CNN/YouTube Live Blog

I'll be live-blogging the debate that almost never was starting shortly.

This will be an almost must-win for Giuliani with Romney and Huckabee gaining momentum, Fred Thompson as well in my estimation.

Update: Giuliani is between Thompson and Romney, he's shorter and that is a subliminal negative.

Update: A somewhat interesting start.

Update: Illegal immigration right off the bat. He handled the "sanctuary city" question well. He diverted it to the feds--namely, the Clinton administration. Romney hits back hard--the guy is prepared. Now Rudy defends himself--well I believe.

Update: "Sanctuary mansion instead of sanctuary city". Ouch. It's on with Mitt and Rudy and I think Rudy was more prepared and got him. And it continues without Cooper really stopping it. Rudy booed.

Update: Hank Williams, Jr. puts them on the spot about border enforcement. Fred gets a nice welcome.

This * now means update.

*Fred hits Rudy on Kerik without mentioning Kerik. Nice slam.

*McCain on immigration gets moans and is his weak point. He's weak on this issue and crashed on the answer.

*Tancredo is the master of this issue. The Tanc took a bit of a populist tack on his answer.

*Hunter (my former Congressman) is sounding better on this issue than Tanc.

*Huck on immigration. The question had the miltary angle as well. Great question. He's not sounding so assured of his position and seems to be wandering all over the place. Not good. He didn't answer it as forcefully as he should.

*Romney is going after Huck and Huck deserves it. He gave a weak response. Another populist answer. Romney keeps going hard and to be honest, he's wiping up the floor with Huck.

*Ron Paul got the Truther question; missed it because my beautiful daughter was showing me a dance move she learned this evening.

*Good question on reducing spending. Please, not another Bush spending fiasco. Thompson has some nice answers. He didn't answer it fully however.

*Break time to put the kids to bed.

*Huck says "get rid of the IRS" and "enact the Fair Tax". Nice

*McCain is anti-Fair Tax. McCain hits Paul on troop support and the crowd is split. He said Hitler in his response, yes Hitler. Paul is saying he gets more money from active duty personnel. How would he know that?

*Only Hunter says he would rule out signing Grover Norquist's tax pledge.

*Romney is friggin' on his game as is Rudy in my opinion.

*Cooper asked Rudy about the Politico story about his trips to visit Judith Nathan in the Hamptons. He handled it well.

*Rudy's taking heat on the gun laws in NY. He did in fact reduce crime and he brought up the Supreme Court. Good move on that and he's right about the SCOTUS deciding it. Rudy comes back to Fred and answered it as best he could.

*Thompson just won the gun vote, Hunter answered it better.

*Black on black crime and Romney is all over it. A hugely touchy issue and he invoked Bill Cosby. Will Rudy touch the black on black issue...almost...but not quite. It's Romney versus Rudy so far.

*Abortion...Paul goes states rights...and calls abortion a crime...and says go after the "abortionist". That'll get the nutroots worked up. Fred's on it from a law angle, which is what the woman asking the questioner wanted.

*Rudy answered the "would you sign abortion legislation bill" correctly. States rights as did Romney.

*Death penalty--not as big an issue as libs would like.

*"Jesus was too smart to run for public office"--sweet answer by Huck.

*Literal word of the Bible--Huck scores on a quip. Rudy's a bit flummoxed. Romney is flustered.

*Huckabee just solidified the vote of Evangelicals--he'll find it's not as big as he thinks.

*No disrespect to the questioner, if you only lived abroad in the Mideast, you obviously didn't see the rape room Saddam had or hid oppressive policies. Rudy hit it out of the park. McCain bailed on Rumsfeld but supported the surge--a wash. Hunter knocks it out as well.

*Waterboarding--Romney gets a C and invokes the ACLU, McCain says it's against the Geneva Convention. Romney is in a bad spot here. He didn't get out of it by name-dropping Cofer Black. McCain slams Jack Bauer.

*Thompson is good but is so slow in his delivery he loses people. Ron Paul stutters after getting praise and for some reason invokes Vietnam. He's a friggin' idiot. John McCain chides him accordingly. McCain made Paul look like an moron. Paul's army of inanity have infiltrated.

*Rudy and 9/11. Hmmm...He showed well on that day, I was in New York when it happened. He's in the zone I think.

*Thompson quips on the Cheney clip, nice score there. VP power...Cheney does not have quite the power libs believe. VP's are important, think LBJ and his terms.

The home stretch...

*The gay military question...Hunter may wanted to have used something beside "gay tight units". Just my thought. Oh, fior crying out loud, the GOP will never get the gay vote. I tend to agree with the General that it doesn't matter if you're gay or not for the record.

*The gay marriage question and a Chuck Norris sighting. Huck handled it well.

*Social Security...Fred is so much looser when he lets go. He did there and sounded great but it's a bit too late.

*Huck: "Maybe Hillary can be on the first rocket to Mars" Meaningless but the crowd liked it.

*Why don't blacks vote GOP? Great question and Rudy is on it. Huck is not as convincing.

*Romney is not as on his game as he was. Fred lacks on the Confedereate flag. Interesting that they are showing Pauls video in its duration while they didn't show the others the same.

*I'm done for this evening, early conference call tomorrow. Recap in the manana.