Liveblogging the Bloomberg GOP debate

Note the time structure: EDT/NZDT

9:32 / 2:32: Thank you, Ron Paul, for your response to Cain's Greenspan comment. Although, Cain's performance has been strangely admirable tonight. Good for him.

9:20 / 2:20: Bachmann seems more and more a hasbeen at each debate. I'm just not interested, and the others aren't going after her. Why? Because she's not really a threat. It's strange how a candidate with so much initial hype turns out to be little more than a minor distraction.

9:16 / 2:16: Another tough question from Huntsman to Romney. I think we can expect more like this, given that Mitt Romney seems the obvious frontrunner. However, he should make his answers a little more to-the-point. Try to focus on detail and substance, and less on rhetoric. There's only so much "I will get this economy working again" talk that an audience can handle. At some point, we're actually going to want some discussion of what it is you're really going to do.

Finally! Ron Paul is getting in on the question. Dave Weigel puts it well: "Ask a question, dude in audience! Oh, wait, that's Ron Paul." Cain, it seems, can't go ten seconds without saying '9-9-9'.

9:08 / 2:08: A rather tough question from Herman Cain. If Mitt Romney were 'on the ball', so to speak, and he really wished to impress the audience, he would simply give a list. What a shame on Cain's part that he didn't capitalize on what is essentially Romney's inability to answer his question. Next time, he should run with it. Opportunity lost.

8:32 / 1:32: Just as we've just had the first mention of Milton Friedman in this debate, we've just had the first mention of Keynes from Ron Paul.

8:29 / 1:29: We're getting a mention of Milton Friedman from Romney, of whom I am very much a fan (Friedman, that is; not Romney). The first of many, I suspect. "Bailouts of individual institutions? No one's interested in that." Cain agrees.

8:25 / 1:25: Some fact checking from the New York Times:

Newt Gingrich is incorrect to say that the Federal Reserve has "spent hundreds of billions of dollars" to bail out financial companies.

The Fed has made several trillion dollars in loans to financial companies since the beginning of the financial crisis. However, the central bank has not lost any money on those loans and investments. To the contrary, the Fed is making the largest profits in its history -- money that it sends to the Treasury Department each year.

8:23 / 1:23: I have to say, I laughed at Huntsman's joke about 9-9-9 being the price of a pizza. How amusing that Herman Cain uses his joke as an opportunity to get a word in.

8:20 / 1:20: Well put.

Newt Gingrich is the Ron Paul of bad ideas.

8:16 / 1:16: Huntsman's "two things" that critically need to be done. One is maintaining a strong culture of innovation – I'd agree with that. An interesting comment following the death of Steve Jobs. Secondly, we need a competitive marketplace. Huntsman remains my favourite, even on the economy.

A little disappointed to see a lack of actual detail as to how he would establish this elusive 'culture of innovation', but I suppose in comparison to Romney, we can hardly complain about lack of specific policy.

8:10 / 1:10: "Virtually every American has a reason to be angry." Interesting call, Newt. Interesting call. Now he's saying Chris Dodd should go to jail; it's the politicians' fault, he says, not the good people of Wall Street. It'll be good to hear Ron Paul speak now, but I'll admit that his response seems a little all-over-the-place. Something tells me this is going to be a very long two hours (if only we had a little social debate to break things up).

8:05 / 1:05: It took Herman Cain all of about five seconds to say 999. Now we're getting some of Romney's "Obama isn't a leader" rhetoric. Such paucity of detail. Good lord! Even Cain – the pizza man – had more specific details than the founder of Bain Capital.

8:00 / 1:00: Charlie Rose is kicking things off. Here we go. I have to say that the table format looks rather interesting. This will surely be an interesting departure from the usual format and presentation of the debate; also, the debate only concerns the economy. Immortal words from Rose: "pleased to have them back at this table." And we're off...

(Image via Politico)