a whole have similar sentiments, and even less than swing voters do — and as 2006 showed, that latter group still matters a lot.

Look at the big story in the Democratic contest to date. It’s not the tougher of the Clinton duo. It’s not the expensively coiffed populist firebrand. It’s Barack Obama, a candidate of freshness, fuzziness, and, well, optimism. The nutroots may not love him, but they aren’t the full Democratic primary electorate. Obama represents the Democratic flavor of what many voters are probably looking for this year: a clean break, a different dynamic. The Republican flavor, I submit, should be an optimistic competence that inspires confidence. That means someone who exudes the ability to run the federal government, to avoid Katrina-like fiascoes, to plan effectively for the use of military force, and who doesn’t scrape his fingernails down the Washington chalkboard. That doesn’t at all mean the same thing as he who is best suited to do very bad things to very bad guys.

Let me put it this way. I talk frequently with friends who work professionally in Democratic politics. They are most worried about Giuliani, because of the potential to put some big blue states in play, and Romney, because they think he’s the best candidate match in 2008 against either Clinton or Obama. They are not worried about McCain, and they aren’t convinced that the Fred Thompson candidacy will happen or be financially and organizationally sustainable after the initial announcement. And I should add that, like it or not, they aren’t greatly worried about any of this.