For rapid, running updates from the debate, go right to TPMLivewire.

8:58 PM: I think we have to face the reality that with Rick Perry remaining lucid and not forgetting where he is, the entertainment value of these debates really goes off a cliff.

9:03 PM: Curious what others are seeing. But the online-only portion of this debate (online only in most of the country) is almost unwatchable. I would have thought CBS would have been more up to the challenge. For what it’s worth, I’m getting a somewhat better feed on National Journal than at CBS. Big fail for CBS. Our reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro is down on the ground in South Carolina. So if CBS can’t manage the webcast technology, he’ll give us the gist when this is over.

9:14 PM: Pretty predictable exchange over constitutionality of targeted assassinations of US citizens abroad — and Michele Bachmann didn’t realize there was an issue tied to US citizenship.

Bachmann notes that in China they don’t have foodstamps.

Yet another discomfiting moment in which Rick Santorum is far and away the most lucid and knowledgable person on foreign policy.

A lot less excitement came out of this debate than many of the recent ones. It’s a bit hard for me to say what of great consequence came out of it. With one exception: Rick Perry avoided any major stumble or embarrassment (yep, a pretty low bar but that’s where we are) and even managed, oddly enough, to get the rest of the candidate’s following him on the foreign aid/start at zero idea. Read More

The Bachmann campaign has just sent out a press blast that will surely get everybody in an uproar. CBS’s just hired political director, John Dickerson, wrote an email — apparently to CBS colleagues — noting that Bachmann probably wouldn’t get many questions tonight since she’s basically tanked in the polls. That’s not terribly surprising — also-ran candidates typically get less mic time in a multi-candidate debate. Except Dickerson inadvertently CC’d Bachmann’s communications director. Big mistake. The Bachmann campaign has now released the email to the press. More shortly.

Late Update: Bachmann Headline: CBS guy just focusing on our flat-lining in the polls.

Latter Update: For some context, the TPM Poll Average puts Bachmann currently at 3.2% support nationwide among Republicans. So she’s creeping up on Gary Johnson territory. And well into Santorum-ville.

SC GOP Executive Director Matt Moore just told our Evan McMorris-Santoro: “The SCGOP had no input on how questions were developed or to whom they were addressed. Congresswoman Bachmann seemed to receive a fair number questions, and had ample opportunities to answer.”

And the SCGOP was the official debate cosponsor.

Today is TPM’s 11th anniversary online.

(You can see the first page of posts here and the very first post here — of course, updated into the new format.) How long have you been reading TPM? Let us know about your best memories or favorite posts over the years.

For myself, as I wrote on our 10th anniversary last year, simply, thank you. You — especially our most dedicated readers — have made it possible for us to build this organization over more than a decade, with much more to come.

An anti-‘vote fraud’ Tea Party group, with a spin off group organizing poll watches nationwide next year, is hosting a Texas event for Matthew Vadum, the guy who doesn’t think poor people should be voting at all, at least it should be made as hard as possible. It’s a bold move since most anti-‘vote fraud’ outfits go with the pretense that their aim is simply to make sure there’s no fraudulent voting. But Vadum’s appearance makes clear that both sides of the ‘vote fraud’ story seem to know what the score is.

Supreme Court announces it will take up the health care reform law. Decision expected next summer.

The Justice Department was pushing for Supreme Court to take up the case. The White House wanted a decision during the summer of 2012 so the impact of the decision, either way, settles out before Election Day.

Late Update: A quick and handy summary by Adam Liptak of which questions the Supreme Court agreed to take up.