U.S. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, the biggest debtor in the 2012 presidential race
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich won his party's primary election in South Carolina, based on exit polls. Reuters

While GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry shed their poker faces, openly duking it out over immigration, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she thought Newt Gingrich went home as victor of the CNN Western Republican Presidential Debate in Las Vegas Tuesday night.

Everybody can learn from Newt Gingrich and the way -- his calm, cool, collected manner, Palin said Tuesday in an interview on Fox News. He's kind of seen it all before in this political game, if you will.

The former Alaska governor, who has recently said she will not be running for president herself, that Gingrich, said the former House Speaker, would clobber Barack Obama in any debate, any forum that had to do with substance.

Palin said she was disappointed with the bickering of the candidates throughout the debate, and called on them to offer substance when it comes to policy solutions for the challenges that America faces.

We don't want to hear the engagement of the nitpicking and the bickering because that just plays right on into the left handbook as they get ready for the general election debates, Palin said. Sometimes conventional wisdom would dictate that he who has the most money, the campaign dollars, wins. I don't want to believe that this is going to be the case this go-around.

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