Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
It's time for the top (and middle, and lower middle) of the Republican presidential field to take the stage at the Reagan Library. With that venue and this crowd, you can bet on a lot of bowing down to St. Ronald—for your own health, I'd recommend against including his name in any drinking game you might be playing.
Onstage tonight:
Donald Trump
Jeb Bush
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
Ben Carson
Sen. Ted Cruz
Sen. Marco Rubio
Mike Huckabee
Sen. Rand Paul
Ohio Gov. John Kasich
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
Carly Fiorina
That makes 11 debaters rather than the planned 10—Fiorina was allowed in by a rule change to include her on the basis of her having made the top 10 in the average of polls done since the previous debate.
The debate will air on CNN and stream on CNN.com.
Wed Sep 16, 2015 at 5:28 PM PT: Jake Tapper tries to move on from the Trump-Trump-Trump talk, only to be interrupted by John Kasich with a pious call to ... move on from the Trump talk and address substance.
Wed Sep 16, 2015 at 5:36 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Jeb! and Trump get into an argument about who can be bought and who can't. Basically like two high-schoolers saying, "Uh uh," "Uh huh."
Wed Sep 16, 2015 at 5:39 PM PT (Joan McCarter): Serious foreign policy stuff from Tapper: what would you do about Putin? Trump says he'll get along with him so well that there won't ever be a problem again because respect. Rubio got way too excited to be called on and completely shot his wad of foreign policy knowledge in 30 seconds. Still looks like a little kid pretending. Fiorina has a Palin moment--she's actually met Putin and says we should never ever talk to him. She's actually kind of scary here. I think she'd be scarier with her finger on the button than Trump. She wins the hawk competition.
Wed Sep 16, 2015 at 5:51 PM PT (Meteor Blades): Cruz: Obama treats the nuclear agreement with Iran like the Magna Carta. Khamenei treats it like toilet paper. ... If you vote for Hillary, you are voting for the Ayatollah Khamenei.
Huckabee: Suddenly, we learn that Iran is already Nuclear Iran. World civilization is at risk.
Rand Paul: What can we say? Sometimes, he makes sense. And on using the military, he does.
Wed Sep 16, 2015 at 5:52 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): New thread here.