DeSantis won that debate, but probably not by enough

Ballistic podiatry lives in infamy though.

Watch: #GOPDebate takes in 60 seconds. TIKTOK

You knew Ron DeSantis had struck a nerve when Nikki Haley devolved into process put-downs. You could see it on her face — her attacks were landing and she was pissed. Not Ramaswamy-level seething, but nearing that level of venom.

It was about an hour in and the Florida governor was undercutting Haley’s conservative bonafides on school choice. How could she herald herself as a conservative reformer if she couldn’t implement school choice in red state South Carolina? Blood rushing to her head, Haley popped — did not answer his charge and reverted to the act of a college athlete on the field and pointing up to the scoreboard. “Why you losing bro!?”

The debate was mostly evenly matched — bot DeSantis and Haley showed themselves to be highly prepared, unfurling crisp substantive arguments in rapid-fire succession. But DeSantis proved himself more in line with where the GOP policy zeitgeist is — and his fusillade eventually wared her down to the point she stopped defending herself and instead chose to kick frivolously below the belt.

As Ron said, #BallisticPodiatry. God, I did love that.

DeSantis scored a debate win, but I’d call it relatively narrowly for him — say 55%-45%. It could be enough to nudge him a couple points ahead of Haley on caucus night — but even that likely isn’t enough unless he’s within 10 points of Trump.

Read my full takeaways for McClatchy newspapers HERE.

Oh, and follow the #TikTok ;)