If you’ve been paying attention to the Republican presidential debates—good for you. If you haven’t, don’t worry.

Media trainer (and PR Daily contributor) Brad Phillips has gone to the trouble for you, watching the 10 debates and assigning grades to each candidate.

In Phillips’ opinion, “Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are the best debaters in the Republican field, while Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry rank among the worst.”

Phillips, who is president of Phillips Media Relations and author of the Mr. Media Training blog, ranked the candidates based on clarity of message, optimism of message, and charisma.

Here’s how they rank, in each debate and overall:



“This season’s many debates have given Republican voters a clear sense of which candidates would square off most effectively against President Obama,” said Brad Phillips on his blog. “That matters, as the more charismatic general election candidate with the clearer message has won the presidency in every election since the beginning of the 24/7 media age in 1980.”

For a more detailed description of each candidate’s performance, visit Phillips’ blog.

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