So I’ve decided to live-blog the first official GOP presidential debate here at 9:00 PM EDT. That means I’ll knock off regular blogging early, if only to collect thoughts before watching the kiddie table forum at 5:00 EDT. And then I’ll be back at 8:00 PM or so to review the forum and then cover the debate.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.