In this segment, on foreign policy, each candidate managed to pose as hawks and also criticize Obama’s foreign policy. Huntsman, who would likely have given answers contrasting with the others’, was asked a question that didn’t address the larger issues. Paul, on the other hand, is given time to get in a defense of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, bemoan our foreign policy for the past 50 years, and then say again that we should bring the troops home (to defend the borders, as he explained in the first segment).

Ron’s full-throated defense of non-interventionism is good for the GOP, but it’s bad that all the other candidates, who aren’t on the same page at all, have to respond directly to him. A real debate among them would be far more enlightening than everyone ganging up on Paul. Meanwhile, Romney slips through another segment unchallenged.