ORLANDO, Fla. -- Forget which candidate won the debate. This time, the political journalists covering the event were the real winners.
While the nine Republican presidential candidates -- former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), business executive Herman Cain and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman -- stood on a high podium with lights blinding their eyes for two hours, reporters gathered in a plush press filing room that looked more like a lounge or club than a workspace.
The white carpet and white walls were a stark contrast to the Google primary colors - blue, red, yellow and green - decorating everything from the smoothie bar -- pina-colada (lemon and lime), strawberry or blueberry -- to a candy bar, a "movie theater," and all the long couches and beanbag chairs that had the Google logo prominently splashed on them.
It was definitely a different setup than reporters are used to. The filing room in Ames, Iowa, by contrast, was an otherwise empty gymnasium with a hundred or so folding tables and journalists straining their necks to watch the debate on the JumboTron hanging from the ceiling.
READ reporters tweeting about the press filing room: