Herman Cain has a new line on the electrocution approach to border enforcement: That was just a joke. But a joke about a real policy I actually want to enforce. Watch.

A week ago I noted that little more than a month after Washington’s collective deficit-busting trainwreck the national conversation seemed to have shifted dramatically. The deficit super-committee itself still drives forward toward likely failure. But the relative lack of press attention to its work is actually quite striking, given how soon it will have to report and the massive power it potentially wields over decades of the American future.

It first dawned on me when I saw that whatever else it has accomplished, the president’s never-ending jobs bill tour really has changed the national political conversation. The bill hasn’t passed. But the White House couldn’t have had any illusions that congressional Republicans would pass anything. It’s also had no discernible impact yet on the president’s job approval. But the fulcrum of the debate has changed. And you know that’s happened when Speaker Boehner starts defensively piping up that they’re all over the jobs issue too. Read More

MTV’s ‘Real World’ wants to cast Occupy Wall Street protestors.

Psyched DNC slams Romney’s foreclosure comments as “appalling”.

We’ll be here covering tonight’s GOP primary debate from Vegas. Stick around and get Josh’s liveblogging here and ongoing coverage at the TPM Livewire. The debate starts at 8 p.m. ET. See you then.

7:59 PM: Okay, if Rick Perry doesn’t finally get all Deliverance on Mitt Romney, I’m just going to stop tuning in. C’mon. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

8:02 PM: I truly pity whoever had to write these awful intro bios for the candidates …. ‘And Rick Santorum, the guy we couldn’t think of a tagline for’.

8:04 PM: I’m waiting to see where we are at the 30 minute mark to see whether I keep shortinng Library of Herman Cain stock on the Asian markets.

8:10 PM: Oooooohhhh … Is Perry bringing his Mitt-stumping A-game today. Hopefully he can get it in in the next 15 minutes before he falls asleep.

8:11 PM: Curious to see Bachmann rebranding herself as a “jobs creator”.

8:13 PM: It’s going to be weird watching people actually asking Herman Cain serious questions

8:14 PM: Just went to HermanCain.com. It’s crashed. Awesome. Ready for the big time. Anyone have any idea what “fiscal associates” Cain is talking about? I wasn’t clear whether that’s a consulting firm he’s referring to or just like “some fiscal guys.”

8:17 PM: Bye Herman.

8:17 PM: Think that Carney guy finally gave Rick the Red Bull.

8:20 PM: I think Herman Cain just went from one word — 999 to three words, 999, Apple, Orange.

8:26 PM: That was really quite a tear from Rick Perry. But there was a moment there when the camera was showing Perry from the side with Romney looking on and Mitt had this look on his face like: “Too late, Rick. Too late.”

8:31 PM: It’s a testament to how bad his opponents are that Romney can take so many fairly contradictory positions on Romneycare all at the same time. I did it in Massachusetts because that’s place is kind of weird. But it would be terrible in America as a whole. And everyone likes it in Massachusetts because it’s awesome.

Perry challenges Cain to tax plan duel: “I’ll bump plans with you, Brother!” Watch.

8:42 PM: Okay now we’re talking. This is my kind of debate. Mitt’s contempt-drenched laugh in Perry’s face. Romney’s putting his hands on Perry’s body. And then it got really fun. Wow. Thoughts?

8:45 PM: Okay, I’m just going from what I heard here. But I think Mitt just said “Hey, I’m running for office. I can’t have illegals working for me.” Again, we’ll get the corrected quote in a moment. But isn’t that kind of a funny statement. Like, not ‘Hey, that’s wrong. I won’t stand for that.” But, jeez, I’m running for office. This’ll kill me. Get rid of those folks.

Here’s the actual transcript …

So we went to the company and we said, look, you can’t have any illegals working on our property. I’m running for office, for pete’s sake, we can’t have illegals. Turns out that once question they hired someone who had falsified their documents and therefore we fired them.

I think that quote is going to have some life.

Late Update: Here’s the video.