The Washington Free Beacon's Lachlan Markay assessed Wednesday's GOP debate Thursday, telling host Lou Dobbs that Marco Rubio won, Chris Christie's and Lindsey Graham's personalities came through, and Mike Huckabee did well, though he dodged a question.
"Rubio definitely came out on top," Markay said, echoing the assessment of the majority of analysts.
He noted that Christie and Graham also upped their likability by showing voters their personalities.
"I thought Chris Christie also really shined," he said. "He had a lot of good moments where he was able to unleash his inner New Jersey and come out with the style he's known and loved for."
Markay said that Graham, who participated in the so-called "Happy Hour" debate, also came off well, though "not necessarily from a policy perspective."
Graham's feisty performance, however, would most likely not be enough to push him forward to the main stage, Markay said.
As for Huckabee, Markay disagreed with some of his answers, but said that he still performed well.
"I thought his entitlement answer dodged the question in terms of saying that these people have paid into the system, they need to be paid back, and while we would all agree with that sentiment, the issue is, how do we make sure that these programs are still around?" he said, regarding Huckabee's answer to a question about entitlement reform.