Rudy turned in a performance worthy of a candidate leading this field. He was funny, relaxed, and in command–seeming more vigorous than McCain and more real than Romney. Abortion is obviously a weak spot, but his answer last night that the courts are going to fight it out over Roe and in the meantime, we have to find other ways to reduce abortion has the advantage of being true (even if I think that he should be more forthcoming about his own views on Roe and that he doesn’t really care the least about reducing abortions). He went out of his way to hit Hillary Clinton and the “liberal media,” scoring points with a conservative audience. That, together with his spanking of Ron Paul and his strong answers on terrorism, made Rudy the conservative fighter last night, a role that suits him very well.