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.”
Okay, let’s get ready to ruuuuuummmmmmbllllllllllle. Either that or watch this debate. One or the other.
8:58 PM: Watching these three Fox commentators who are probably about 205 between the three of them. And a woman about old enough to be their daughter. Welcome to Fox News.
9:01 PM: It’s kind of weird to think that Newt is still running for president.
9:19 PM: Wow, Bachmann launches monologue attack.
9:21 PM: I’ll give Pawlenty credit. He decided to go down fighting. The truth is that from her Minnesota days there are so many stories about crazy stuff she did. And those are the stories the Republicans tell. But he just can’t quite go there. That said, he did basically call Bachmann a liar. But Bachmann, crazy as she is and as many false claims she makes, was just on fire. Just rattling off all her red meat.
9:25 PM: What was your sense of how that fight between Bachmann and Pawlenty played on TV? Send us emails at our comments email address up at the upper right.
9:27 PM: Always challenging to ask Newt a challenging question since his response is always to go completely nuclear and up the ante and basically go crazy.
9:31 PM: I must say Huntsman sounded pretty good.
9:33 PM: If Huntsman was the nominee he could give Obama a really tough race, at least among middle of the road people. Lucky for Obama there’s basically no chance that’s going to happen.
We’ll have complete coverage of tonight’s GOP presidential debate in Ames, Iowa, which gets underway at 9 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, here’s what to watch for.
Nancy Pelosi has announced her picks for the debt super-committee. Here’s what you need to know.
This morning DARPA launched its second hypersonic Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2,) and promptly lost contact with it.
Probably not the way he wanted that to come out. Romney tells Iowa audience: “Corporations are people, my friend.” Watch. Read More
The solar power industry says they’re now creating more jobs for the energy produced than any other energy source in the USA. And two new studies seem to back them up.