I'm hoping for a fist fight.

And from the Pew Poll -
Bush fell more than 10% among Republicans...

And how are there still people in this country who have not heard of Barack Obama?

Just want to pimp my diary here (look in the recent diaries and give me some feedback), predicting LandStater will get the fight he wants without the fists (since Rudy will be between McCain and Romney).

Gotta love CNN for putting "Rudy McRomney" together in the center so the other candidates can just point that way.

One thing I forgot to include in my preview: the idiot Wolf may well bring up evolution again since Brownback seemed to think it necessary to pen an entire op ed on it.

About the Pew Poll: It's interesting that Gore gets the most support from "seculars" (little church attendance), while Obama gets the most support of "liberals".

Will have a liveblog at DebateScoop if any want to join.

Debate is at 7pm.

How do you spell Shadenfreude?

Rooting for Ron Paul, here!  

I wonder what kind of shadow that Thompson will cast over tonight's debate now that it seems to be clear he is running (just not quite yet).

I think Guiliani's scare tatics are winning the first question - with repub voters.

The only shadow Fred Thompson will cast across the debate is to help Tommy Thompson a little in the polls, when people get confused and think they are the same guy.

It's interesting that most of them are talking about  the conditions in which they would leave Iraq. The Overton window is shifting...

What a sorry field. There's no doubt in my mind that Hillary Clinton will beat any of those old, exhausting old men.

Compared to this horrible field, Hillary Clinton's performance was even more impressive.

McCain saying Fort Dix was a threat to our safety with regard to immigration.

What are sorry field.  Hillary is the only one that could lose to any of these guys.

Btw.  Ron Paul has spoken twice and gotten a fair amount of applause both times.

He is not the BEST, but he is the best on the stage,

i think a lot of you are underestimating this field - there are some legit candidates up there that, regardless of what we think, are very very attractive to a lot of americans.

I believe that Joseph Smith found some spectacles and read some golden tablets.  Where was that Romney?

Poor Giuiali is totally ignored by Wolf.

I think Paul is doing really well

is anyone doing a dodd squad style clock for debate speaking time?

mccain is dominating

there goes the youth vote

he's a very resonable man. His stance on illegal immigrants is very postitive as well. He's just got a great heart.

than the Dem field. Not on policy for sure, but there are quite many forceful white men on stage right now. At least 4 or 5 of them would perform well against a Democrat. Among the Democrats I only think that there are 3 good candidates.

go ron paul

The persuasive arguments in this thread are just staggering.  Turns out that a half dozen candidates are the only ones who can win. Why? "because"

Giuliani's answer on healthcare was absurd.

Somehow, presumably by wishing really hard, we'll give everybody 15 grand (probably in a brown paper bag), or the socialists will eat your baby.

Also, where the hell are all these 'The market works' answers coming from? Isn't the whole point that it doesn't here?

Clearly Tancredo's never heard of Canada.

And he knows nothing about the English language. It's the product of bilingualism.

I think McCain has now taken over...he is doing really well.

You know, the talk clock makes them all look like the Pez dispenser collection from hell.

Apparently Huckabee's family was literally crushed by a rogue tax code.

Is anyone else's CNN feed fading in and out, at least the audio?  It is maddening.... stupid Comcast...

Duncan Hunter: Screw the moderates! We want to lose massively! Ted Kennedy's coming to take your guns!

Giuliani: Rubbish! Republicans agree on three things: we all hate Muslims, socialism and medicine!

Brownback's going to get rid of cancer deaths in ten years? Did I hear that correctly (I'm barely paying attention)

That's got to be the most absurd campaign promise ever.

I liked the interesting flow of responses on the question: biggest moral issue facing the US.

Huckabee: pro-life - this does not end at birth, but includes all life
Guliani: we need to expand our values to other countries
Paul: we need to end our support for pre-emptive war against other countries (i.e. causing the destruction of life beyond birth) and stop considering attacking a country that has done nothing against us.

Certainly some inconsistencies in collective logic there.

For a brief moment, I feel bad for McCain.  Relative to his main competition (Rudy, Romney) he tries to actually be principled, which was certainly on display tonight when the immigration bill was being discussed and he was attacked by everyone.  Surely he knew this when supporting the bill, yet did it anyway.  Several of the applause lines he got were well-deserved.

But then I also remember how much he shilled for Bush, kissed arse to the religious right, etc., and I no longer feel bad for the guy.  

An open question... if you KNEW that the Republican nominee would win the general election, and you could NOT pick Ron Paul, whom would you pick?

I don't like the way the CNN debates are giving most of the time to the top tier candidates.

Just as telling.... that even 1% don't know who HILLARY CLINTON is! Wow.

I wish the reality were different, but the top tier candidates are the ones most likely to be nominated, thus we need to hear more from them.

A) We don't need CNN to decide who the top tier candidates are.

B) Of course if you get the most air time you increase your odds of becoming more popular, given that all of your fellows are essentially equally reprehensible in their own ways.

C) The Time Clock only highlights why the Democrats, if they were smart, should run their own debates, tell the media to cover them if you want, buy infomercial time or whatever, and have some non media whores to moderate the thing to ensure fairness, balance, and education.

D) Having a useless talking beard like Blitzer suck up all of that time for himself, about 20 percent of the total time, only highlights what a monumental waste of time that debate was, even given that it was a bunch of Republicans talking.

E) Dems, got anything to say, or do you enjoy wasting, and I mean wasting, your precious time and money on the big media corporations and their nasty little frontmen?