but still a decent night for him. and rick santorum did okay. and as susan was saying, it's the case for all three of those candidates, if they start to inch up in the polls, and there's some signs in iowa, that may be happening, that's all good news for mitt romney. because every vote they take either out of newt gingrich's current support or out of his potential level of support, it's all gingrich suffering in those situations. and a ron paul victory or a mitt romney victory, obviously, those are both good outcomes for mitt romney, as long as he can stop newt gingrich, he's the winner in iowa. >> you know, susan, timing's everything's and sometimes in a debate and gingrich got hit early on freddie mac. then seemed to get his footing, and in fact he was enjoying talking about his own issue, temperament issues. here's how he handled one question, and he literally decided, well i've got to get this temperament issue out of the way and i've got a funny way to do it. here's how he handled it. >> i sometimes get accused of using language that's too strong. so i've been standing here, editing.