It may have been a double victory for Mitt Romney on Thursday night at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville - not only did Romney again seem to outperform Newt Gingrich in the Sunshine State, but Gingrich may have been upstaged by Rick Santorum as well.
A week ago in South Carolina, Gingrich used two boffo debate performances to roll to a big win in the Palmetto State, but the former House Speaker could not repeat that this week in two debates in Florida.
In fact, it seemed that Romney was the better prepared candidate in both Tampa and Jacksonville, with sharper lines to defend his wealth and to parry Gingrich's attacks.
At one point, Gingrich rapped Romney for investing in mutual funds that held shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - and Romney instantly responded that Gingrich was guilty of the same thing.
Romney seemed to be a step ahead of Gingrich almost the entire night, as from the press filing center, you could almost hear the air going out of Gingrich's tires.
While Gingrich was struggling in the sand like a wayward car on Neptune Beach, Rick Santorum stepped up for the second time this week, chiding both Romney and Gingrich for their bickering and slamming both for their views on health care reform.
It was in one of those exchanges that Romney made what might have been his most serious error of the night, when he tried to slap down Santorum's criticism on the Romney health plan from Massachusetts.
"First of all, it's not worth getting angry about," Romney said in a rather patrician tone, which did not set well with opponents of the Obama health law, as social media exploded with negative reviews of Romney's jab.
Santorum's positive debate performance was bad news for Gingrich - who needed to be the one scoring those points - and great news for Romney, who can only hope that Gingrich and Santorum keep splitting the anti-Romney vote for a few more states.
As for Ron Paul, he was on the margins of the debate for much of the night, though he did have several humorous reviews of the finger pointing going on in front of him.
"I don't think we should go to the moon," Paul said of Speaker Gingrich's plan to establish a lunar colony.
"I think we should send some politicians up there," Paul said to a big cheer in the debate hall.
Paul though made clear what he thinks about the Florida Primary - he's not even sticking around for the weekend here, as he will campaign for several days in Maine, where caucuses start this weekend.
As for the Romney-Gingrich battle, while it wasn't the end for Gingrich, it was a major missed opportunity this week in Florida.
Gingrich had all the momentum, but he did not perform anywhere near the level he showed in last week's two South Carolina debates.
Yes, Romney stepped up his game - but Gingrich seemed flat. The guy who had done so well with his own debate performances could not fire any fastballs this week in the Florida gatherings.
The polls show Romney ahead by 7-8 points; his people are confident that will hold this weekend.
Stay tuned.
