The Wednesday Morning Jolt is entirely focused on last night’s debate:

The CNN Demolition Derby Debate!
Patrick S.: “’Kung Fu Fighting’ . . . Is that a good song for the debate?”
Justin Hart: “That was a fevered pitch debate . . . I almost expected a WWF cage to drop around the candidates.”
I understand this is the last debate for a month or so. Perhaps every candidate brought their toughest, most relentless fighting stances Tuesday night, knowing that this might be their last opportunity to take out one of their rivals. I’m flattered when a few readers suggested that many of the contenders seemed to be taking my advice: if you want to be the preeminent rival to Romney, stop hitting the other aspiring preeminent rivals to Romney and hit Romney.
And boy did they ever. And then they went back to the old habit, but not before drawing blood on Romneycare and the individual mandate.
If you thought anybody in this field had been getting a free ride or deserved to be pressed hard on details, you enjoyed at least some part of Tuesday’s night. Romney got a good fifteen minutes on Obamacare, with Santorum kicking it off by declaring that Romney just didn’t have the credibility to pledge to repeal Obama’s health care law. Somebody compared Santorum to a hockey enforcer, and it seemed to fit. If you thought Herman Cain was gliding by on a sunny personality and a glib, easily-remembered tax slogan, the night began with the “9-9-9 Plan” enduring the death of a thousand cuts, as most of the field saw serious problems with enacting a national sales tax. Santorum was forced into giving an implausible boast that he could beat Obama in Pennsylvania, and ENDED UP YELLING AND YELLING AND YELLING AT ROMNEY AND THEN TELLING ROMNEY HIS TIME WAS UP. It looked like Santorum had been training in practice rounds with the McLaughlin Group.
As John King said on CNN, “You can ask Michele Bachmann what color is the sky and she’ll answer about moms and women.”
Professor Gingrich played his role well; it is just a shame that he never really seems to want to play the role of candidate. Jon Huntsman sat out under the bizarre notion that somehow voters in New Hampshire would thank him for protesting Nevada’s role in the primary schedule by voting for him. His absence was rarely noticed.
Still, a lot of folks watching said that there were no winners last night, only those who lost less. I half-jokingly suggested clearing the stage, clearing the field, and bringing in every big name who rejected running earlier this year: Mitch Daniels, Mike Pence, Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Bob McDonnell, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee . . .
Think about how Obama for America, the DNC, and the mainstream media would react upon learning that all of their opposition research on Romney, Perry, Bachmann, and the rest had been wasted. (The mainstream media hasn’t bothered to do opposition research on Herman Cain yet, because they don’t take him seriously yet.)