Open thread: Tonight's debate (Updates)

PJTV is already on the air with live coverage of tonight’s GOP debate in New Hampshire and will carry the debate as well. You can mix and mingle and post your thoughts and reactions in the comments here. Handicap the debate — who has the most to gain or lose? Who should or shouldn’t be there? Is this Newt Gingrich’s last campaign hoorah? Will Michele Bachmann bring her beach reading to bear? Will Ron Paul blame America first? Will Herman Cain hit another grand slam? Will David Gergen be on all sides of all the issues? Will we remember any of tonight’s festivities six months from now?

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For my money, Romney has the most to lose, with T-Paw right behind him with the most to gain. Bachmann has a chance to prove she’s a serious candidate. What do you think?

More: By the way, Stephen Green is drunkblogging over on the PJ mother ship.

Update: Good opening statements from everyone but Newt, who seemed a bit lost. That’s what happens when your campaign fires you.

Update: I think Mitt’s winning this exchange on ObamaCare/ObamneyCare. T-Paw came off as dodging the question.

Update: Winners so far (in no particular order) — Romney, Cain, Bachmann.

Update: T-Paw, easy question but solid answer on right to work. Right to work is also Gingrich’s best moment so far — shrewd way of looking at states passing right to work to make themselves more competitive.

Update: Bachmann whiffs on the music question. Johnny Cash, of course.

Update: Who would’ve predicted that debating NASA would provide the most fireworks so far? Not me, and I spent a few years as a NASA contractor. I’m pretty sure, though not entirely sure, that Gingrich is wrong about the private sector getting more done over the past few decades if NASA was not “in the way.” NASA is bureaucratic, no question about that, but it’s also doing things that offer no immediate commercial benefit. The benefits have tended to come later and then been commercialized once entrepreneurs figured out the commercial potential of technology developed under NASA’s auspices.

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Update: Romney, excellent on government — it’s not what we should cut, but what we should keep. He should look into my sunset idea for federal agencies. It’s in his wheelhouse.

Update: Newt Gingrich is the Al Gore of this debate. Too much attention to obscure, inside baseball stuff.

Update: Cain is good, very good. That is all.

Update: Stephen Kruiser said during the last break on PJTV’s live coverage that Bachmann came to play. No kidding. She is exceeding my expectations on detail and delivery. She may end up getting the biggest gain of the night.

Update: Tony Katz and Stephen Kruiser are being very entertaining and thorough over on PJTV’s live coverage, much more real than what we get from the networks. And I’m not just saying that because they’re colleagues.

Update: Agree with Katz, the “This or That” stuff is pretty stupid. It reminds me of the commercial with the hamsters driving the car for some reason.

Update: Bachmann, excellent answer on not interfering in state laws and issues when asked an emotional trap question.

Update: Next time we get a “This or That” question, the candidate ought to pick the Kia Soul.

Update: After the break, we’ll get to foreign policy. Odds on whether Ron Paul stops making sense and starts sounding more than a bit off? High, I’d say.

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Update: Romney almost cost himself the nomination, until he caught his swapping “Taliban military” for the Afghan military. Could’ve been a Ford “there is no commie domination of Eastern Europe” moment.

Update: Paul — no military strikes in Yemen. Those strikes kill al Qaeda operatives. Paul would play live and let live with them, even after they’ve proven they will come here and kill us.

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