Republican Presidential Debate Tonight on ABC Likely to be “Pile-On Newt Gingrich Night” – Debate Preview 12/10/11

ATTENTION: Watch a Live Video Feed of the Debate at 9:00 PM

The GOP Presidential Candidates will square-off tonight in a debate in Des Moines, Iowa, just 24 days ahead of the January 3, 2012, Iowa Caucuses. The debate will air on ABC at 9:00 PM ET, and will be moderated by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos. We can expect the questions to be geared toward making all the Republicans look bad, and building Obama up. Questions like – “Why aren’t you Republicans as cool and amazing as President Obama!”

The wider script for the debate is already a sure thing: Frontrunner Newt Gingrich is going to get hammered from all sides by GOP rivals who are desperate to stop his advance and provide fuel to their sagging campaigns. The details of exactly how that plays out during the debate is yet unknown. But there are some clues.

Michele Bachmann is likely to go after Gingrich with her newly minted “frugal socialist” attack, trying to cast Gingrich as a big-government guy. Romney is likely to attack Gingrich on immigration and for being a Washington insider. Ron Paul may hit Gingrich for changing his positions on things over the years, and Santorum could go after him for not being a consistent Conservative in his principles in a variety of ways. All of these candidates can go on the attack because they, with the exception of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, are unlikely to be attacked much because their numbers are just not that great.

Whether Gingrich responds to the attacks or simply brushes them off is a key question mark about how the debate unfolds. Gingrich could very plausibly say once the attacks begin: “I did not attack my colleagues when I was 2% in the polls, and I won’t attack them now. If they choose to do so out of desperation, that’s their prerogative. But I’m staying focused on Barack Obama and I think that’s where the voters are focused.” Gingrich did not attack his rivals when he was floundering in the polls, and if he wants to do so, he could use that as a very powerful response to the kitchen-sink attacks that will be headed his way.

Gingrich is certainly riding high in the polls right now, and if he can weather the attacks over the next two weeks, the Christmas Holiday could freeze the race in place until the actual voting day. So, even though there have been so many debates already, this one feels like it has more significance – and it probably actually does.

What do you expect to happen tonight?