The Republican presidential hopefuls squared off Tuesday in Dearborn, Mich., to discuss primarily economic issues. For the first time, Fred Thompson joined the ranks of his fellow GOP contenders on the stage, but pundits were less than impressed with his showing. Who had the best performance though?

10. Tom Tancredo — This guy would probably do his campaign a service by staying out of debates. He has some very good points but will never do well until he learns how to answer a question on the spot.

9. Sam Brownback — He’s the most socially conservative candidate, but that doesn’t mean every answer has to involve family values, including those questions concerning other topics.

8. Duncan Hunter — Ditto Sen. Brownback, except for him, it’s national security.

7. Fred Thompson — The former actor was practically handed the nomination on a silver plate. He surged to the top of the polls without doing anything because the media played him up so much. He announced his candidacy last month and has lost significant support due to lackluster campaign organization. Then, on Tuesday, he was granted center stage to showcase his debate debut. But he squandered that opportunity as well, sounding unprepared and uninspiring. He still has time to turn it around, but not much.

6. John McCain — Make no mistake, Sen. McCain knows what he’s talking about on foreign and fiscal policy. He sounded very intelligent in his responses but seems to have lost his fire. Not to mention that with Thompson’s entry, he has been exiled from center stage. I’m amazed he hasn’t jumped ship on his failing campaign yet, unless he plans on going down with it.

5. Ron Paul — His non-interventionist spiel is starting to get old. In a debate concerning economic issues, you would hope he could stray from ideology for one minute to throw some stats out there, even if they are wrong. Hell, the others do it.

4. Mike Huckabee — He’s starting to sound like the GOP’s version of John Edwards, running an insurgent campaign on a populist strategy. He’s charismatic and often throws out the best one-liners. It’s nice that he finally came up with some new ones for a change.

3. Chris Matthews — Maybe it was the narrow scope of the debate, but Matthews did a great job of asking specific questions that kept the candidates on topics. Or maybe it was the absence of Tommy Thompson…

2. Mitt Romney — He did what he needed to do in this debate, as he very well should have. He has the most corporate experience and showed he grasps economic issues better than the other candidates. He took only a few shots at Sen. Thompson, but effectively marginalized his presence by taking on Rudy’s economic policy as mayor of New York.

1. Rudy Guiliani — While Gov. Romney is trying to make this a two-man race, Rudy has done a great job of styling himself as The Chosen One, sent from the heavens as humanity’s last hope to defeat the spawn of hell, Hillary Clinton.