9:37 PM: Best commentary I’ll provide all night: never try to watch a debate you have to cover live on a web livestream. That’s all I’m sayin’.
9:44 PM: I must say Pawlenty’s growing on me. I was at a reporter’s lunch with him a month or so back. I have real sympathy for him trying to delicately explain how off the deep end Bachmann is and how he’s actually accomplished things in government.
9:48 PM: He did get her goat on that one. No question. That last exchange between Bachmann and Pawlenty obviously went into some pretty obscure legislative history from Minnesota. We’ve got a reporter trying to figure out the gist of the actual piece of legislation and see was more accurately portraying what happened.
9:52 PM: Awesome. Pawlenty gets another bite at the apple … Okay, he did okay. Made his case. Good for T-Paw. On the other hand, all our readers seem to think that Bachmann kicked his butt.
9:56 PM: I feel like Mitt sort inadvertently stumbled his way back into making a coherent economic and policy argument for mandates.
9:59 PM: TPM Reader JG shares his thoughts: “This debate is AWESOME. They’re all so horrible, and yet in totally unique and enjoyable ways. I think Bachmann was the clear winner in her bout with Pawlenty, and she strikes me as the early winner. She’s cornering a market and her messaging is pretty focused. Simply as a politician in the strictest sense of the word, she has really improved a great deal over the last few years. If this debate is any indication, this Republican primary process is going to be a blast.”
