This was Newt Gingrich’s last chance to shine on the big stage before Tuesday. It did not go as hoped.

Gingrich and Mitt Romney were supposed to be the main attractions, but Rick Santorum and Ron Paul won notice at the 19th GOP debate, hosted by CNN at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

For 120 minutes, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich essentially traded roles — Romney, often meek and shrill-sounding as he defended himself this cycle, became the aggressor, and Gingrich, who’s played the debate hall crowd like a musical instrument in the past, seemed to shrink from the attacks.

Romney came with balled-up fists to the debate stage, and swung hard at Gingrich during the first few questions — in the exact fashion that the former House speaker has typically gone at the front-runner.

It worked. Romney had the thing that has eluded him most this cycle — a “moment.”