LIVE FROM AMES!

Posted on | August 11, 2011 | 15 Comments

9 p.m. ET: THE DEBATE BEGINS!

9:03 p.m. ET: First question for Bachmann, who shovels out the red meat: “Send a message to Obama . . . one-term president!”

9:05 p.m. ET: Romney hits his talking points, gets a tough follow-up from Brett Baier.

9:08 p.m. ET: Question for Ron Paul. “Restore sound money.”

9:09 p.m. ET: Question for Herman Cain. “Make the tax rates permanent. . . . I represent growth. . . . Bring certainty back into the economy.” He gets applause.

9:10 p.m. ET: Jon Huntsman, asterisk.

9:11 p.m. ET: Newt Gingrich teaches a history lesson.

9:13 p.m. ET: Tim Pawlenty offers to come to your house and cook you dinner.

9:14 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum mentions that he’s traveled to 68 counties in Iowa. Also, he wants to cut taxes.

9:16 p.m. ET: Tough question from Chris Wallace to Tim Pawlenty about his dissing of Michele Bachmann. “In Congress, her record of accomplishments and results is non-existent.” Ouch. Wait ’til she fires back.

9:18 p.m. ET: Bachmann hits him with “cap-and-trade,” etc. Cheers from the crowd.

9:19 p.m. ET: She doubles down on her comparison of T-Paw to Obama. She’s a fighter, who fights, fights, fights.

9:20 p.m. ET: Pawlenty doubles down. Groans from the crowd.

9:21 p.m. ET: Bachmann goes back — fight! fight! fight!

9:22 p.m. ET: Chris Wallace hits Mitt Romney with a tough question on his business record and his record as governor of Massachusetts. Mitt looks really handsome, doesn’t he?

Commercial break. Ahhhh . . .

9:27 p.m. ET: Chris Wallace asks Gingrich about his campaign problems. Gingrich compares himself to Ronald Reagan. Accuses Wallace of “gotcha” questions, “playing Mickey Mouse games.”

9:29 p.m. ET: Question for Jon “Asterisk” Huntsman. He talks about how wonderful his record is in Utah.

9:31 p.m. ET: “Gotcha” questions for Herman Cain. Gets cheers for saying “Sharia law doesn’t belong in the courts of the United States of America.”

9:33 p.m. ET: Susan Ferrichio asks a question of Governor Asterisk, who says . . . eh, something.

9:34 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney talks immigration. He wants “the best and brightest” to be admitted as immigrants.

9:35 p.m. ET: Herman Cain: “America’s got to learn how to take a joke.” Applause. He talks immigration — more applause.

9:37 p.m. ET: Gingrich slams Obama on immigration. Gets applause.

9:38 p.m. ET: Ron Paul goes off on a tangent about Iraq and Afghanistan.

9:40 p.m. ET: Now Byron York asks Romney about Standard & Poor’s and taxes. Mitt fields it pretty well. “We cut spending . . . balanced the budget . . . leadership.”

9:41 p.m. ET: Pawlenty touts his rating as governor by the Cato Institute. Expresses regret for taxes on cigarettes.

9:42 p.m. ET: Bachmann asked about her vote for cigarette taxes, uses it to accuse Pawlenty of “cut[ting] a deal with special interests.”

9:44 p.m. ET: More back and forth — Pawlenty vs. Bachmann. Pawlenty says Bachmann’s answer is “illogical” — Governor Spock!

9:46 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum jokes about how little time he’s getting on TV. It’s not actually a joke, because so much of the debate is being chewed up by Romney, Pawlenty and Bachmann.

9:49 p.m. ET: Newt Gingrich draws applause for trashing the debt-ceiling bill and its “super commission.”

9:50 p.m. ET: Now Chris Wallace tries to stir up bad mojo between Pawlenty and Romney, using T-Paw’s “ObamneyCare” quote.

9:51 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney invokes the 10th Amendment. You’ll never go wrong in a GOP debate that way.

9:53 p.m. ET: More TV time for Mitt. Notice that Santorum doesn’t get these kind of question-and-follow-up deals.

CRAP: THE POWER UNIT ON MY COMPUTER HAS GONE BAD!

10:44 p.m. ET: I’m back from Wal-Mart, where I bought a new power unit for $74. Good Lord, what a nightmare.

10:50 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum is very good.

10:51 p.m. ET: Commercial break. While I was coming back from Wal-Mart, I had a phone conversation with Jimmie Bise Jr., who pointed out that, once again, when T-Paw had a chance to go after Romney head-to-head, he pulled his punches. But no such deference toward Bachmann. Also, Byron York got booed for asking a question about biblical “submission.” In general, I think Bachmann got the better of it, and T-Paw looks weak.

* * * PREVIOUSLY * * *

The National Affairs Desk, 5 p.m. CT

AMES, Iowa
Greetings from the Hilton Coliseum at Iowa State University, media headquarters for tonight’s critical pivotal crucial world-historic debate between eight candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.

The tension here is palpable, and the greatest fear of the assembled masses of media — some 700 of whom have been credentialed for this gigantic enormous cosmos-enveloping event — is that no words can possibly describe how hype-worthy it is.

But we’ll try our best, doggone it.

UPDATE: A couple more photos from the scene:

Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller toils diligently, determined not to be scooped by the other 699 reporters covering this spectacular cataclysmic apocalyptic occasion.

Michael Barone told me he was very impressed by how Michele Bachmann manages to be so upbeat and optimistic while pronouncing gloom and doom.

UPDATE II: Paulistas gotta “represent the man”:

UPDATE III: More photos:

Gwen Ifill of PBS interviews . . . somebody important, I guess.

Rep. Steve King gives a pre-debate interview to Shira Toeplitz of Roll Call.

Jon Ward of the Huffington Post and Dave Weigel of Slate.

Ed Morrissey and Tina Korbe of Hot Air with Tony Katz of PJM.

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