In case your missed tonight's presidential debate between the GOP candidates, it was a "Smack Down" event on Mitt Romney as he was the main target of everyone else on stage who relishes the opportunity to attack the former Massachusetts Governor.

Forced to defend himself against the others, Romney really couldn't get his message of "change" out and was repeatedly criticized for his policies in Massachusetts and how it is different from his current proposals for the country.

Here are a few notable liners from his opponents:

"We disagree on many things, but you are the candidate for change," said John McCain

"If Reagan was still alive, he'd be in one of Mitt's negative commercials," said Rudy Giuliani

"You can spend your whole fortune on your ads and it still won't be true," said John McCain

To read the full and professional analysis from the Politico, click here.

This piece of mail hits New Hampshire households yesterday.  Sent from the McCain campaign, it reminded voters of the sacrifices that many has made for America, including the person who authorized this piece.

To view the rest of this mailer, click here.

H/T: Duane Patterson over at HughHewitt.com

Duane has an interesting theory about the roll of Newt Gingrich in this election cycle and points out that if a clear leader does not emerge from the Republican primary, we could end up with a brokered Republican convention. He further suggests that such a scenario could result in a figure like Newt Gingrich riding in to save the day.

Very quietly, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is meddling in the GOP primary field.  A couple of weeks ago, there was a press release that indicated Rick Tyler, long time communications director for Gingrich, was taking a leave of absence from his day job, and helping out the communications effort for Mike Huckabee.

Mark Levin over on The Corner writes today that Newt and Dick Morris are both helping the Arkansas populist former governor, Newt behind the scenes, Morris publicly.  The question is why is Newt doing this?

When the Tyler move became public, the theory developed that Newt still envisions himself running for the presidency, but didn't think this cycle was the right time to run because of the aura of invincibility of Hillary Clinton.  Newt would then benefit by helping out the perceived weakest of the GOP candidates, ensuring that come January '09, the Republicans would begin their four year wandering through the desert.  This would set up Newt as the White Knight in 2012, riding to the rescue after President Hillary screwed things up in her first term.

But after Iowa last night, another theory is beginning to develop.  Hillary's aura of invincibility is no longer there.  Barack Obama is now the frontrunner, and although very charismatic, he's an empty suit, especially when it comes to foreign policy.  Newt may now be thinking that there's a window of opportunity this cycle.  All that needs to take place is for Huckabee to take a couple of the early states, Rudy take a couple of the big states, McCain maybe taking a state here or there, and Romney to take a couple, and you have yourself a brokered convention.  If the Republicans can't decide on a clear frontrunner by the convention, could we potentially see the White Knight riding in a little earlier than expected into Minneapolis/St. Paul this September?

Interesting (especially for us political junkies), but unlikely. The last time the Republicans had a brokered convention was 1948. The last time the Democrats had one was in 1952.  In each case, that party lost the election. Remember, a brokered convention is not the result of several candidates sharing similar levels of support, but rather having won similar numbers of delegates.  Since delegate allocation is not directly proportional to support, and most states allocate delegates through some variation of a winner-take-all approach, even  candidates who finish a close second in a few key states will find themselves with a severe shortage of delegates come convention time.

Ed Morrissey over at Captain's Quarters offered his take on such a scenario back in December.

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby:
McCain 32, Romney 30, Huckabee 12, Giuliani 9, Paul 7, Thompson 3

WMUR/CNN/University of NH:
McCain 33, Romney 27, Giuliani 14, Huckabee 11, Paul 9

Concord's Monitor:
McCain 35, Romney 29, Huckabee 13, Giuliani 8, Paul 7, Thompson 3

Here is AP and Time Magazine's coverage of this event:

(Casper, Wyo.) -- Mitt Romney captured his first win of the Republican presidential race, gaining most of Wyoming's delegates at stake in GOP caucuses on Saturday.

The former Massachusetts governor won six of the first eight delegates to be selected. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and California Rep. Duncan Hunter won one apiece, meaning no other candidate could beat Romney. Caucuses were still being held to decide all 12 delegates at stake.

The win was a boost for Romney, coming two days after his loss to Mike Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses and three days before the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire. Those two states have attracted most of the political attention. Wyoming had scheduled its GOP county conventions earlier to attract candidates to the state but had only modest results.

Romney visited Wyoming in August and November and three of his five sons campaigned in the state. One son, Josh Romney, owns a ranch in southwest Wyoming.

"Number one, he campaigned here," delegate Leigh Vosler of Cheyenne said of Romney. "I think that helped while some other candidates ignored us. But also he's the right person for the job."

Hunter, Thompson and Ron Paul all stopped by the state -- visits they probably wouldn't have made except for this year's early conventions -- and candidates have sent Wyoming's GOP voters a flood of campaign mail. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, did not visit Wyoming and drew little support. Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also did not visit and received little support.

"I think we're encouraged that the voters in Wyoming value that my dad had spent time here," Josh Romney said.

The traditional leadoff nomination contests in Iowa and New Hampshire have dominated the attention of both candidates and the national media in recent months, and no candidates had visited Wyoming in the four weeks leading up to the caucuses. Hunter was the last to visit the state on Dec. 4.

Tom Sansonetti, the county convention organizer, maintained Saturday that moving the state's caucuses ahead was the right thing to do.

"The ultimate goal is not how many times we appear on Katie Couric," Sansonetti said. "The ultimate goal was to have attention paid to rank-and-file Republicans by national candidates."

In addition, he said more Wyoming Republicans have become involved in the process.

Wyoming Republicans also paid a price for jumping ahead. The Republican National Committee has slashed half of Wyoming's 28 national convention delegates. National party leaders similarly penalized Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina for moving up the dates of their nomination contests.

RNC rules require the punishment for states that hold their nominating contests earlier than Feb. 5. Iowa, which held caucuses on Thursday, will not be penalized because, technically, the caucuses are not binding on convention delegates. Nevada, which plans to hold its caucuses on Jan. 19, will not be penalized for the same reason.

Besides the 12 delegates chosen at Saturday's county conventions, two delegates to be chosen at a statewide convention in May will also be sent to the national convention in Minneapolis.

Another new television commercial from Mitt Romney in New Hampshire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrIkmrTqEv4