Official Discussion Thread for Tonight's GOP Presidential Debate

[Likely Voter]

As he gets to sit down, maybe Perry will remain awake in the second hour

[Likely Voter]

Dartmouth has apparently taken action to prevent inappropriate audience behavior.

how? Are the seats rigged with electrodes? Posted teams with tasers?

[Likely Voter]

The message so far is: Business & Wall Street can do no wrong ever. All problems are the sole responsibility of Dems (but not republicans) working for Fed gov and the Fed Reserve.

[Likely Voter]

Huntsman actually lands a joke...a debate first!

[Likely Voter]

Bachmann talks more conspiracies than the X Files

[Likely Voter]

Did Perry fall asleep again? He has only had 1 or 2 questions so far

[Likely Voter]

why ask Ron Paul a question like "would you get the federal government out of ______" Of course he will say yes

[Likely Voter]

Perry: Um, uh, um, uh, um,

[Likely Voter]

999 clearly moves the tax burden down. If you are poor you would be totally screwed.

[Likely Voter]

Wow, did Perry just promise to have a Presidency without any policies? He will just will jobs into existence?

[Likely Voter]

For hour 1 I would say everyone is doing well but Cain and Romney are winning because no one else has hurt them or shined.

[Likely Voter]

summarizing who asked what in first round
Bachmann   Perry - Gore support/TX debt
Cain      Romney - 57 point plan not simple
Gingrich   Romney - Middle class tax cuts
Huntsman   Romney - Bain Capital firings
Paul      Cain - Auditing Fed
Perry      Romney - Romneycare=Obamacare
Romney      Bachmann - jobs plan
Santorum   Cain - TARP/999

[Likely Voter]

Best guess: Romney serves up a softball to Bachmann to give her another chance to pull some votes away from Cain, leaving Romney to win Iowa.

Exactly. Romney needs all the others to stay in it as long as possible, but without any one of them getting to big.

[Likely Voter]

Perry's strategy: stay on point and don't get flapped.

Not brilliant, but serviceable. Would have worked much better if he'd played it that way from the start.

If Perry had this generic not blowout but not stumbling performance in the other debates he would still be frontrunner

[Likely Voter]

I'm getting a little sick of the 9-9-9 refrain. Like the 9/11 refrain, it'll get you a solid look, but won't get you to the goal line. We need more.

Exactly. To remain a leading contender, Cain needs more than 999.

maybe he will add a 9...9999!

The last 9 will be for 9 free pizzas/year for anyone who hires new workers

[Likely Voter]

Rick Perry was good on that question. Of course what he said was just platitudes and fact-less, but when has that ever hurt?

[Likely Voter]

what is that guy yelling?

[Likely Voter]

They are comparing their humble roots. Lets see Romney jump into that one

[Likely Voter]

They just "fact checked" the 999 plan, and said it comes up with "only" 2 Trillion. only 200 Billion less than current revenue? that's a lot closer to target than I thought.

CNN says it brings in $1.768T.

Cain needs to show how his plan actually adds up instead of just saying his secret group of economists say so so we should trust them. And the one economist that Cain says analyzed his plan is actually not an economist, but a "wealth manager" for Wells Fargo.