REPUBLICAN RUMBLE
WATCH LIVE: GOP Contenders Face Off.. First Debate For Rick Perry Since Announcing Candidacy.. LIVE UPDATES

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ron Paul Wants To Eliminate Minimum Wage

Ron Paul said he would like to get rid of the minimum wage, a move he believes would create jobs.

"Absolutely," he said when asked whether it would stimulate job growth, "and it would help the poor, the people who need jobs. Minimum wage is a mandate. We're against mandates, so why should we have it? No, it would be very beneficial."

-- Amanda Terkel

Bachmann To Bring Down Gas Prices?

Michele Bachmann has promised to get gas down to $2 per gallon if she becomes president.

When asked if this pledge was realistic, Jon Huntsman replied, "Of course not." Mitt Romney also said he would not predict whether the $2 pledge was possible.

-- Amanda Terkel

Perry Debates With Guns Blazing

My sense from talking to Romney aides is that they did not expect Perry to come out of the gate as he did -- with guns blazing. Perry had not debated at all in his last gubernatorial re-election campaign. No one knew whether he could hold his own on a stage such as this one. So far he has shown himself to be very well schooled in the theatrical strategy and good on his talking points. He gazed directly at the camera at the appropriate time, when promising to create jobs; his movements on stage are textbook; word was that he had been preparing diligently for this moment with run-throughs and preps.

On one level Perry's decision to take a defensive whack at Ron Paul was a mistake. The frontrunner should never "punch down." But Perry and Co. have decided that he needs to answer every charge and show via his combatativveness that he is in control. Still, it was a mistake. Levave Paul alone.

-- Howard Fineman

Newt Attacks The Media

John Harris asks Newt Gingrich about the "genuine philosophical disagreement" between the health care policies of Mitt Romney in Massachusetts and Rick Perry in Texas. In the former, a mandate led to most of the state's residents getting insured. In the latter, no mandate led to very few people getting insured.

Gingrich decided to fall back on his "attack the media" act.

Telling Harris that he would "repudiate" any and all media organizations that used the debate format "to get Republicans fighting with each other," Gingrich went on an extended harangue, similar to one at the Fox debate. Naturally, in both situations, the debate organizers were simply trying to help voters determine the differences between the candidates. (And in case Gingrich failed to notice, Perry and Romney very happily fought with each other right at the start of the debate, without being prompted.)

"You want to puff this up into some giant thing," Gingrich said, about the differences between Romney and Perry on health care. "Everyone up here is against Obamacare," he added, pointing out something that no one needed a televised debate to determine. He went on to insist that the entire slate of GOP candidates were part of "a team" dedicated to removing Obama from office.

Harris put the same question to Cain: "No. An individual mandate is not constitutional." He went on to say that he is running against Obamacare and Romneycare.

Guess Cain's not a team player.

-- Jason Linkins

Huntsman Says 'No' To Individual Mandate

When asked whether it's ever appropriate for the government -- at any level -- to force people to buy health insurance, Jon Huntsman replied, "Absolutely not."

This position seems to contradict Huntsman's views in 2007, when he was serving as governor of Utah and embraced mandates:

I mentioned yesterday to somebody asking a question that I wouldn't shy away from mandates. I think if you're going to get it done and get it done right, [a] mandate has to be part of it in some way, shape, or form whether it's the college age population or whether it's something beyond, it's got to be a serious attempt, and I’m not sure you get to the point of serious attempt without some sort of mandate associated with what you're trying to do. Certainly a market-based approach is part of the solution as well. We forget that. If a tax credit is something that the federal government ultimately works out, then you’ve got some market solutions tossed in and nobody likes the word mandate, but without that kind of insistence -- that directness, I don't know that you can achieve something this challenging in a short period of time, which is what I think we need to do as a nation.

The health care bill ultimately passed without a mandate after the state legislature balked at the idea.

Huntsman has said he considered mandates, but never explicitly pushed the idea.

-- Amanda Terkel

Perry On The Uninsured In Texas

Gov. Perry defended his state's abysmal record of uninsured by accusing the federal government for stifling innovation. Texas currently has 27.2 percent of its population uninsured which makes it the worst ranked state in the nation.

"We would not have that many people uninsured in the state of Texas if you did not have the federal government," Perry insisted. The governor called for Medicaid to be block-granted to states so that they could use the money as they see fit. He added that he had petitioned the Department of Health and Human Services to give him that flexibility, but "the federal government refuses."

The explanation ignores the fact that other states deal with the same federal burdens that Texas supposedly has and have much lower levels of uninsured.

-- Sam Stein

Fred Karger Returns

Once again, from time to time, we'll be hearing from Fred Karger -- the former Reagan aide and openly gay GOP candidate for president who forms the "Frozen Out Foursome," along with Thad McCotter, Buddy Roemer and Gary Johnson. (Who are welcome to send us emails too, if they like!) What are we missing by not having Karger onstage? Someone who's happy to attack Mitt Romney, for one thing: "Sure, Romney created jobs. Overseas jobs," snarks Karger.

-- Jason Linkins

Newt Backs Perry

Rick Perry gets a big up from Newt Gingrich, who refers to his book, "Fed Up!" precisely the way the Perry camp would like it: "It's a book of big ideas that isn't a manifesto for the presidency."

The question came up as a result of Gingrich having endorsed Perry's book by writing its foreword, which Gingrich said he'd be happy to do again if Perry wrote another book. So if this running-for-president thing doesn't work out for Newt, he has options. (SPOILER ALERT: It's not working out for Newt.)

-- Jason Linkins

Huntsman Schools Romney On China

Jon Huntsman, who served as President Obama's U.S. ambassador to China, took the opportunity in his first answer to school Mitt Romney on China.

Romney has said that if elected president, he will immediately label China a "currency manipulator," a term that could lead to diplomatic sanctions.

"[Romney] doesn't get the part that what will fix the U.S.-China relationship -- realistically -- is fixing our core right here at home, because our core is weak, and it is broken, and we have no leverage at the negotiating table," said Huntsman.

"I'd have to say, Mitt, now is not the time, in a recession, to enter a trade war. Ronald Reagan flew this plane. I was in China during the trip in 1984. He went on TV and spoke to the Chinese people. I'd love to do that too -- in Chinese itself -- and he talked in optimistic glowing terms. And it reminds me of this about this, Brian -- we are the most blue sky, optimistic people on Earth. We're going to find solutions."

-- Amanda Terkel

Huntsman Speaks Up

Huntsman finds his voice! He says he is a combination of the best of Perry and Romney! Good theory; let's see if anyone is listening.

-- Howard Fineman

Rick Perry vs. Mitt Romney

The fireworks came quickly between Gov. Rick Perry and the man he replaced as the frontrunner for the Republican party's presidential nominee: Mitt Romney.

The topic of contention was, as it has been for several days now, job creation. Romney argued that a career politician wasn't the right resume to have to turn the country around, and Perry responded by noting that Romney, while in the private equity world, did a good job creating jobs... overseas.

Then it turned a more personal.

"States are different," Romney said, of the notion that Perry's management of Texas showed his prowess as a job creator. "Texas is a great state. Texas has zero income tax, [it's] a right to work state, [with] a republican legislature ... a lot of oil and gas in the ground ... Those are wonderful things. Governor Perry didn't create those things. If he tried to say that it would be like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet."

Perry, famously, worked on Al Gore's 1988 presidential campaign.

"Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did Mitt," Perry responded.

"George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did," Romney replied.

"That's not correct," Perry said.

-- Sam Stein

Staging The Debate

The organizers of the debate didn't mess around with the staging: NBC made sure that the two top candidates were placed next to each other, which not only assured good TV, but also good still photos for the wire services. And Brian Williams' initial questions were designed to do what they did -- get a fight started right away.

-- Howard Fineman

Perry Ready To Attack

Perry's strategists had kept mum, but they had their man ready to attack from the git-go. Best defense is a good offense. If Perry is thin-skinned, as the Romney camp thinks, then the best way to protect their man's skin is to let him go on the attack -- or at least that is evidently their thinking.

-- Howard Fineman

First Question Goes To Rick Perry

Moderator Brian Williams directed the first question of the debate at Rick Perry, who used the opportunity to repeat his campaign theme -- that he's the guy to get America working again -- twice in a short answer: "What Americans are looking for is someone who can get this country working again. ... So I will suggest to you Americans are focused on the right issue, and that is, who on this stage can get America working."

Perry used the same line in his speech announcing his candidacy, saying, "It is time to get America working again. That's why, with the support of my family, and an unwavering belief in the goodness of America, I declare to you today my candidacy for president of the United States."

-- Amanda Terkel

Reagan References In Tonight's Debate

Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan said she was talking to MSNBC's Chris Matthews earlier about how they had both flown on the actual Air Force One plane hanging in the Reagan Library, which will be a part of the set for tonight's debate. Noonan flew on it during the Reagan administration, and Matthews did so during the Carter administration, when he worked for President Jimmy Carter. As they were discussing who else here tonight might have flown on that plane, an adviser to Jon Huntsman, the former U.S. ambassador to China and Utah governor said Huntsman had flown on it as well, when he was a young staffer in the Reagan administration.

We're told Huntsman plans to make a reference to that plane and the fact that he flew on it. It will be one of a string of Reagan references, but in fact a few candidates will have to tread carefully when discussing Reagan. Rep. Ron Paul's campaign ran an ad hitting Rick Perry for his work on Al Gore's presidential campaign back in 1988, but Perry's campaign said today that he voted for Reagan in 80 and 84.

-- Jon Ward

Oops

@ aterkel : Oops. Mitt Romney says he's running for governor. Quickly corrects himself. #reagandebate

Rep. Ron Paul Airs Attack Ad

As promised, Rep. Ron Paul's campaign aired its ad attacking Rick Perry for his support of Al Gore in the 1988 presidential elections just minutes before the GOP presidential debate began.

The spot aired on MSNBC, not its mother network, which made it a cheaper purchase but also insured that fewer viewers saw the spot.

Perry has scoffed at the charge that he was anti-Reagan in his political past. But his defense has consisted primarily of pointing out that Paul himself once declared that Reagan drove him from the Republican Party.

-- Sam Stein

Don't Hold Your Breath For Foreign Policy

Needless to say, foreign policy doesn't promise to figure too heavily into this debate, coming as it is amid super committee deliberations about the budget and the day before a major presidential address on jobs. But that doesn't mean there aren't some good topics in the news to discuss. For one thing, just yesterday, news broke that the Obama administration is poised to keep 3,000 troops in Iraq after the deadline for withdrawal passes at the end of the year. Some Republican leaders have already come out against the troop drawdown, and talk of ending both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to figure into the discussion tonight.

Earlier today, the National Security Network put out a list of five foreign policy topics that ought to come up during tonight's debate. Take a look at the list, and keep a tally if any of them get serious face time this evening.

-- Joshua Hersh

The Candidates Take The Stage

@ jonward11 : candidates are on the stage. perry is puffing out his chest, standing to romney's left. looked at romney once or twice. romney looked ahead

Romney's Call For A Strong Dollar

Earlier today, Walid Zafar wrote on the Media Matters' "Political Correction" blog about how Mitt Romney's call for a strong dollar was at odds with his rhetoric in his jobs plan yesterday to label China a currency manipulator. Here's how Zafar put it:

China manipulates its currency to keep it below the market rate, and therefore, keep the dollar strong ... which is exactly what Romney says he wants. It's unclear if Romney's economic advisors have made this connection.

I spoke with a former Bush administration Treasury official this afternoon about this, who said that he thought Romney's campaign understands the contradiction, but is essentially speaking out of both sides of its mouth on purpose.

"Investors in U.S. Treasuries want to hear you say you're for a strong dollar. Nobody wants to hear anything associated with America -- which is eagles, apple pie, flags -- associated with the word weak. So there's a good basis in monetary policy why every responsible politician and economic policy official maintains this," the former administration official said.

"If you were to even hint or intimate that you were not for a strong dollar, there is a whole world of reporters that make it their lives' work to write three stories a week about what people think of the dollar, because that sells to their clients," he continued.

Thus, if that were to happen, bond yields would go up, costs to bondholders would go down, and U.S. government borrowing costs would go up.

"Is it a fallacy? Absolutely," the former administration official said of the strong dollar talking point. "It's the biggest joke in monetary policy. Is it the responsible thing to do? Yeah it is."

"Everybody who needs to know knows what we mean when we say strong dollar, which is strong dollar, except ..."

-- Jon Ward

LGBT Advocacy Group Stages Protest

Activists from the LGBT advocacy group GetEQUAL are protesting outside the Reagan Library tonight before the debate. In a press release, the group said the purpose was to make sure the GOP candidates' focus is "on creating jobs -- not contributing to the hostile environment that the LGBT community frequently encounters."

"While the GOP candidates jockey for position at the front of the political pack, our youth are taking their own lives in record numbers," said Robin McGehee, director of GetEQUAL. "It's time for these candidates to lead, rather than to follow the bigoted and discriminatory philosophies of fringe, right-wing activists who insist on demonizing fellow Americans for political gain."

A photo of the protest, passed along by a GetEQUAL spokesman:

-- Amanda Terkel

Determining Rick Perry's Electability

Here's the table-setter from earlier today, focusing on questions about Rick Perry's electability.

When Rick Perry takes the stage Wednesday night for his first debate as a presidential candidate, many Republicans will be wondering, "Who is this guy, really?"

Perry has shot to the head of the Republican primary field in national polls. But conversations with Republican lawmakers and voters this week have shown that many are not convinced the Texas governor has what it takes to be the party's nominee, or beat President Obama in the general election.

"I have my doubts that Perry can beat Obama in a head-to-head," said one influential Republican donor and activist in the Northeast, who said Perry has yet to come in for his "media proctology exam."

It's almost impossible to understate how much this question will be answered by the gauntlet of five debates over the next six weeks, starting tonight. After I filed the story earlier today, I spoke with one of the most influential Republican consultants in the country, who is not affiliated with any of the candidates. Here's how he put it regarding Perry, who he said he likes.

"What Perry exposed is there's a lot of not-Romney voters out there. And Bachmann kind of exposed that too but then Perry really demonstrated it. And the question is are they permanent not-Romney voters or are they just shopping? There was a time when there were a lot of not-McCain voters [in 2008]. I don't think a lot of Republican primary and caucus voters have bought yet. They're renting. Right now they're renting Perry."

-- Jon Ward

Debate Night Media Trope Successfully Played For Laughs

As you are probably aware, your television news organizations have decided to drown America in debates -- there are many more to come after tonight's debate. You will be unable to avoid them between now and the end of October. If you want to terrify at your Halloween Party this year, come dressed as a debate. Onlookers will shudder.

Since there are a ton of debates to look forward to, we can also look forward to the media trotting out the same old pre-game tropes. Such as "Tonight's Republican Debate: X Things To Watch." Over at The Awl, Alex Balk figured he'd get in on the action.

Balk's piece is highlighted in red. If you still don't quite get the joke, click here. The point is, you have options.

-- Jason Linkins

Perry To Face Attacks

A group of Romney advisers made their way through the vast media filing center here on the Reagan Library Campus a few minutes ago: campaign advisers Eric Fehrnstrom, Ron Kaufman, Ben Ginsberg and Bob White were all speaking with reporters. One pointed out that much of

the direction of the debate may be dictated by who gets the first question and what they do with it.

The focus may be on Rick Perry, but there are so many players on stage that the back and forth is likely to be more of a pinball than anything else. One thing is certain though, Perry will be getting it from many sides -- Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann have already attacked him, and Mitt Romney will certainly go on the offense against him -- and he will be looking to take the wood to Romney rather than spend the night defending himself. A big question will be whether he can do this with a smile and avoid looking petty, nasty and just downright unpresidential.

-- Jon Ward

Perry's Preparations Stir Buzz

@ howardfineman : Perry rivals here in Cali say he brought four coats and ties to pre-debate run-through, wanted (didn't get) special lights. Perry camp mum.

Perry Team Liveblogging, Tweeting

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign may or may not be sending out "fact checks" during the debate. It sounds like they want to save themselves some work and have reporters just check their Twitter feed and website.

Here's the statement just put out by the Perry campaign:

"Members of the working press are encouraged to follow @PerryTruthTeam on Twitter and to visit www.rickperry.org for real-time updates concerning statements made during tonight’s Reagan Centennial GOP Candidates Debate in Simi Valley, Calif."

-- Jon Ward

How's That For Timing?

Less than two hours before Texas Gov. Rick Perry took the stage for his first debate as a presidential candidate, the White House released a statement detailing President Barack Obama's call promising extensive federal aid to the Republican governor, who wrote a book last year about how much he hates the federal government.

That federal funding Perry has requested to fight the fires and help the recovery, after cutting state funds for wildfire assistance earlier this year? Don't worry, Obama told Perry: we'll be there for you.

Here's the full statement:

Readout of the President’s Call to Texas Governor Rick Perry

Today the President called Texas Governor Rick Perry to express his concern for citizens of Texas impacted by the unprecedented fires. During the call the President extended his condolences for the lives

that have been lost as a result of these events, and made clear that the federal government, through DHS/FEMA and the U.S. Forest Service, will continue to make federal assistance available to state and local officials as they fight the fires. The President also assured the Governor that requests for additional assistance, including as recovery begins, would be quickly assessed. Following the call, the President directed his national security staff to continue to work closely with FEMA, the Forest Service and the State of Texas to ensure we were making all resources available. Over the last several days, at the request of the Governor, the Administration has granted eight Fire Management Assistance Grants, making federal funds available to reimburse eligible costs associated with efforts to combat the fires. FEMA is actively working with state and local officials to conduct damage assessments and to identify areas where additional federal assistance may be warranted.

-- Jon Ward

Previewing Tonight's Debate

HuffPost's Jon Ward reports:

When Rick Perry takes the stage Wednesday night for his first debate as a presidential candidate, many Republicans will be wondering, "Who is this guy, really?"

Perry has shot to the head of the of the Republican primary field in national polls. But conversations with Republican lawmakers and voters this week have shown that many are not convinced the Texas governor has what it takes to be the party's nominee, or beat President Obama in the general election.

"I have my doubts that Perry can beat Obama in a head-to-head," said one influential Republican donor and activist in the Northeast, who said Perry has yet to come in for his "media proctology exam."

Click here to read more.

Perry Swipes Romney.. Romney Hits Back.. Huntsman Schools Romney On China.. Perry's Baffling Health Care Answer.. MORE

• Home Updates every 10 minute(s)
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/07/gop-debate-live-updates_n_952405.html
• Comments (2,828)
• |   Elections 2012