THERE were ten men on the stage, but only three counted. The front-runners for the Republican nomination—Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney—all gave solid performances at their second debate, which was held on May 15th in South Carolina. As for the second-tier candidates—Sam Brownback, Jim Gilmore, Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo and Tommy Thompson—most seemed likeable enough, but none looked like a winner. The Republican grassroots started to mutter that some or all of them should drop out of the race.

The night's biggest cheer went to Mr Giuliani, a former mayor of New York. Republican primary voters have grave misgivings about him, largely because he thinks abortion should remain legal. But they respect him for his unflappability when the twin towers were attacked. During the debate Ron Paul, a feisty libertarian from Texas who stands no chance at all, suggested that Middle Eastern terrorists attacked America “because we've been over there; we've been bombing Iraq for ten years.” Mr Giuliani fired back: “That's an extraordinary statement...that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th.” The conservative audience erupted in approval.

Mr Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, came across so smoothly in the first debate earlier this month that Time put him on its cover with the line: “Sure, he looks like a president. But what does Mitt Romney really believe?” This week he still sounded presidential, but he is taking a lot more flak. Some of that is for being a Mormon (anti-Mormon tracts are being e-mailed to conservatives), but there is also his suspiciously recent conversion to the abortion-banning camp.

In the debate Mr Romney traded barbs with Mr McCain, a senator from Arizona who has run for president before. Conservatives' chief beefs against Mr McCain are that he is liberal on immigration and favours what many see as unconstitutional curbs on political donations. Mr Romney reminded the audience that his opponent has co-sponsored laws with two Democrats whom Republicans despise—an immigration bill with Ted Kennedy and a campaign-finance bill with Russ Feingold. Mr McCain shot back that he had been consistent on campaign finance and added, in a dig at Mr Romney's alleged opportunism, that he had not changed his position in even-numbered years or “because of the different offices that I may be running for”. Overall, Mr McCain fared better than at the first debate, when he sounded too angry and too old.

The top three all sought to sound tough on terrorism. Mr Romney recommended doubling the size of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay. Mr McCain urged that the surge of American troops in Iraq be given time to work and that the Iraqi government shape up. He also took a firm stand against torture, whereas Mr Giuliani and Mr Romney fudged. When he was being tortured in Vietnam, he said, he was sustained by knowing his captors would not suffer the same if roles were reversed.

With eight months to go before the first primary, it is still far too early to make predictions. Wild cards such as Fred Thompson, a popular actor and former senator, may yet enter the race. In the end, the party will probably pick whomever its members think can beat Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile Fox News, which broadcast the debate, continued its tradition of balancing good-looking conservative pundits with liberals who look either weird or bearded.