8:23 PM: Okay, that made the night worthwhile. Gov. Perry said Texas has more uninsured than any other state because the federal government isn’t letting us cover everybody. That’s awesome.
8:37 PM: It is funny to think how many times over the last 50 years we’ve come back to presidential counterpoints between Massachusetts and Texas.
8:38 PM: Ron Paul: You cut me off before I got a chance to explain my ridiculous hypothetical!!! … Ron Paul: I supported Ronald Reagan forever. I just attacked him after he stopped being Reagan. Or Something.
8:48 PM: Rick Perry: Social Security is a “monstrous lie” and a “Ponzi scheme.”
8:49 PM: Romney: We need a nominee who doesn’t want to “abolish” Social Security but wants to save it … Not sure Perry’s doing himself any favors in this back and forth with Romney over Social Security. I think that was likely Romney’s most solid punch.
8:54 PM: The Gardisil debate obviously has a lot of different dimensions to it. But let’s just be honest and grant that most of the folks up on the stage are making it like Gardisil is a shot that makes teenage girls into street walking floozies as opposed to preventing women from getting cervical cancer. Not the language of “innocent” 12 year old girls. Does anyone worry about “innocent” 12 year olds getting tetanus shots.
8:58 PM: Romney reaching out to ordinary Americans: Look, we’d all like more birdies than mulligans in this country.
8:04 PM: Okay, not the most substantive first comment. But let’s face it, Romney looks very orange.
8:06 PM: Romney and Perry mutually agree to withdraw from race in exchange for Dukakis and Bush.
8:11 PM: I think Rick Santorum just pitched himself as a bipartisan consensus builder?
8:11 PM: Our newly-minted campaign 2012 reporters Evan McMorris-Santoro and Benjy Sarlin are providing play-by-play updates at TPMLivewire.
8:14 PM: Romney campaign just sent out a lengthy email taking apart Perry’s Texas jobs record.
8:16 PM: Okay, good to see that as folksy as he is, Ron Paul is still a completely nutball ideologue, just announcing that the government shouldn’t be involved in air traffic control.
8:20 PM: Ahhhhh, sort of an awkward moment for John Harris. Can you comment on the video that just didn’t run? Thank you.
8:21 PM: Just such a tough needle to thread: Obamacare was a disaster. I’ll get rid of it on day one. And this is why the idea worked well in Massachusetts.