The Reagan Library Republican Debate finished just a couple hours ago and even though there were four candidates on stage, CNN’s Anderson Cooper was primarily focused on John McCain and Mitt Romney. Mike Huckabee twice made the point that he was not getting nearly as many questions asked of him as of the titular front runners. Cooper even cut off Ron Paul less than 30 seconds into his answers early in the debate while allowing other candidates plenty of time to expand on their answers.

The most tense portion of the debate occurred when McCain and Romney clashed over an old Romney quote about Iraq withdrawal timetables. Cooper read the quote to both candidates late in the confrontation.

Well, there’s no question that the president and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about, but those shouldn’t be for public pronouncement. You don’t want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you’re going to be gone.

Romney was indicating that he supported a timetable for withdrawal but that it should be kept private, not publicly known, so the insurgency wouldn’t know what to expect or how long to wait it out. Both Romney and McCain distorted the quote to their advantage. Neither came out looking good though CNN polling indicated that undecided Republicans favored Romney’s reaction to McCain’s.

Romney was asked if the Republican party was weaker now than it used to be. He stated that he thought it was weaker but pointedly did not blame President Bush but rather blamed some amorphous entity called “Washington.” He conveniently ignored the fact that Washington D.C. was run by Republicans for the entire Bush presidency until a year ago.

The goal of this analysis is the same as it was when I analyzed the Republican candidates in their previous debates. I don’t evaluate the merits of the candidates’ answers because that’s for you to decide.

Because this analysis focuses on how well the candidates answer the question asked, I left out the couple times when Anderson Cooper would make a statement and then simply ask for a reaction. A candidate could burp and stare in response and that would qualify as a reaction.

I broke down the candidate’s responses into five categories and valued them accordingly:

• 4 points = clearly answered a direct question
• 3 points = clearly answered a question posed to another candidate
• 2 points = gave an empty answer to a direct question by discussing the subject without actually answering the question
• 1 point = gave an empty answer to a question posed to another candidate
• 0 points = Didn’t address the question subject at all

The Straight Talk Award for being the one most likely to give a clear answer to a question goes to…

1. Mitt Romney(77% likely)
2. Ron Paul (75%)
3. John McCain (64%)
4. Mike Huckabee (56%)

Mitt Romney earned the straight talk crown for the first time just squeaking by two-time winner Ron Paul.

The DC Shuffle Award goes to Mike Huckabee. This award is for the candidate most likely to give an evasive answer as measured by the number of times a question was either avoided or was given an empty, hollow answer.

The Penn & Teller Award goes to the one who is most likely to give the illusion of answering a question without actually doing so. I call them empty or hollow answers. And the winner is:

1. Mike Huckabee (44% likely)
2. John McCain (36%)
3. Ron Paul (25%)

The Buck Stops Here Award for never avoiding a question goes to everybody but Mitt Romney. He avoided the very first question about whether America was better off economically than it was eight years ago as if he couldn’t give an opinion because it wasn’t a reflection of his personal record. Very weak.

The Put Up or Shut Up Award for never giving an empty answer was not earned by anybody. That’s truly a shame.

The Moderator’s Pet Award for being asked the most questions goes to:

1. Mitt Romney (13 questions)
2. John McCain (11)
3. Mike Huckabee (9)
4. Ron Paul (8)

Ron Paul got very little face time with camera not only because he was asked the fewest questions but because Cooper would either cut him off when he started to expound on his position or would quickly move on to the next question.

The list of candidate websites is here and the transcript of the debate is here.