Update: Brett Baier is the host. He noted Pawlenty served two full terms as governor. Normally you don't have to point out when governors complete their terms but I guess that makes sense for the GOP.
Update: Baier clearly wants to keep the debate focused on President Obama, not the candidates. Each of the first two questions about have been about Obama. BTW, Santorum is the first one to credit Bush for getting Bin Laden, though Pawlenty said it was something that should be investigated. It wasn't until the third question, for Ron Paul, that a question not directly having to do with Obama was asked.
Update: Ron Paul says he wants out of Afghanistan. Paulbots applaud. Herman Cain says it's not clear what the mission is in Afghanistan. Pressed by Baier to explain what he think the goal is, Cain says he'd have his experts make the decision. And he stopped mid-sentence when his buzzer went off. Gary Johnson says he is against Afghanistan, so now we have 2 of 3 candidates to speak about Afghanistan to explicitly oppose it, and one who said he has no clue why we are there, though maybe he'd stay.
Update: Rick Santorum stands by his claim that Islam is fundamentally predisposed to violent extremism, but says he isn't anti-Islam. (Does that mean he's not against violent extremism?) Really, Santorum is a disgrace to the human mind.
Update: Hahaha, there's an empty seat in the third row behind Chris Wallace. So it's not just candidates who don't want to attend.
Update: Three of the five candidates say they'd resume waterboarding. Ron Paul and Gary Johnson are the two that don't. Paul is really fun to listen to on foreign policy issues. He won't be as fun on domestic policy.
Update: Gary Johnson's economic plan: abolish the corporate income tax. "It will literally create tens of millions of jobs overnight," he says.
Update: Juan Williams wants to know if Tim Pawlenty supports any sort of job creation measure besides tax cuts. He points to the NLRB action with respect to Boeing, a big issue in South Carolina. Other than that, he doesn't have anything to say, but it played well with the local crowd.
Update: Herman Cain is an idiot. He believes we have enough fossil fuel inside the U.S. to fuel our economy without relying on any other country. I mean, that may be the stupidest thing said so far tonight.
Update: Pawlenty passes on a chance to take a direct shot at Romney on RomneyCare, saying he won't attack Romney because Romney isn't at the debate to defend himself. Oh, that's going to be a lot of fun when he's actually forced to defend it at a debate.
Update: And there's a commercial break. Is it just me or are these guys incredibly lame and boring? And didn't Pawlenty miss a chance to make headlines by nailing Romney? I'm not sure what his thinking is on not going after him. Seems sort of wimpy to me.
Update: Chris Wallace basically asks Rick Santorum why is a raving lunatic (conditioning a debt ceiling increase on repeal of health care reform, and turning Medicare into a voucher program immediately). Santorum, who voted for prescription drug coverage for Medicare, says blocking health care reform is the single most important item on the conservative agenda and that the fate of America depends on its repeal. In other words, he doesn't care that Chris Wallace thinks he's crazy.
Update: Ron Paul wants to go back on the gold standard.
Update: This format is really stupid. Each candidate is asked a different question, and there's no opportunity for the candidates to interact with each other. Maybe that'll change in the rest of the debate, but so far, there's no sign of it.
Update: As Barb just pointed out to me, that's probably the plan. (To avoid having the candidates interact with each other.) These guys are a bunch of jokes. Ron Paul is serious about his ideas, but he's not a serious candidate. Gary Johnson is somewhat like Paul in ideology, but is nowhere near as articulate or charismatic. Santorum and Cain are just jokes. And Tim Pawlenty doesn't really have anything to say.
Update: Gary Johnson, a former border state governor, takes a pro-immigration position immediately after Rick Santorum tells a story about how his grandma didn't speak English but that his dad wouldn't teach him Italian.
Update: Pawlenty's big idea. Invade Libya! Kill Qaddafi! (Does he remember that it was George W. Bush, whose foreign policy he was praising earlier, that made peace with Qaddafi in 2008?)
Update: Rick Santorum thinks Obama is weak with respect to Pakistan. Apparently he hasn't been following the news. He says we need to tell Pakistan they are with us or against us. And then he brags about how much he supported Pakistan while in the senate. So I guess that means he supported a country that he thinks was trying to attack America? And he thinks that's worth bragging about?
This is thread #2.
Update: TV schedule says this debate will go on for another half-hour.
Update: Paul says the federal government shouldn't have the right to impose views about same-sex marriage, but he's open to it at the state level.
Update: Cain defends calling it treasonous to not defend DOMA.
Update: Gary Johnson says he supports reproductive freedom up to viability.
Update: Santorum with the most passionate line of the night: Says anyone who believes conservatives should call a truce on social issues doesn't understand what America is all about...proving, of course, that he doesn't understand what America is all about.
Update: Ron Paul says federal power should be used to empower businesses to avoid needing to deal with unions.
Update Juan Williams asks Pawlenty if he thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution. Pawlenty says he believes schools should be allowed to teach intelligent design, but quickly moves away from the topic. Williams presses Pawlenty to says what his personal views are on evolution versus creationism, but Pawlenty wouldn't say, instead saying it should up to local schools.
Update: Well, this got interesting. Chris Wallace played a video of Tim Pawlenty endorsing cap-and-trade to limit greenhouse gases. There was an audible gasp from the crowd. Pawlenty's basic response was that he was wrong to support cap and trade and that he's opposed it ever since supporting it.
Update: Every question they ask to Ron Paul seems designed to make sure that he doesn't gain a following with conservatives, because he is far and away the most articulate and interesting candidate on the stage.
Update: Gary Johnson calls bullshit on the war on drugs. Can't argue with him.
Update: Chris Wallace asks Herman Cain: "Why do you have any belief you stand a chance?" Cain: "The people of the United States are going to elect the person that I believe has the greatest amount of leadership strength." Uh, that "I believe"?
Update: John Boehner isn't watching this joke of a debate.
Update: If I could ask a question, I'd ask Tim Pawlenty why the hell he showed up for this debate. There's another commercial break. I'll give Fox this much: they sure do like making money.
Update: Fox News Sunday promo wonders what political fallout for Obama will be of bin Laden death. Dick Cheney will explain. Wheeee!
Update: Pawlenty is asked if Huckabee would put his campaign out of his business. Pawlenty said no. Ron Paul asked if Michele Bachmann has eclipsed him as a tea party leader. Paul says, "Well, she's not here tonight, so she hasn't quite done that." Santorum looks like he just saw some Santorum when Williams asked him if Gingrich's personal failing make him a hypocrite.
Update: Mercifully, the debate is now ending. Ron Paul says the budget is the defining issue of 2012 and returning to the gold standard is key. Herman Cain says we need economic growth and independence, and real proven Godfather's Pizza leadership is the way to do that. Pawlenty says it sucks that people think America is in decline. Of course, it's Republicans that are saying America is in decline. He gets in the URL: TimPawlenty.com. Rick Santorum says he's the most conservative badass mofo on the stage. He's got all the legs of the conservative stool! Gary Johnson says we're on the verge of collapse unless we immediately balance budget. He plugs GaryJohnson2012.com.
Update: Final thought: I want a rebate on this debate. And I still have no idea what Tim Pawlenty was doing there. And now Sean Hannity has the job of spinning it. Yawn. I'm going to see if the Mariners are on television.
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