You can’t plan these things. Just ask Jeb Bush.

Lindsey Graham could well have won the Republican presidential primary undercard debate on Wednesday with a mix of unguarded sincerity, truth bombs, clever one-liners and at least one iconic gesture.

There’s a joyous and wacky quality to the man that he has somehow teamed well with a policy platform based almost entirely on ramping up the country’s already unprecedented-in-human-history military power and taking big-stick diplomacy to new heights. He delivers this combination in a trademark lilting South Carolina accent and with a cherubic smile. Graham is a distinctly American figure.

“To the Chinese,” he said, talking about cybersecurity, “when it comes to dealing with me, you’ve got a clenched fist and an open hand. You pick. The party’s over to all the dictators. Make me commander-in-chief and this crap stops.”

He punctuated the warning by holding up both hands, one with fingers spread wide and stiff and the other clenched into a tight ball. He shook them like that on either side of his head for a good six seconds. No comic screenwriter could have scripted the moment any better. It was strange and somehow wildly funny and memorable.

Daily Beast editor Andrew Kirell captured the spirit with a video clip of the action attached to a perfectly worded tweet:

“Only highlight of this snoozer: Lindsey Graham threatening China w/ his terrifying fist & open palm. ‪#CNBCGOPDebate”

It helps that Graham is playing in the minor leagues. In a field narrowed to fellow low-polling candidates Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former New York Gov. George Pataki, it’s easy to shine. But Graham was better than at least half of the top-polling candidates on the main stage, too, a point analysts and GOP figures have been saying since Graham walked off the stage in Boulder.

Graham told Republican primary voters he believes in mainstream climate change science and that Republicans should lead the charge to address the effects of carbon-based global warming.

“Climate change is real and I’m trying to solve these problems,” he said. “I mean look who we’re running against… The number two guy on the Democratic side went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon, and I don’t think he ever came back.”

He has also said that he thinks the $700 billion TARP bailouts were necessary and that it’s time to raise taxes to bring the nation out of debt.

“Graham” was the most-searched candidate name on Google during the undercard CNBC debate. The senator won over Mitt Romney, who tweeted during the debate that Graham deserved to be among the primary’s top-tier candidates.

Graham is #winning, as they say on the Internet. That’s something different, of course, from winning among the activist Republicans who will participate in the party’s primary elections next year and who so far have shown almost no interest in voting for him.

— john.tomasic@gmail.com