7:57 PM: I guess this is what happens when the debates get scheduled before any of candidates have any leverage vis a vis the media. 87 debates in … what? 2 months?

8:03 PM: It was genuinely bizarre to see CNN’s intro, which was taken over pretty much wholesale from the lead in from like The Bachelor or maybe The Apprentice.

8:07 PM: Not sure I remember ever seeing a debate start with the national anthem. But whatever, let’s throw out the first pitch.

8:14 PM: Perry’s big moment on Social Security … Mitt’s getting the better of this exchange.

8:19 PM: Perry had lines that went well with the audience. But I think Mitt got the better of that remark. Social Security is becoming for Perry what mandates have been for Romney. Just can’t thread the needle. Trying to walk it back just becomes a muddle.

8:22 PM: Earth to Huntsman: These folks don’t know who Kurt Cobain is.

8:23 PM: Now we’re back to the antics by the also rans. But the whole thing was that Romney/Perry exchange. That book is just a massive obstacle to Perry’s run. It’s filled with stuff like that. It’s written by someone who clearly wasn’t planning on running for president anytime soon. Probably ever. Now he’s stuck with it.

8:26 PM: I think you could pre-transcribe every Newt answer with the intro “Well, that’s a f—king stupid question. Here’s the deal.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) also used accountant Kinde Durkee as her campaign treasurer and now says that her campaign account was “wiped out,” too, in Durkee’s giant alleged embezzlement and commingling scheme that the feds are unraveling in California.

Shorter Rick Perry: Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie.” And I’m going to work my darnedest to make sure it’s there for future generations.

Our campaign reporter Benjy Sarlin reports from Anthony Weiner’s old district out in Queens on the latest out of New York’s 9th district.