GOP Debate: Pre-game Round Up

As is the case most every night, there's a Presidential debate tonight.  This one is a Republican to-do, co-hosted by CNN and YouTube in St. Petersburg, Florida at 8 pm Eastern.  It's the one that almost didn't happen, due to some early grumbling by GOP candidates about answering questions submitted by snowmen, an enduring image from the Democrats' YouTube debate.

I'll be watching, but I don't plan to be liveblogging.  If the mood does happen to strike or if there's something particularly post-worthy, however, this is where it'll show up.

Either way, fear not.  We have a fine line-up of on-location and remote livebloggers to choose from.

• Mary Katharine Ham is already tearing up St. Petersburg, having nabbed an interview with moderator Anderson Cooper and serving up a thorough preview of tonight's action.
• Patrick Ruffini is en route as we speak and promises to be "blogging, vlogging, and Twittering throughout the event."  He'll be hitting the spin room afterward to "turn the camera on the media types" so this is a must-visit post-game stop.
• John Hawkins is also live-blogging and doesn't expect to see snowmen questions, because he's heard that, "some of the candidates, as a condition of participating, told CNN they didn't want to take any ridiculous questions that demeaned the presidency."
• While not a liveblog per se, Power Line is hosting a dedicated debate forum where you'll be able to see what other people (read: thousands of Ron Paul bots and zombies) think.
• Finally, Hot Air will undoubtedly be liveblogging and/or hosting an open thread.  There's no page yet, but I'll update later once it's up.  This will likely be the best repository for prompt video highlights.  Relatedly, Michelle Malkin has a pre-game coverage roundup.

As for predictions, allow me to pick some very low-hanging fruit:  1) Rudy and Mitt will ratchet up the meanness against each other.  2) Huckabee will have the best line of the night.  3) Ron Paul zombies will infiltrate the venue, sloughing flesh, eating brains, and causing an only slightly lesser disturbance than a typical Code Pink disruption.  4) CNN will make racist, xenophobic hay of Romney's unwillingness to implement a Muslim affirmative action program in his Cabinet and will use the issue as an excuse to remind the country that Romney's religion is creepy.

Update:  Hot Air is raising the stakes with a live vlog, the page for which has now been posted.

Tonight as the GOP presidential candidates square off with the YouTube generation, answering questions picked by CNN, we’ll be right here live and on the air to react to, discuss, weigh and possibly mock the proceedings. The video/audio stream will be in this post, so come back here at 8 pm Eastern to hang out and chat with us.