Except for a brief time before his exit when I decided to vote for Fred Thompson, this presidential contest marks the first time in my entire life I have been undecided in a GOP nomination fight.

Going into tonight’s debate at the Ronald Reagan Library, I was strongly considering voting for Sen. John McCain, in spite of McCain-Feingold and other heresies. After watching McCain in action tonight, he’d have to make a heckuva case in the next few days to keep me from voting for Romney.

There were a number of flash points tonight that pushed me away from going with McCain. First was his exchange with Mitt Romney over his charge that Romney supported fixed timetables for withdrawal. McCain was obviously misrepresenting what Romney said. Even Anderson Cooper pointed out that Romney had not called for publicly fixing deadlines for withdrawal.

Yet even after his misrepresentation was made plain to him, McCain stuck to his story and continued insisting that Romney had said something that Romney clearly had not — and at that point it just becomes a lie. And that’s significant for a man who has built his campaign on honor, straight talk and… Read More

Nothing. This is getting irritating.… Read More

In between 3:40 pmand 7:32 pm today I received 14 different press releases at the same email address from Team Romney, 11 of them literally in a 62 minute time span between 6:09 and 7:11 pm.

I’ve heard of trying to keep folks informed, but did the Romney Press Shop want me to watch the debate or read their barrage? After the fifth one, it became drivel, quickly going to the trash. I’m not exactly a big John McCain partisan, but excessiveness is not becoming the Romney camp. I don’t know whether to think he’s grasping at straws or be embarrassed by the clumsiness of such a "media effort."… Read More

If you accept the notion that John McCain is the frontrunner for the nomination, then if you are Mitt Romney, you have to be on the offensive. You want John McCain in the hot seat. As we sit here, most of the way through this debate, clearly it has been Romney on the defense. If this doesn’t change, Romney’s ability to try and “win” the debate will be non-existant. McCain isn’t breaking a sweat tonight.… Read More

I’m not sure which is worse… CNN’s repeated cutting off of Ron Paul… Or the fact that Paul doesn’t seem to be capable of sticking up for himself…… Read More

We’ll assume that FR readers who care are watching the debate live, or will catch the video stream at CNN.com. Nick and I are so close…but yet so far. We’re upstairs in the Spin Room, which is just a few hundred feet from the Air Force One hanger where the debate is taking place. So far, 25 minutes into the debate, our point made below that there is no Ronald Reagan in the race is being reinforced. Neither Nick nor myself have been impressed thus far.… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger just did a brief media availability in the Spin Room. he made some general comments about how the field of candidates is winnowing, and he also lauded the decision to move CA’s Presidential Primary up to February. The Governor said that he will be appearing at an event tomorrow with McCain. When asked by SF Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci if he would be endorsing McCain, the Governor, wearing a big grin, was coy, and said that he had nothing to announce today… He did add that the dynamics of the race have changed, and that he had not wanted to weigh in with both Giuliani and McCain, both of whome had been helpful to him, in the race. T-minus 47 minutes to the debate…… Read More

Nick and I have been “working” the spin room for a while now. The big “to do” was the press conference where Rudy Giuliani threw his support to John McCain. We had virtually front row seats for the action. I’ve done quite a few media interviews, and CRP Chairman Ron Nehring has been doing twice as many… T-minus 71 minutes ’til the debate…… Read More