Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
Back in early August, there were seven people on stage for the second-tier Republican presidential debate. This time, there are only four: Carly Fiorina has been promoted to the big show, Rick Perry has dropped out, and Jim Gilmore could not muster the one percent support in any three polls required to qualify for the kiddie table. That leaves:
Rick Santorum
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
George Pataki
Sen. Lindsey Graham
Not exactly a fountain of charisma, there.
Both of the evening's debates will air on CNN and stream on CNN.com. The varsity team will take the stage at 8:00 PM ET.
4:02 PM PT (Joan McCarter): Pataki just gave Santorum a lesson on how the constitution works and where the Supreme Court fits in, reminding him that yes indeed, the Supreme Court has the final say on the law and if the Congress wants to change that, they can. Santorum rejects that entirely. And then Jindal goes off on how many jobs will the left not let Christians hold.
4:09 PM PT (Joan McCarter): After the Kim Davis discussion they veered into the Supreme Court and whether Chief Justice Roberts is the devil incarnate for saving Obamacare, twice. Jindal says yes, Graham says no.
4:12 PM PT: Lindsey Graham breaks down into word salad when challenged to explain having said nice things about Hillary Clinton in the past. Something about his father owning a liquor store, something about George W. Bush and AIDS in Africa, something about Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill, that he will put the country ahead of party, and then the importance of Social Security. Don't ask me how he got from one topic to another. I don't know.
4:22 PM PT: "Is Santorum wrong for supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage?"
Graham says it would have been harder for his small business owner parents to hire more people at higher wages (never minding that their customers would have had more money). Then tries to show empathy for the struggling middle class, then shows greater passion about the national debt.
Santorum responds that few workers make the minimum wage, but also few own businesses, and Republicans talk too much about business owners over workers. "How are we going to win if 90 percent of Americans don't think we care about them?"
Santorum's proposal, by the way, is for a whopping 50 cent increase over three years.
4:25 PM PT (Joan McCarter):
4:31 PM PT (Meteor Blades): Lindsey: Rebuild our military and tell Iran he'll use it if they try to build a nuclear bomb.
Pataki: Will give Massive Ordnance Penetrators to Israel. Doesn't say if he will give B-2s, B-1Bs or B-52s as well, the only planes that could drop MOPs.
Santorum: Open up all nuclear facilities or else he'll bomb them
4:37 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): New thread here.