Live-blogging the Republican debate

[EV_Ares]

Update at 7:22: Giuliani says you can't rule out using a tactical nuclear device to disable Iran's nuclear bomb program. "You shouldn't take any option off the table. Iran is a threat, a nuclear threat ... because they are the biggest state sponsor of terrorism and they can hand nuclear materials to terrorists." Romney agrees.

Update at 7:18 p.m. ET: USA TODAY politics editor Catalina Camia notes that it's not Reagan's birthday. He was born Feb. 6, 1911.

Update at 7:15 p.m. ET: Huckabee is the first to mention Ronald Reagan. He says today is Reagan's birthday.

Update at 7:14 p.m. ET: McCain is asked what will happen in September if the surge strategy fails in Iraq. "You have to examine the options," he said, and all of them are bad. One is a partition plan supported by Brownback and Thompson.

McCain says Hillary Clinton shouldn't call Iraq "President Bush's war." "I didn't say that Bosnia was Pesident Cinton's war," he said.

Update at 7:09 p.m. ET Romney says "we did the right thing based on what we knew at the time" in Iraq. Giuliani and McCain agree. Romney and McCain say the aftermath was mismanaged.

Update at 7:03 p.m. ET: Tommy Thompson makes the first allusion to Fred Thompson. "My name is Thompson. Tommy. I'm the candidate, not the actor."

Update at 6:55 p.m. ET CNN's Mara Gassmann says candidates won't be raising their hands tonight, Rich Wolf reports from New Hampshire.

"Frankly, I think we did too much" in the Democratic debate Sunday, she said. "There are times when it is good to get a consensus from the group and Wolf can accomplish that without a show of hands." See our post on the show-of-hands syndrome in that debate Sunday.

Gassmann also says CNN chooses where the candidates stand, which is how the three Democratic frontrunners ended up in the center. "It makes for better television," she said.

Original post: You can follow tonight's Republican presidential debate right here throughout the evening. We'll be using this post for updates throughout the event.

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