Tonight is the 18th GOP presidential debate of the 2012 cycle, and first in which Mitt Romney is likely to go ont he attack against Newt Gingrich. Watch live.
9:02 PM: Fight Club.
9:04 PM: About as good an answer as Newt could give to that question. In fairness to Newt, that was at least the trigger for Newt leaving the Speakership — he took the hit for losing the 1998 mid-term election.
9:06 PM: “resigned in disgrace” … “influence peddler” … Now we’re talking.
9:08 PM: Okay, don’t think this debate is going to disappoint.
9:10 PM: Can’t believe Newt’s going with the historian line. That said, Mitt give Newt an opening by conflating the ethics thing and Gingrich’s resignation a couple years later. Not actually related.
9:13 PM: I haven’t seen it that much remarked about how Santorum is now running consistently to the left of the other candidates on economic issues. Not really in substance in policy terms. And it doesn’t take much with this set of candidates. But still, clearly a considered decision.
Get the very latest updates on tonight’s debate at TPMLiveWire — the quotes, the video, everything.
9:19 PM: Only a few minutes in, but man, Newt’s on his game tonight. Even seems lighter on his feet somehow. Romney’s certainly on message too, consistently. But he hasn’t really landed a punch.
9:21 PM: This is really brilliant maneuver on Newt’s part, managing to whack Mitt on 15% and somehow sort of do it from the right.
9:23 PM: It was an interesting thing when Mitt pointed out that under Newt’s plan he’d have paid 0% rather than 15%. Good point. But just not one Mitt can do anything with. It’s basically saying heck with Newt’s policy my rate would be even more ridiculous than it is now! That doesn’t work.
9:28 PM: Okay, I think Mitt’s got his ducks in a row on ‘historian’.
9:30 PM: Entities!!!!
9:30 PM: Mitt’s finally getting under Newt’s skin. Reminds me of Mitt’s glory days decapitating Rick Perry.
Mitt finally got under Newt’s skin there toward the end of that lengthy exchange. A few times he seemed almost at a loss for words. That said, he came back with some strong lines. My biggest take from the first half hour is that both of these guys are really on their games tonight. And they should be. Everything is on the line.
9:45 PM: Looking at that thought bubble over Newt’s head: “Brian, dude, gimme something to work with!!!”
9:48 PM: Looks like Mitt’s dancing to a different drummer on housing foreclosures?
9:52 PM: Just a short time out for the real world. The Israelis asked the US to delay the military exercises with Israel.
10:03 PM: I feel like Newt felt this was almost the chance for raging at the moderator with Beth Reinhard. But even he knew there just wasn’t enough there.
10:09 PM: Mitt’s policy is to let people “self-deport”? “If people don’t have a card and through a system determine they are here illegally they will find they can’t get work here. If they can’t get work they will self-deport to where they can get work.”
Newt’s biggest problem so far: no questioner has given him the chance for the big finger-pointing moment.
From TPM Reader MF …
Despite this being a close debate, I don’t think it’s going well for Newt even if he still looks pretty good. Newt needs to run roughshod over the debates or his balloon deflates pretty quickly. His whole surge is predicated on the notion that he’s going to tell Obama he’s a foreign Muslim Communist to his face, so doing OK isn’t really going to cut it for him. In that sense Romney has an ongoing advantage even if he’s never going to look as self-satisfied as Gingrich does up there. Mitt just needs to expose a few chinks in the armor.