8:50 PM: Not being in the campaign has really liberated Newt.

8:57 PM: Perry’s attempt on Social Security “Slam-Dunk Guaranteed”. Watch the video.

9:05 PM: Mitt had the crowd on fire with the part about VAT taxes being refundable under WTO.

9:12 PM: That was a great expression on Perry’s face when he realized that the logic of his response to Bachmann was that $5,000 was way too little to buy him.

9:12 PM: Headline on email just sent out from the Bachmann campaign: “Rick Perry’s Crony Capitalism: The 2007 Vaccination Executive Order Fiasco”

Get quick videos and all the latest quotes from the debate at TPMLivewire.

8:35 PM: Romney camp just sent out email headed “Rick’s Retreat on Social Security” and the Perry campaign has a rival one in reporter’s inboxes too.

In Perry’s email his campaign flags this quote from Romney from three weeks ago …

“I don’t know of any Republican who’s running for office who said they want to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits to people who are retired or near retirement. Not one, I haven’t heard a word of it…so Republicans, like myself, are not gonna cut social security or Medicare for people who are retired or near retirement. And for the people who say we are, they are demagoguing an issue very much that harms America. Because we need to be truthful on this.” (8/24/11, Lebanon, New Hampshire)

That’s 11 days after Perry got in the race. So the Perry campaign does appear to have found Mitt on the record before he realized that Social Security was going to be a defining issue — and basically inoculated all his opponents. Sounds like a pretty direct hit on Romney. But it’s also a pretty convoluted point.