Well, The Republican Forum Was A Bit Awkward ...

What a way to kick off debate night. The Republican forum lineup, which preceded the primary debate between the top 10 Republican presidential candidates, consisted of Rick Perry, Senator Rick Santorum, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Senator Lindsay Graham, George Pataki, and Jim Gilmore. Most of these folks are seasoned political veterans who know their way around a tough question, but that didn't stop them from creating some highly uncomfortable situations during their discussions. Some moments from the forum were very awkward.

Nobody emerged as particularly presidential during the forum. And worse, some of the candidates really seemed to stumble over themselves, and showed discomfort in answering tough questions on the spot. This possibly speaks to the main reason these candidates didn't make the cut for the debate itself, but still. It seemed obvious that each of the candidates knows that they have a lot of work to do if they want to win over Republican voters, so the forum turned into an ego contest in which everyone seemed desperate to improve their position in the polls. So in this shoving match for best-of-the-second-best, what were the most awkward moments we saw?

Lindsey Graham's Nerves

So Lindsey Graham is pretty nervous during debates, apparently. For most of the night, whenever he answered a question, he rocked from side to side and seemed like he was reciting rehearsed speeches. Surely all of them rehearsed these answers, but poor Graham seemed like a kid trying to remember the spelling of a hard word at the local Spelling Bee.

Getting Treated Like Kids

Referring to the fact that they had not yet needed to cut anyone off, moderator Bill Hemmer told the candidates (in his most soothing voice), "You're all very well-behaved." Gee, thanks, teach!

Santorum Forgot About Women

Shock! Santorum, speaking about foreign policy, said "We're a country of laws. We're not a country of men ..." First of all, a country with no people and only laws would be kind of weird. And also, come on. It's 2015. We don't use "men" when we mean "people" anymore.

The Super Empty Room

The room for the forum was quite empty. Every once in a while, you could hear a very sad, faint clap in the background from one or two brave souls who took off from work early to watch this ... event.

Rick Perry's Power Stance

For almost the entire debate, Perry was standing with his legs spread extremely wide. Somebody doesn't want the American public to forget that he only just missed the cut off for the big-kid debate later that night.

Santorum's Mime Act

While talking about Planned Parenthood and abortion, Santorum actually mimed a doctor pulling a fetus out of a vagina. To say that I feel awkward just writing that sentence would be an understatement of massive proportions. I can't deal with this!