Fox News and the Iowa Republican party sponsored the final debate Thursday night before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. Here's our take on the winners and losers from Sioux City, Iowa.
WINNERS
Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich was clearly relishing his night in the spotlight. Currently leading in the polls, the former House speaker basked in his front-runner status on Thursday, even poking fun at recent critiques of his "zany" reputation. Gingrich almost seem to enjoy being the evening's punching bag, aggressively hitting back his critics and questioning the factual accuracy of complaints leveled against him. (Particularly those by Rep. Michele Bachmann, whose relationship with the facts he called out as dubious.) And despite being hammered hard for his relationship with mortgage giant Freddie Mac in the first half of the debate, Gingrich rebounded quickly in the night's second hour. Plus, he managed to keep his pledge to positivity - and aimed most of his criticism at president Obama.
Mitt Romney
As in the early presidential debates, Romney stayed focused on the candidate he clearly sees himself running against down the line: President Obama. The former Massachusetts governor focused his efforts almost exclusively at criticizing the president, and laying out his vision for the future. Romney took swipes at Gingrich in the debate a few days ago, without much luck. (Remember that $10,000 bet?). Romney returned to comfortable territory Thursday--hitting Mr. Obama--and it worked. Still, at some point the former Bay State governor will have to prove that he can dish it out just as well as he can take it. After all, in a general election, there won't be another candidate to look ahead to.
Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann showed on Thursday that she knows how to take a punch. From lambasting Newt Gingrich for having his "hand out" to mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac to blasting Ron Paul for his position in Iran, the candidate went all out against her opponents. She even sent out a release criticizing "Newt Romney" in the middle of the debate. But confidence has never been Bachmann's problem - and some of her statements have already been proven false, including one about Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Rick Perry
He barely registered any screen time for the first half of the debate, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry seemed more confident on stage Thursday night than he has since the early days of his campaign. "I'm kind of starting to like these debates," he quipped at the beginning of the evening. And he displayed equal aplomb knocking his opponents, taking Newt Gingrich to task for being unable to "tell the difference between a lobbyist or a consultant." But Perry's most memorable moment? Comparing himself to Bronco's quarterback Tim Tebow, who has made come-from-behind victories a personal specialty. Still, if Perry wants a shot at that sort of comeback, he's going to need to boost his poll numbers - and guarantee himself more stage time in debates.
Ron Paul
Ron Paul had a lot of fans in the house in Sioux City - and he was obviously enjoying his moment in the sun. The candidate, who has a huge base in Iowa and is effectively polling third in the state, got significantly more airtime than in any previous debate. And while the Texas congressman - and staunch libertarian - is pretty far outside of the mainstream when it comes to foreign policy, the crowd in Sioux City, Iowa didn't seem to mind too much. Still, it's hard to imagine that Paul picked up a huge number of new supporters Thursday night.
LOSERS
Rick Santorum
The former Pennsylvania governor did nothing to hurt himself in Thursday's debate, but he also failed to make the leap he needed to significantly raise his profile among the field of contenders. Santorum delivered confident answers on questions about gay marriage and Obamacare - favorite topics of the staunch Christian conservative - but at the end of the day, he failed to deliver the game-changing performance that could have changed his status in the pack.
Jon Huntsman
Jon Huntsman has spent most of the Republican presidential debates on the relative sidelines - and that didn't change in Thursday night's debate. The candidate, who has consistently sat at the bottom of the polls, failed to make a deep impression with the little screen time he got. Despite a few memorable one-liners - including telling voters "we are getting screwed as Americans" -- the candidate likely did little to significantly alter his standing in the field.


More from the debate:
GOP candidates: Oust Holder for Fast and Furious
Newt Gingrich hammered for Freddie Mac ties
Romney praises Medicare overhaul proposal
Rick Perry hopes to be the Tim Tebow of Iowa caucuses
Gingrich, Paul challenge electability questions

If facts are the determining factor, Ron Paul won.

http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-gingrich-off-budget-history-024958105.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — Newt Gingrich overlooked a couple of years of red ink when he asserted Thursday night that he balanced the budget for four years as House speaker. And in claiming sole credit for the achievement, he glossed over the fact that budgets are not a one-man show: There was a Democratic president in town, too.
In the last debate before the leadoff Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, Gingrich persisted in repeating a claim he has made often in the campaign, sometimes more accurately than others. Here and there, other candidates, too, reprised misstatements or partial truths from the string of debates and from the stump. Mitt Romney once again declared he has spent his life in the private sector, ignoring his years as governor and political candidate.
A look at some of the claims in the debate and how they compare with the facts:
GINGRICH: "I balanced the budget for four straight years, paid off $405 billion in debt — pretty conservative."
THE FACTS: In the 1996 and 1997 budget years, the first two years he served as speaker of the House of Representatives, the government actually ran deficits. In 1998 and 1999, the government ran surpluses. Two more years of surpluses followed, but Gingrich was gone from politics by then and had nothing to do with them.
Moreover, the national debt went up during the four years Gingrich was speaker. In January 1995, when he became speaker, the gross national debt was $4.8 trillion. When he left four years later, it was $5.6 trillion, an increase of $800 billion.
To be sure, Gingrich did not single-handedly deepen America's debt, just as he didn't balance any budgets on his own. He was a driving force, along with Democratic President Bill Clinton and figures in both houses of Congress, in the economic setbacks and advancements of that time.
___
ROMNEY: "I spent my life, my career, in the private sector."
THE FACTS: This is true — except for four years as Massachusetts governor, recent years running for president in the 2008 and 2012 elections, a few years running the Olympics and the time he put into his failed run for a Senate seat in 1994.
In essence, Romney has devoted himself to political endeavors since his successful run for governor in 2002, and has been pursuing the presidency for five years.
A month after his term as governor ended in 2007, he announced his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. After John McCain defeated him for the nomination, Romney devoted himself to building a political network, helping Republican candidates raise money, and writing a book that set the stage for his second run for president.
Indeed, Romney, who made his fortune as founder of the investment firm Bain Capital, has not held a private-sector job with a regular paycheck for more than a decade.
___
MICHELE BACHMANN: "We have an IAEA report that just recently came out that said literally Iran is within just months of being able to obtain that (a nuclear) weapon."
RON PAUL: "There is no U.N. report that said that. It's totally wrong, what you just said."
Bachmann: "It's the IAEA report."
THE FACTS: As Paul said, the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency does not state that Iran is within months of having nuclear arms. The U.N. agency report does suggest that Iran conducted secret experiments whose sole purpose is the development of nuclear weapons but did not put a time frame on when Iran might succeed in building a bomb, and it made no final conclusion on Tehran's intent.
Bachmann also erred by arguing that Iran has "stated they will use it (a nuclear weapon) against the United States."
Iran vehemently rejects that it is developing a nuclear bomb, let alone that it plans to drop one on the U.S.
___
ROMNEY: "I'm firmly in support of people not being discriminated against based upon their sexual orientation. At the same time, I oppose same-sex marriage. That's been my position from the beginning."
THE FACTS: In large measure, Romney has been consistent in those two positions, despite accusations of flip-flopping on gay rights.
He walked a fine line back in his failed 1994 Senate campaign, vowing to fight for equality but stopping short of endorsing gay marriage. That's the same line he walked Thursday night.
He has changed, though, on whether gay marriage should be addressed at the state or federal level. He has favored a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage at least since the beginning of his 2008 presidential bid, when he was the only major Republican candidate to do so. In 1994, he had said the matter should be decided by individual states. That was before the idea of a constitutional ban had gained traction in politics.
___
BACHMANN: "After the debates that we had last week, PolitiFact came out and said that everything I said was true."
THE FACTS: False.
For the second debate in a row, Gingrich complained that Bachmann wasn't getting her facts straight, this time when she went after him for the big money he made from Freddie Mac. In her own defense, Bachmann cited ratings from PolitiFact, a fact-checking organization that ranks statements on a scale from true to false, with the worst offender being "Pants on Fire" false.
PolitiFact rated two Bachmann statements from last week's debate. One, claiming Gingrich once believed in an individual health care mandate, was ranked mostly true. The other, that Romney introduced "socialized medicine" in his state, was judged "Pants on Fire" false.
Indeed, Bachmann has the worst record of accuracy in the Republican field, as rated by that organization and traced by others. Fully 73 percent of her statements checked by PolitiFact were judged mostly false or worse. Gingrich was wrong the next most often, 59 percent of the time.

The truth of the matter is that the debate was moderated by Faux News personnel who are always after RP and know which buttons to push for any given response.

He was "setup" for the Iran question knowing what his response would be, and giving Buttwoman a chance to shine in her home state....and Santorum (knowing neither have a chance at the nomination...). That's the ONLY way they can attack RP! Set him up in front of a Pro Right crowd knowing the response they would get.

They thought they succeeded, MSM has preached it all day, but the web says otherwise. He didn't lose anything, but didn't gain either from that attack. Those who did condemn, gave him the 1st 1/2 of the debate, and many said they still perfered him over Nuts or Mutt.

From Politifact.....

MICHELE BACHMANN: "We have an IAEA report that just recently came out that said literally Iran is within just months of being able to obtain that (a nuclear) weapon."

RON PAUL: "There is no U.N. report that said that. It's totally wrong, what you just said."

Bachmann: "It's the IAEA report."

THE FACTS: As Paul said, the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency does not state that Iran is within months of having nuclear arms. The U.N. agency report does suggest that Iran conducted secret experiments whose sole purpose is the development of nuclear weapons but did not put a time frame on when Iran might succeed in building a bomb, and it made no final conclusion on Tehran's intent.

Bachmann also erred by arguing that Iran has "stated they will use it (a nuclear weapon) against the United States."

Iran vehemently rejects that it is developing a nuclear bomb, let alone that it plans to drop one on the U.S.