Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum participated in the Granite State Patriot’s Constitutional Conversation Thursday night, where the two were not short on criticism of President Obama’s interpretation of the constitution.

“What’s the biggest constitutional failing of the Obama administration?” the moderator asked Santorum. The crowd laughed as Santorum scratched his head for a moment with a perplexed look.

“This is going to be a much longer debate now,” Gingrich said.

“We’ll let Newt go first,” Santorum said.

Gingrich paused and said, “Not understanding which country he’s president of.”

The crowd erupted with applause and gave the only standing ovation of the night to Gingrich’s comment. Santorum followed up by saying “Obamacare.”

Gingrich also had harsh words for the Congressional Super Committee.

“First of all, this probably the dumbest legislative idea I’ve ever seen, in a career of looking at pretty dumb legislative ideas,” Gingrich said. “There 535 members of the house and senate and the idea that you’re going to put 523 of them to one side so that 12 geniuses picked by their political leadership can magically achieve something the 535 couldn’t just strikes me as exactly the opposite of the approach the founding fathers would have taken.”

One moment in the evening Santorum made fun of himself concerning his status at debates. When the moderator skipped over Gingrich for answer to a question, Santorum asked the moderator if he was going to be fair.

“Let’s be fair about it, I’m used to being at the end where I don’t get to answer questions so I’m just trying to be fair,” Santorum said. “I tend to be a little sensitive about those things.”

The discussion then turned to the role of religion in the constitution in relation to a civic society. Gingrich asked Santorum asked what steps he would take to create a virtuous society.

“I was in a church in Iowa and I walked into a conclave of pastors. The pastor was up there preaching revival, and in many respects that’s true, American needs a revival of the principles that made America the greatest country in the history of the world,” Santorum said.

On Saturday the two candidates will participate in a debate in Spartanburg, South Carolina, hosted by CBS News and the National Journal.