We’re underway.

Thompson: My name is Thompson. Tommy. I’m the candidate, not the actor.

He missed a good chance to do the James Bond line. “The name’s Thompson… Tommy Thompson.”

Huckabee begins with a good line, saying that he is from Hope, Arkanasas, and that the community wants one more chance to send a good president. (paraphrased)

Ron Paul adds that he is “the champion of the constitution.”

We’ve gotten two odd buzzer sounds in the background.

Mitt Romney – if Saddam had opened his country to inspectors, and we saw he had no weapons of mass destruction, we wouldn’t be in the war that we’re in now… Harry Reid is wrong. We didn’t lose the war in Iraq. That’s not the sort of thing you say when men and women are in harm’s way.

Wolf says he didn’t answer the question, because he didn’t say what we know now. Romney says it’s an unreasonable hypothetical, because it presupposes we would somehow know that Iraq had no WMDs.

Rudy: Absolutely the right thing to do. Can’t leave Saddam in control of Iraq in the war on terror. Democrats are in denial. Democrats said Iran is ten years away from nuclear weapons. It’s closer than ten years.

McCain: I didn’t read NIE, I got hundreds of hours of briefings.

Brownback: I will introduce tomorrow a plan for a three-state solution in Iraq.

Gilmore: People ought to at least read that kind of material (NIE). Need stability in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein was instable. But it was followed by other kinds of instability.

Q: If surge hasn’t significantly improved situation?

McCain: I know how frustrated and saddened American people are. Talks of meeting soldier’s family. This strategy needs a chance to succeed. If we fail, they will follow us home. It will be a base for al-Qaeda.

When Sen. Clinton said Iraq was President Bush’s war, she was wrong… When her husband was President, I didn’t say Bosnia was President Clinton’s war, nor Kosovo. Presidents don’t lose wars, parties don’t lose wars, nations lose wars, and we must prevail. Gets applause.

Thompson: Demand Maliki government vote on whether we stay. If they say yes, how will they help us win? If they say no, we redeploy… split oil revenue.

Duncan Hunter: I read the NIE and held the briefings. We need reliable Iraqi forces. We’ve got a lot of them in the fight, we need to get all of them in. Americans will come home. I have credentials to leave Iraq the right way.

Paul: Leave, sooner the better. It was a mistake to go, it is a mistake to stay. We’re more threatened now by staying.

Huckabee: I have doubts about Maliki. Today is Reagan’s birthday. We believe Reagan brought about end of the Soviet Union Taliban believes they brought about the demise of the Soviet Union. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight of the dog, and we grossly underestimate how much fight is in this dog.

Brownback: We have to, at times, talk with Iran. Before we went into Afghanistan, we talked with them, but it wasn’t negotiating. We need to confront them aggressively for what they are… Recognize the labor union unrest in Iran, protesting groups.

Hunter: Conditions on Iran talk – they’re moving bombs across border into Iraq. They’ve got 1,000 centrifuges working. U.S. reserves right to pre-empt that nuclear device. Other than that, talk to them.

Hunter: Use nuclear weapons if no other options. Don’t think it will take tactical nukes.

Rudy: Part of the premise of talking to Iran is that it is unacceptable that they have nuclear power. (?) Don’t take any option off the table. Democrats were back in the Cold War. Saw last week attempt to attack JFK, we had attempt to attack Fort Dix. This war is not a bumper sticker, this war is a real war.