Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library – live

Rick Perry takes centre stage in the Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library. Follow the action live 7.22pm ET: I just asked my colleague Ewen Macaskill to sum up tonight’s debate in a word, and he said: “Tea.” 7.18pm ET: Who is missing tonight? Why Sarah Palin, the Gruffalo* of American politics. If you think Sarah Palin is still in the running – and she’s not, in any real sense, or even any unreal sense – then read this blast by Erick Erickson in RedState today: To paraphrase Ann [Coulter], a lot of us fell in love with Sarah Palin because of her enemies and a lot of us have fallen out of love with Sarah Palin because of her fans. For the past year, Palin fans have become an online fixture with more venom and insanity than the most rabid Ron Paul fan. They have not evangelized on behalf of Sarah Palin trying to lead people to Sarah Palin, they have freaked a lot of us out. I am at the point of fearing that should Palin not get in the race we’re going to have a Hale Bopp moment with many of her most ardent supporters. These people have become too emotionally invested in one person to discuss that person rationally or even to address serious policy concerns. Erickson’s post is entitled “Enough”. Which tells you everything. * There’s no such thing as a Gruffalo , don’t you know? 7.11pm ET: Speaking of stubbing your own tow repeatedly, yesterday I had root canal surgery. Tonight it’s the GOP debate. Which will be the more painful? At least with a root canal you get Novocaine. I guess there’s always booze. Welcome to our live coverage of the Republican presidential debate taking place tonight, with Texas governor Rick Perry making his first appearance as the cat set among a flock of political pigeons. Younger readers may not realise this but before his beatification Ronald Reagan was actually president of the United States, a fact commemorated by the beautiful presidential library built in his name in California, where tonight’s debate takes place. Tonight’s debate is notable for the debut of Perry on the national stage , and for being the first of three Republican debates that take place in the next two weeks – the next one being on 12 September and then another on 22 September. Presumably the Republican party has taken a leaf from the Discovery Channel’s schedule: it has Shark Week , the GOP has Debate Month. Like Shark Week, Debate Month will be a televised catalogue of horror, with blood in the water and the pack (of journalists) turning on and devouring the weakest members. So what do we have tonight? Aside from Perry there will be leading contender Mitt Romney, Tea Party favourite Michele Bachmann, the evergreen Ron Paul, and a supporting cast of bottom-feeders: Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, none of whom have a realistic chance of winning the nomination even if all the other candidates collectively resigned. For Perry the game plan is obvious: it’s his first outing so he needs to play it safe and avoid doing anything to frighten anyone, but also be prepared to bat away attacks from the likes of Santorum, who is desperate enough to get nasty. Romney needs to do a lot more work to regain the momentum his campaign has lost in recent weeks. Bachmann has also waned somewhat since Perry’s decision to run but in reality she remains a fringe candidate, hoping to use Iowa as a springboard. But with so many candidates on stage before NBC News’s cameras, the chances of an actual debate are slim: what is most likely is a battle of sound-bites as individual candidates struggle to make themselves heard among the babble. The debate kicks off at 8pm ET (that’s 5pm in California or 1am in the UK, for insomniac political junkies), and we’ll be live-blogging it all here, as well as on Twitter . And of course feel free to leave your comments below. In the meantime, here’s my colleage Ewen Macaskill’s preview of tonight’s showdown: The main focus of Wednesday night’s debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in the Simi Valley, near Los Angeles, will be on whether Texas governor Rick Perry, who only entered the race last month, can consolidate his frontrunner status. Tom Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, said: “It is interesting because of Rick Perry, and the fact that he has sky-rocketed to the lead in the Republican field without many people having a firm hold on him, just some impressions.” Want more? Why not “enjoy” our liveblog of the last Republican debate in Iowa – or achieve the same effect by stubbing your own toe, repeatedly. Republican presidential nomination 2012 Rick Perry Michele Bachmann Mitt Romney Republicans US elections 2012 California Ronald Reagan Jon Huntsman Ron Paul Newt Gingrich NBC US politics United States Richard Adams guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 7, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.