Talk about it here. Watch it live on CNN or
CNN.com.
5:27 PM PT: Rick Santorum says he's the guy to fix Social Security. The thing that's most weird about this debate is that Social Security is not fundamentally broken. And nothing that they are talking about doing will have any impact at all on the most pressing problem facing the country: jobs. In fact, I'm not sure a single candidate has even mentioned the J-word.
5:31 PM PT: Wolf Blitzer asks Rick Perry: "If you were president would you vote to repeal the prescription drug benefit?" He says "no." Blitzer asks a follow up, restating the question without using the "vote to." Perry looks at Wolf like he thinks Wolf is a moron, but tells him that yes, he heard right.
5:32 PM PT: Okay, let it be noted that Mitt Romney became the first candidate to mention "create jobs." It came 31 minutes into the debate. And he devoted all of one sentence to the topic.
5:34 PM PT: First commercial break, and I have to say, the debates keep on getting worse. Wolf promises to talk about "jobs, jobs, jobs" after the break. Hard to believe they've spent 30+ minutes without talking at all about jobs.
5:38 PM PT: Finally, a question about the economy. The question is given to Jon Huntsman, however, a guy who has absolutely no shot at the nomination. So who cares what he has to say?
5:40 PM PT: Rick Perry's answer on what he'd do for the economy is: (a) reduce taxes and (b) lower regulations. Because, I guess, it worked so damn well under George W. Bush. And he says he opposes Obama's jobs bill. "People are tired of spending money we don't have on programs we don't want."