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Johnny, Close Your Laptop

By Michael WeissPosted Friday, May 4, 2007, at 6:46 PM ET

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The Iowan Krusty Konservative "thought Chris Matthews did a great job, much better than Brian Williams did with the Democrats last week. Maybe Matthews and MSNBC used the days between the two events to improve on the first debate. I'd like to do winners and losers but I don't think anyone walked away with a victory last night." But conservative Mark Levin at the National Review's And Another Thing… gives Matthews low marks: "Chris Matthews is not a professional journalist. He's a political junkie with deep Democrat party roots. Many of his questions weren't intended to elicit a candidate's substantive views but to play gotcha and embarrass. …I never thought I'd say this, but we could have used Brian Williams last night."

Lefty John Judis at the New Republic's The Plank uses before-and-after polls to suss out last night's winner: "In early April, Survey USA asked California Republican primary voters whom they would choose as their nominee. The results were 43 percent for Giuliani, 24 percent for McCain and 7 percent for Romney. Last night, Survey USA asked Republicans who won the debate. 33 percent said Giuliani, 17 percent McCain and 14 percent Romney." But Slate's Mickey Kaus makes an important point: "Survey USA polled only California debate watchers. A mere 45% of whom were Republican. 53% of whom were pro-choice. That's not the national Republican primary electorate. ... Still ..."