Saturday's highlight: Human moments
It's rare to see a presidential candidate betray an actual emotion during a TV debate. But there was something about Mitt Romney's half-wince, half-squint on Saturday's ABC forum that felt almost disturbingly real.
It came about a third of the way into the Republican portion of the debate, as Romney took the first of the barbs he would endure all night. Mike Huckabee, fresh off his Iowa caucuses win, delivered a stinging one-liner: When Romney told him, "Don't characterize my position," Huckabee shot back, "Which one?"
The normally cool Romney paused for a long moment, twisting his lips and scrunching his eyes. Finally, he said, "We're wise to talk about policies and not make personal attacks."
The response was vintage Romney, in a way - not the guy who approved a barrage of negative ads in New Hampshire and Iowa, but the man with the ever-cheerful, Pollyanna-ish public persona. Unlike some of his competitors, Romney isn't fluent in sarcasm. Sometimes, that makes him look stiff and humorless. But as his competitors kept picking at him Saturday night, the emotion in Romney's voice, his refusal to engage, might have helped him to appear above the fray.
ABC's decision to seat the candidates in chairs seemed an act of generosity, given the 90-minute format for each party segment. But it also managed to keep the rhetoric largely low-key and the participants subdued. Both Iowa victors, Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama, at times seemed barely present.
On the other hand, allowing the candidates to question one another - moderator Charlie Gibson likened it to a dinner table chat - provided for some quick and tense exchanges. On the Republican side, it allowed for the distinct impression that some of these men don't like one another much.
Or maybe they just don't like Romney. John McCain seemed especially stung by Romney's negative ads, and struck back with such frustration that he sometimes came across as peevish.
While the Republicans spent a lot of time talking policy minutiae, the Democrats dwelled longer on broad themes. Their debate fairly quickly became a two-sided battle over what should be more crucial: experience or change.
John Edwards articulated the "change" argument with the most vigor. Obama, by contrast, sometimes seemed a bit hamstrung; the debate format doesn't allow for the long, flourishing speeches that are his trademark. But he did manage an eloquent argument for the importance of campaign rhetoric: "Words do inspire. Words do help people get involved. Words do help members of Congress get into power so they can be part of a coalition that can deliver."
Hillary Clinton, now on the defensive, argued repeatedly that "words are not action" and that her career in and around government established her as an effective change agent.
But Clinton often sounded coached and scripted, her wording familiar to anyone who has read much about the race.
Still, she offered the Democrats' most memorably emotional moment, when asked to confront her famed lack of likeability. "Well, that hurts my feelings," she said, "but I'll try to go on."
Mostly, she was joking. But a girlish tone in Clinton's voice seemed to betray something deeper. "He's very likeable, I agree with that" she went on, referring to Obama. And then, "I don't think I'm that bad."
It was one of those moments that might serve to help Clinton in the end, an expression of vulnerability as stark as Romney's squint. Front-runners are supposed to get battered in the final stretches. But it's rare that they get such a public chance for badly needed displays of humanity.
Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com. 