If you had walked into last night’s GOP YouTube Debate without any preconceived notions or exposure to the campaign so far, you might well have thought that Mike Huckabee was the clear GOP frontrunner. He tuned down some of his harder Christianist positions and played the inclusive card while confidentially displaying the executive style he developed as Arkansas governor. The numbers that came out earlier appear to support the Huckabee surge so with last night’s debate he is beginning to look very solid, although he feels more like a Veep than a frontman who can deliver the goods in the end.

That can not be said for Romney whose irritating glibness, never ending smile combined with his incessant ducking of questions – notably the one on torture – made it clear that he simply is not presidential material. He is Kerryesque: too focused on making the right impression, building an image out of material none of which appears to be his own.

Every time I see McCain on TV he looks a bit older, but he is able to compensate for that with strong arguments, moral composure and above all a serene and distinct seriousness fitting of a White House occupant. And as opposed to Romney, everything thing you see and get is solidly McCain himself. It may not look all that nice and polished, but it is real. His exchange with Romney on torture not only clarified the vast distance between the two men on moral issues, it also highlighted that if America prefers experience and calm over a flawless show in the White House, McCain is the clear choice for GOP nominee.

Now Thompson and Giuliani are real men too and both have arguably the right conservative credentials to build that fiscally responsible, hawkish GOP tent. But somehow Thompson seems to lack the gravity and momentum and is increasingly looking like a GOP-version of the late Lloyd Bentsen, a useful and amicable man who can serve adequately in the supporting cast.

The question mark was Giuliani. While I have been a longtime supporter of the mayor and believe that as an executive he is by far the most qualified of both the GOP and Democratic fields, the campaign is beginning to wear on his candidacy. The first subliminal reaction he provokes in me is ‘Kerik!’ and that surely is an alarming sign. In a direct confrontation with Hillary and Obama the mayor is all of a sudden looking a little too toxic.

After last night it has become increasingly clear that McCain with Mike Huckabee as a southern booster might be a very viable ticket to reunite America behind calm and measured expertise. It might also be the only GOP combination that will have a reasonable chance of playing in the centerfield and win 2008.