Tonight's the third Republican presidential debate in the 2012 nominating contest, this time from Ames, Iowa. Join in the live commentary and discussion here on Daily Kos while you watch it live on
Fox News Channel GOP TV or
on the web.
6:33 PM PT: Wallace asks Herman Cain if he knows enough to be president and about his statement that it should be possible to ban the construction of mosques in America. Cain, like Gingrich, accuses Wallace of being a liberal, basically saying that Wallace had conspired with Think Progress to ask that question.
6:34 PM PT: Huntsman is asked about immigration, which he has at times taken a pro-reform position on. While that's true, he also signed an extreme anti-immigrant bill in Utah in 2008, but he doesn't mention that in his answer, instead focusing on securing the border, and calling himself a conservative problem solver.
6:39 PM PT: Romney says he wants the "best and the brightest metered into the country." And he wants America's "employment community" to determine how relaxed that meter is. Herman Cain is up next, saying he wants "high fences and wide open doors." Newt Gingrich suggests that we should local councils decide who can stay in the country. Ron Paul says he opposes E-Verify because he doesn't believe it should be the responsibility of private companies to police our borders. He says he can't understand why we pay more attention to borders in Afghanistan than borders in the United States. Just to make sure Republicans know he's conservative, he says he opposes giving entitlements to immigrants.
6:46 PM PT: Tax time! Byron York asks Mitt Romney about having used tax hikes in Massachusetts to win a credit rating upgrade from S&P. Romney sidesteps around the question completely, saying he'd never even tax an ant. Pawlenty admits he raised cigarette taxes, but says it's okay because he presided over a government shutdown. Follow-up question is to Bachmann, who voted for that tax increase. She says she voted for it because the same bill also including pro-life provisions, accusing Pawlenty of basically forcing her to vote for it to protect life. Pawlenty says her answer was illogical, but I think he just didn't understand what he said. Santorum gets another question.
6:48 PM PT: Rick Santorum says you can't insist on getting everything you want, that you need to compromise. Then he's asked if he would consider raising taxes. Absolutely not, he says. No way whatsoever.