Post-first GOP debate notes

It's obligatory — I distinctly recall reading it in the "Conservative Blogger E.U.L.A." — that I comment on tonight's debate among declared candidates for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

• I am highly confident that over 90% of all viewers who cast ballots for a Republican candidate within the last 30 years will all agree on one thing in particular about this debate: To call Chris Matthews a "total bozo" is an entirely inadequate insult for him, but a vicious slur against clowns throughout world history.
  
• Neither Romney, Giuliani, nor McCain shot himself in the foot in any significant way, but as the least well-known of the three, Romney probably accomplished more than the other two.
• This debate would have been more than twice as interesting if half as many candidates had appeared. Five should be the absolute outside limit. Thirty days ago, they should have mailed write-in ballots to each of the delegates from the last national party convention. Then they should have offered the top five vote-getters — whether they've declared themselves as candidates or not — slots in this debate. (Rinse and repeat about once every three months.) If one of the top five declines, don't add the sixth; just go with four.
  
• I doubt that Fred Thompson was much intimidated by watching this.