Perry calls out Romney for acting “middle class” in advance of debate showdown.
No more living on easy street for death row inmates. Texas abolishes ‘last meal’ requests for death row inmates.
9:08 PM: I think Michele Bachmann just said there should be no taxes at all; and then seemed to say okay, fine, we need taxes.
9:11 PM: Santorum: Let’s have a federal ban on public sector unions.
9:17 PM: Romney seemed to come into this debate with a bit more swagger.
9:19 PM: The effort to make Google relevant to this debate and make the debate interactive. They actually did an online poll. Next up after the commercial, we’re going to be introduced to the ‘word cloud’.
9:26 PM: And now we’re to Social Security.
9:26 PM: Okay, Perry’s answer on Social Security just ain’t gonna hold up. That’s not how state opt-out works. Or at least it’s a great exaggeration. And it’s not what Perry said in the book.
9:29 PM: I’m curious how it will play. But Romney’s just running circles around Perry. He’s a very different candidate than he was four years ago, let alone back in ’94 when he ran against Ted Kennedy. Tight, on message.
9:32 PM: I think it’s a unique aspect of a Fox debate that the majority of Americans becomes a whipping boy of sorts … We know that the 66% of Americans who are frigging freaks say we should raise taxes on millionaires. Do you agree with those freaks?
9:35 PM: Why did I have to wait this long for Newt’s first, “Wow, that’s a stupid question” answer.
Follow every last quote and detail and video from the debate live at TPMLivewire.
9:43 PM: I think Romney may have some problems with that answer. Also, Romney says class size doesn’t matter and is just a scam by teachers. Does anyone believe that? I don’t think any actual parent buys that.
9:54 PM: Santorum and the rest making Perry sound remarkable sane on building a 1200 mile stone wall across the US-Mexican border.
9:55 PM: Paul just kind of went squirrelly on his earlier answer about when America descends into Anarchy and FEMA sets up concentration camps and we have to flee to Mexico with our gold ingots.
9:57 PM: I think this debate is setting back the information visualization revolution by about 75 years.
Relive the moment when Michele Bachmann said you should actually pay no taxes at all.
10:15 PM: Bachmann seems remarkably less coherent than she was in the earlier debates. That’s not snark. She was very clear and on message in the first debate. Not anymore.
10:17 PM: Santorum says sex not an issue in the military. Ergo let’s bring back DADT … I think he also said gays and straights should stay in the closet.
10:22 PM: I didn’t realize Cain had had Stage IV Liver and Colon cancer. That’s a big deal to have survived something like that. But sad and a little sick he’s saying that government bureaucrats would have interrupted his care. Just sad.
10:26 PM: Total dodge by Bachmann on the HPV story — she didn’t say it. The woman who told her the story said it. Not her problem.
10:29 PM: Brilliantly incoherent answer from Perry on health care insurance levels — so meandering and weird that it’s hard to remember what the question was.
Audience members at Fox News/Google debate boo gay soldier. Watch.
10:37 PM: That was a really weird encounter between Perry and Romney on who’s the biggest flip-flopper. I mean, this should be one you can just hit right out of the park for anyone running against Romney. And Perry was clearly prepped with a series of attack lines. But he stumbled over them like you’d woken him up in the middle of the night. Or maybe he was a punch drunk heavyweight at the end of the 14th round. Then Romney comes in — an amazing flip-flopper if there ever was one — and manages to just run circles around Perry. It was almost sad. Romney was on fire. And yet, Perry’s clearly this audience’s guy. He’s got the positions they like. Romney basically doesn’t. He says he does. But people don’t really buy that. So how far does the complete debate mastery go?
Definitely the best moment of the debate: when Gov. Perry said he would make Herman Cain mate with Newt Gingrich.