The candidates gather in New Hampshire for a discussion of economics

TONIGHT the focus is the economy and the setting is New Hampshire, where polls show Mitt Romney with a substantial lead over his rivals. Chris Christie gave him another boost today, declaring him "the best person to articulate Republican values". But many in the party disagree, and the search is still on for an alternative. Rick Perry seemed so right, but then it all went so wrong over the course of two weeks and three debates. Even an adequate performance tonight would buoy his campaign. The man to watch, though, will be the man in the middle, Herman Cain. Riding high in the polls, Mr Cain will have the spotlight thrown on him tonight. Dial 9-9-9 for entertainment!

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10:04: That's all for tonight folks. As always, thanks for participating in comments.

10:01: ...and a show on Fox.

10:01: ...and lots of book sales.

10:01: Blue, I think he's riding the momentum straight to a distant second place.

10:00: I think Cain owes his surge to the clear sales proposition of the 9-9-9 plan. The question is whether he can ride the momentum into a real, legitimate candidacy.

9:59: Purple is spot on—Charlie Rose made Perry look poised. Cain definitely managed to get lots of attention for 9-9-9, which can only be good for him and for his ideas. Huntsman had a better night than usual, but not good enough to earn much traction from it. The real winner must surely be Romney, who simply confirmed the idea that he's the only one with the knowledge and stature to be president.

9:57: The economy is Romney's bailiwick and he delivered. It is becoming increasingly clear that he operates at a higher level than the other candidates. Perry is toast. If he's not actually dumb as a stump, he doesn't know how to show it. Herman Cain continues to come on strong as the non-Mormon conservative alternative. Bachmann and Huntsman both sounded smooth, assured, and smart, but they no longer matter. Ron Paul continues to dominate the Ron Paul vote.

9:55: I don't know if it was Charlie Rose, the coffee cups or the seated format, but this debate reeked of PBS at its worst: worthy and insipid. Loser: Charlie Rose. Other loser: Herman Cain. 9-9-9 is getting threadbare; he needs some new tricks. Winner: well, Bachmann had periodic episodes of clarity, for all the good it will do her. Real winner: Romney. As he will be in every debate going forward, simply by not doing anything wrong, and getting in just enough digs to prevent anyone else from doing especially well.

9:53: Romney just sounds can do—he wisely avoids any attempt at emotion.

9:52: Spot on.

9:52: Romney is running for president. It's not so clear what the rest of them are doing.

9:51: Huntsman tries very hard to emote, and almost manages. But Perry is better at sounding sombre—on the verge of tears, even.

9:50: Maybe America's unemployment rate is so high because Mormons are too few, and too unevenly distributed. Spread the wealth, Utah!

9:50: Santorum cites a relevant statistic!

9:49: He did—although he did slip in a reference to sound money.

9:48: Let's see if Paul can go 30 seconds without mentioning the Fed.

9:47: America's CEO's get many multiples of other countries' because of single moms.

9:47: Santorum indulges in a bit of etymology. Oikos and nomos equals economy—which is why gay marriage is wrong, and germane.

9:46: Why don't they just blame Ben Bernanke, the bearded menace, for shooting cash at the banksters with a cannon?

9:46: Perry is really at his best when he's at his meanest. Ask him to explain a policy and he starts putting the air assets in the ground. When he lays into someone he really hits his stride.

9:44: I don't think the net worth of the top 1% has risen astronomically because Obama is a job-killer, as Perry maintains.

9:42: And not, purple, because he takes on straw men.

9:42: Uncle Newt gets applause again. He gets more than anyone else, and yet no one takes him seriously.

9:41: Gingrich takes a strong, brave stance against the strain of thought that wishes for America's decay. My favourite fetid, rotting straw-man of the night.

9:40: Perry's talking like he's wearing a vest lined with dynamite that will go off if he gets the answer wrong.

9:39: We're just Cain-crazy, Red. 'Standin' by our man.

9:39: Everyone's a critic. It's true, W smirked. But I don't think it was a selling point, Blue.

9:38: Lincoln smirked. I saw it.

9:38: George W. Bush, too. They all smirked. I question Red's judgments of presidentiality.

9:38: He smiled warmly, Orange—it's different!

9:37: Red, Reagan was a smirker-in-chief.

9:37: Herman Cain slips in another reference to 9-9-9 with a smirk. Smirking is not presidential.

9:36: In order to get a small-business loan, banks need to know there is consumer demand for what she's selling, and in order to goose consumer demand we need the evil Ben Bernanke to target a higher rate of inflation. Please, God, someone say this so that I might not despair for our nation.

9:36: Michele just added a new riff to the Republican refrain that anything Obama supports kills jobs. Dodd-Frank, she says, destroys houses. It's like a wrecking ball: it can just rip them down at a stroke.

9:34: Bachmann is the only one who has made even a token effort to answer Ms Thompson's question.

9:32: I bet Paul agrees with almost every word of this Greenspan essay.

9:31: Wait—did Cain just say his choice for Fed chair is Alan Greenspan. Rumsfeld for defence secretary! Cheney for veep! Hell, Reagan for president.

9:30: There must have been a Harrison!

9:30: Quick! Can anyone think of the names of Fed chairs other than Bernanke, Greenspan and Volcker? I can't.

9:30: Please, Charlie Rose, ask Perry to say "Denver Broncos".

9:29: You should hear him say "Denver Broncos".

9:29: Did Perry just try to use an accent when he said "Martinez"?

9:28: ...and a Jaeger chaser

9:28: I think Perry needs about four beers.

9:28: Fair enough, purple—I'm just worried that Cain doesn't realise he can't do what he says he wants to.

9:27: Red, I think all of these candidates, save perhaps Paul, has an excessively muscular, shall we say, view of executive power. Now, perhaps that is just for effect in debates, to appear strong, but I don't think Cain's insistence on a 2/3 vote is anything unusual for this crowd.

9:26: I think Cain's showing over the long haul that basic salesmanship skills are extremely valuable in politics.

9:26: I must say, the age-old art of rhetoric is as relevant as in the day of Demosthenes and Cicero. A few months ago, I would have, in this bunch, favoured Huntsman, using my left brain after reading about the candidates's credentials and views. But hearing him speak so badly, and hearing people like Cain and, yes, Bachmann, speak so well, raises them up. And Romney, at the end of the day, is steady, unperturbable, unexciting but safe.

9:25: I think Herman may have a weak grasp of the constitution. He said he will ask Congress to apply a two-thirds threshold to any change in the 9% sales tax rate. But that's not in Congress's gift. Without a constitutional amendment, any future Congress could amend any such rule by a simple majority vote.

9:24: Did Santorum just mutter, "You're not going to be president forever" after Cain answered his question?

9:23: Rick Santorum is unable to read a paragraph of text without rising to teeth-clenching, hand-waving rage.

9:22: Now, drinks!

9:22: Blue, our thoughts crossed in the ether. We're a quorum.

9:21: Exactly, Orange—he doesn't want to grace Cain with the attention of a question.

9:21: Did Romney just...tee Bachmann up? That was not a challenge, it was an invitation. If so, this is big. Romney is saying "you're already out of the race, I will now reach out to you and be the good guy here."

9:21: Romney asking his question to the irrelevant Bachmann makes him seem generous...to Perry.

9:20: Unlike Perry, he's good at playing the front-runner.

9:20: Romney did not even bother to question Cain. He's very good at rising above it all.

9:20: I give Cain another few weeks of momentum. He may even become a stable second in the race, but it's going to become pretty clear pretty soon that as Red intimated, he's pretty limited.

9:20: Romney's dominating. Even a good PBS jab!

9:20: Orange, I don't see what Cain brings to the ticket. It will be Romney-Rubio.

9:19: Romney is arguing that he has more heart than Perry. Get ready for some blowback!

9:18: Is Romney-Cain a viable ticket?

9:18: Orange: I think the Kansas City Fed and pizza moguldom just about cancel one another out.

9:18: Red, I think he has no other message.

9:18: Yeah, I think Paul just did Cain a favour by mentioning his time on the Kansas City Fed board. And Cain acquitted himself admirably.

9:18: It's like a German pessimists convention.

9:17: Cain is veering dangerously close to self-parody by chanting "9-9-9" at every opportunity, even when non-germane.

9:16: Cain is very good at bringing each question back to 9-9-9. Is he on message, or does he have no other message?

9:15: Red, it might also remind people that Cain has relevant experience, which is his weak point.

9:14: At last: Ron Paul takes on Cain—and shows him up on new Republican orthodoxy about how evil the Fed is.

9:14: As history shows, there were no business cycles before the advent of the Fed. Oh, wait.

9:13: It's interesting that all the questions are addressed to Romney. It's as if none of the other candidates can really believe in Cain's rise either.

9:12: I liked Huntsman's snide "Sorry about that, Rick."

9:12: The great thing about Romney is that he has flip-flopped so much we can all secretly suspect that he believes in our opinions. He's a nearly-human Rorshach test.

9:11: Purple, Are you suggesting Mormons are sub-human? On my Doctrine in Covenants, I demand satsifaction, sir!

9:11: Orange, I for one welcome my nearly-human overlord.

9:10: Red, let's start trying to like Romney. After all, we'll have to live with him for at least four years. Know what I mean?

9:10: Mitt's response started well. Do you really think you can solve America's problems with a nifty tax slogan?

9:10: Romney should ask if Cain can remember his bank account number.

9:09: Romney parried that very well: simplicity is not in itself a virtue.

9:09: But Romney is handling it very presidentially.

9:09: Cain to Romney: Can you remember all your 59 points? Genius.

9:08: Bachmann shivving Perry for having chaired Al Gore's campaign in Texas seems almost mean. The man can barely speak English!

9:08: It really is astonishing how steep Perry's decline has been.

9:08: Michele, Rick's yesterday's news. You need to take on Herman Cain.

9:07: A sticky floor and beer pong and then something or other.....

9:06: The venue, Dartmouth, reminds of the weekend I spent there before deciding where to go to school. Actually, it doesn't remind me: I can't remember any of it.

9:05: ... a bit of muddle between the two: Romney!

9:05: Red, in that sense, he's the opposite of Huntsman: Huntsman, who has a very firm grasp indeed of the issues, probably firmer than anybody else's, and yet comes across as unconfident and incapable. Given that choice, Americans will naturally go for...

9:04: Cain substitutes confidence for capability. He's impressive in his delivery, and unshakable in his ideas. But you can't escape the feeling that he only has a very faint grasp of what he's talking about.

9:03: Strategically, Cain might not be in this "to win". I don't think he ever expected to do this well. He might be planting an idea, to let it grow and return to it in future. Romney, by contrast, is very much playing to win, and probably is winning. He must be above scoring a point here and there, and remain steady to outlast all the others. I think there's no way he won't be the nominee.

9:02: Rick Perry is finished. He's barely in this thing and when he opens his mouth he sounds like he's on the high-school debate B-team at a not very good high school.

9:01: But with Bachmann and Perry, everybody paid attention only to the figure. (Retract: person.) With Cain, they're also paying attention to the idea. A plan that replaces and supersedes the existing tax code. It could outlive the race.

9:00: Red, the difference is that the Hermanator just grows stronger in the spotlight.

9:00: I'm not sure it's a tactical masterstroke to have everyone paying you attention, Orange: look what it did for Bachmann and Perry.

9:00: I don't think anyone is coming even close to Romney in authoritatively competent self-presentation. If he were a Methodist, this thing would be in the books.

8:58: May I stand back and observe a phenomenon? Cain, the newbie, with his 9-9-9 plan, has put an issue on the table that all the others are being forced to respond to. That is, in itself, astonishing. He ideates, they react. He can later, at any point, concede a point here and there, but he owns this (the tax) debate. A tactical masterstroke.

8:58: And we're five minutes behind that.

8:58: Bloomberg TV is about 15 seconds behind the feed on the Washington Post website. The digital age is truly upon us.

8:57: The moderators could raise their game a tad. They're stammering like they're Rick Perry.

8:56: How in tarnation does Santorum qualify to be in these debates?

8:56: "I want to go to war with China" is a real winner for Santorum.

8:56: That's what politics is all about, Orange!

8:56: Audience: Red is relitigating past debates.

8:55: As long as he has the air assets in the ground.

8:55: Oh wait, I got my math wrong. Thank god I'm just a writer.

8:55: I like how the B-roll for "American competitive spirit" was people ambling down a sidewalk.

8:55: And then he accidentally crosses the date line and...is no longer president.

8:54: Romney will spend Day 1 in Air Force One flying west, picking up extra hours.

8:53: Because "gettin' America workin' agin" has nothing to do with "whether we have this policy or that policy" Mr Perry?

8:53: Romney is quite the issuer of executive orders on Day 1. In every debate he adds one or two. Is that constitutional? What can he do by executive order? As I recall, Obama couldn't even close Guantanamo.

8:52: It's really striking that Romney is going to bat for an approach to China that the Republicans in the House have said they will not endorse, for fear of starting a trade war with China.

8:52: I'm pretty sure Ricardo and the Corn Laws are playing at the Fox Theatre this Friday.

8:51: We at The Economist are all hoping they will call for a trade war so that we can spend the next year leaderising (that's "editorialising") about free trade, from Ricardo and the Corn Laws to Chinese lead-tainted toys.

8:51: I give Huntsman a B on the China trade-war question.

8:51: A trade war with China would disadvantage our consumers above all, wouldn't it, Jon?

8:50: It's because he's sitting down.

8:50: I say Orange is winning this debate hands down.

8:50: I must run for president, now.

8:49: Perhaps she's not following the live-blog, Orange. Another reason not to vote for her!

8:49: I called it, didn't I? She "turned 999 upside down" so that the "devil is in the details". Just after I, Orange, expressly asked her not to do that. Can you believe it?

8:49: Michele Bachmann is honing in on the critical problem with 9-9-9: a big new revenue stream, in the form of a sales tax that comes on top of existing sales taxes in many states.

8:48: Have we ever really stopped being at war with Spain?

8:47: 9-9-9 would be simple and efficient. That's two out of three. I'm willing to let it through as "fair enough". Let's do it.

8:46: When folks get a sense that the 9-9-9 plan amounts to a serious tax increase on the not-rich, they may not dig it.

8:45: 9-9-9: Please, let's keep an open mind and think it through. And don't turn the bumper sticker upside down to read 6-6-6.

8:45: Once again, suprising lucidity and smooth delivery from Bachmann. She's tanked in the race, but she's doing a great job presenting herself as a serious figure which bodes well for her future.

8:45: It was shrewd to play the Reagan clip. It made Reagan sound magnanimous and grand, and these candidates like dwarves.

8:44: If I have to listen to this debt-ceiling debate again I'm going to hold my breath until I pass out.

8:44: Agh Michelle! Blank checks are BLANK!

8:44: There goes Uncle Newt again, earning applause without supporters.

8:43: Romney is presented with a clear choice, between something that involves tax hikes, and something that involves defence cuts, and chooses his own economic platform.

8:42: Get thee behind me, Satan.

8:42: That's why I'm here, Blue. I got more of that...

8:42: Orange, you drew me in, you seducer.

8:41: Perry almost pulled a firm point out of his meandering talk of balanced budgets. The applause started up, and then he decided to detour into another ox-bow lake. It reminds me of Huntsman, except that he's on fire today.

8:41: If my discomfort when Perry speaks could be monetised, we could get rid of the deficit by the end of the debate.

8:40: No, it hasn't. "Americans are untrustworthy of government" is a gem, of a sort.

8:39: Perry's ability to use words has not improved markedly.

8:39: Yes, Blue, but you see, you are now embarking on the Socratic dialectic that THEY should be engaged in.

8:38: Orange, he could have chosen not to do QEs 1 & 2 and not to do the bail-outs.

8:37: Blue, what would be the answer to "what could he have done differently?" As to the beard, I admit that Bernanke is beyond redemption.

8:36: Orange, that would be a great question. But I think they'd all have ready answers. 1. Monetary "bail-outs" through quantitative easing that is debasing our currency, and 2. Using secret evil banker powers to throw money at his evil banker Wall Street friends, to the detriment of us all. 3. The beard.

8:34: Paul is just wrong that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and "easy money" had anything to do with the implosion of the financial sector.

8:33: Hmm, does that count as a lob, asking Ron Paul if the federal government should get out of housing? He answers, in typical fashion, with talk of Austrian economists.

8:33: Yes, I know. But it's time for a moderator to ask a simple follow-up: State, in two or three clear points, what Bernanke did that he could have done differently to deserve your blame.

8:31: Orange, I think the power and political independence of the Fed makes the chairman an all-but inevitable punching bag in downturns.

8:30: Romney overreached a bit in his answer on the necessity of the bail-out, but he sounded authoritative on this issue in a way none of the other candidates can, except for Paul.

8:29: It has become a bad habit of all the candidates to blame Bernanke for everything, as the universal bogeyman. He's not there to answer, and they don't even specify what he did so badly that he could have done differently. I must assume that they believe the audience won't know enough about central banking to call their bluff.

8:28: Romney may be onto a new debate format: every candidate asks himself yes or no questions for ten minutes each.

8:27: I am open to that claim. It is easier at this point to start with a blank slate. The question is what to replace it with. It should be simple (above all), fit on a post card, be efficient and, ideally, "fair". That last one will be the reason we won't agree on it and will keep the current code.

8:27: "I'm not going to have to call up Timothy Geithner and ask: How does the economy work?" is a good line from Romney.

8:25: Bruce Bartlett wrote a good post today analysing the 9-9-9 plan.

8:25: But Orange, do you buy Cain's claim that you must throw out the current tax structure in its entirety?

8:25: I am for throwing out the current tax code. Does that mean I must be for Cain? If so, I might take the plunge.

8:24: Huntsman, too, seems in fine fettle.

8:24: Doable-doable-doable just doesn't have the zing of 9-9-9.

8:24: Yes, Bachmann does sound clear and concise. She completes sentences, whereas Perry does not, and Huntsman gulps at the wrong moment, usually the intended climax. So, no doubt, she's a good speaker.

8:23: Bachmann's paranoid claim that Obama plans for Medicare to collapse in order to push the elderly into Obamacare is, well, silly. But I think she sounds especially fluent and capable tonight.

8:22: Her tactic should be to sound un-loony. Not to throw Hail-Mary passes.

8:21: Bachmann breaks news: "Obama plans for Medicare to collapse."

8:20: Actually, he doesn't know much Red. What he just said about prostate cancer is just wrong. He's not a doctor, but he plays one on TV.

8:20: Wow, Newt really knows his medical wonkery. How many urologists does it take to design a good health-care policy? What he fails to address is how the state can pay for some people's health care without rationing in some form.

8:19: Orange, Red, Santorum's path to the nomination is surely a centrist programme of political practicability.

8:19: That's Romney's strategy: Wink, wink, audience, indulge your id here but come Iowa vote your super ego.

8:18: I caught that too, Orange, and I wonder whether we'll start to see subtle, rhetorical shifts back toward the centre this evening and going forward.

8:17: Was Santorum's little speech about a plan "that can actually pass" a subtle shift? So far in the race, all of them have been competing to be righter than the other guy. Now he seems to be saying we have to build consensus with the rest of America, too.

8:17: Santorum claims he can unite rust-belt Democrats and red-state Republicans on economic policy. Sounds like he'd be a lock for election. Oddly, though, when he ran for re-election in his own rust-belt state, he lost.

8:17: Was Huntsman saying Washington, D.C. is flatulent?

8:16: I'm still processing Gingrich's comment. He's right that there's a problem with the "secret power" to channel money to firms the Fed determines worthy. But the main travesty with Bernanke is not his unlegislated distributive power, but his failure to plump for the kind of monetary policy we need.

8:14: I recall Doonesbury's cipher for Gingrich was a bomb with the fuse lit. Well chosen.

8:14: Debate audiences treat Newt Gingrich like they might an endearing uncle. They clap enthusiastically at his tirades—in this case about the Fed—but they somehow still don't take him seriously.

8:14: Newt Gingrich's diatribe is making Ron Paul sound relatively coherent and measured in talking about the Fed.

8:13: It's nice that everyone laughs about asking Paul about the Fed.

8:13: Gingrich wants to start a "proscription" worthy of Marius, Sulla and Mark Antony: Bernanke, Geithner, Dodd, Frank....

8:12: Is Gingrich suggesting you can tell good people from bad by who litters?

8:11: I can't resist a pair of crazy blue eyes.

8:11: We will be more credible tonight as commentators if we admit right now that we have a hitherto secret attraction for Bachmann.

8:11: That was as coherent and sharp as Bachmann has ever sounded.

8:10: Bachmann's hair looks fantastic, and her eyes look like she is sending psychic knives through Karen Tumulty's face, but smiling knives.

8:10: I'm hoping that Charlie Rose will interrupt them more often, make it more conversational, keep the answers on point. Hoping. You know, hope for change.

8:10: Yes. And "Make American the place where domestic oil is produced from" isn't exactly bumper-sticker material.

8:09: Perry is soporific.

8:09: I will debate any and all of you, but only seated.

8:08: To watch out for: Can Perry use words?

8:08: A seated confrontation does soften them. It also erases the psychologically crucial (for the males) height differential.

8:07: Charlie Rose doesn't help. He can't ask a direct question to save his life.

8:07: I just realised I should pay attention to what these guys are actually saying. It's hard.

8:06: Everyone's coming across a bit dazed and stilted. I think sitting softens the tone.

8:06: Rock you like a Herman Cain! Yes he Cain! He is Abel!

8:05: Cain is closing in on Romney in Iowa. What do we call this? Hermanmentum?

8:05: And look at Cain's placement: right across from the moderator, in the "centre" of the oval.

8:01: First question goes to Cain. That says it all. The new man.

8:01: I liked Santorum's little head swivel. Sort of a "Oh, hello. I didn't see you there" move.

8:00: Fans of Gary Johnson may be wondering how one qualifies for a debate, if the sponsors of said debate do not include that person in their polls.

8:00pm ET: We begin.

(Photo credit: AFP)