At Thursday night's debate, we hoped that the immediacy of the South Carolina primary and a change in debate moderators might yield a different sort of show than the one we watched this past Monday. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a difference.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was still clumsily evading the call to release his tax returns. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was still raging at the questions offered up by the moderators. Texas Rep. Ron Paul was still not being asked any questions. But then came that magical moment when we all gasped, "Holy cow! What dreadful thing is Rick Santorum doing with that microphone?"
Well, it was one heck of a frozen moment. In HuffPost's Ben Craw, it planted a seed of inspiration. And he ran with it, creating a new remixed version of the debate. And then...well, to be honest with you, we actually asked him to -- uhm...tone it down considerably. But that he did! And so we are happy to bring you Thursday night's debate from an alternate reality, in which former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum tries to "make it sexxy," and ends up "making it awkward."
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