MSNBC isn't sure how (or whether) to report it, but according to their own polls, the very clear winner of the Republican Presidential debate they hosted is Ron Paul, the outspoken Congressman from Texas.
With over 50,000 online votes counted, Paul was the overwhelming winner out of 10 candidates:
Who was the most convincing candidate? 36%
(runners up: Romney 21%, Giuliani 16%)
Who showed the most leadership qualities? 31%
(runners up: Romney 21%, Giuliani 18%)
Who stood out from the pack? 36%
(runners up: Romney 23%, Giuliani 17%)
Who had the best one-liner? 30%
(runners up: Romney 16%, McCain 15%)
That's right - by every MSNBC measure, Ron Paul garnered about double the support of Giuliani or McCain and left most of the others even farther in the dust.
But wait - there were two other MSNBC poll winners:
Who avoided the questions? - Giuliani, 36%
(runner up: McCain 14%)
Who had the most rehearsed answers? - McCain, 31%
(runner up: Romney 24%)
So the question is, what do we do with this info? Daily Kos had similar results in its own poll on debate night, with Ron Paul again the clear winner.
Sadly, like MSNBC, the talking heads are so far afraid to report it honestly. (Unlike MSNBC, the DKos pollster had the gall to update the Debate Recap poll diary to discourage people from voting for Paul.) But it's going to be a long primary season, and Ron Paul is going to be making all the other Republicans look bad. Shouldn't we help?
We should be jubilant - instead of torn as we are when Mike Gravel's and Dennis Kucinich's honesty make the Democratic frontrunners look bad but those upstarts still don't win the poll.
We can demand an honest accounting from MSNBC and support Ron Paul however we can. If he "can't win" that's good for us, right? (And if an honest candidate has a chance, isn't that good for us too?)
For an excellent analysis, see GoSlash27's "Why is MSNBC Lying?