GOP Presidential Candidates to Debate on NBC Tonight in Florida – Preview 1/23/12

UPDATE: WATCH LIVE VIDEO of the NBC GOP Presidential Debate. It will begin at 9 PM ET.

NOTE: The GOP Debate tonight will be on NBC at 9 PM ET. It does not show up on the DirecTV listing. But if you go to the website of your local NBC station, you should see it listed in the programming schedule. It will last for 2 hours from what I can tell.

The remaining four GOP Presidential Candidates will face-off tonight in a Presidential Debate on NBC. The debate will begin at 9:00 PM ET, and will be moderated by NBC News anchor Brian Williams, along with help from National Journal, and the Tampa Bay Times.

This debate comes just two days after Newt Gingrich’s shocking victory in South Carolina by more than 12 points over Mitt Romney. The debate will be held in Florida, where the candidates are now battling eight days ahead of the Florida Primary.

Newt Gingrich had better be ready for some heavy fire from all sides – from the questioners, from Mitt Romney who is desperate to turn his fortunes around, and from Rick Santorum who needs a game-changer to replace Gingrich as the anti-Romney conservative alternative. But as he did twice last week, Gingrich can take the attacks and turn them into positives by attacking the media or the Left. I would look for Gingrich to try and sound like the settled conservative choice to take on Barack Obama. Look for him to launch direct sound-bite attacks on Barack Obama and the Left, the way he has done against the media in past debates.

Romney will go after Gingrich on Freddie Mac, on his ethics while in Congress, and on Gingrich’s stability. Romney will portray Gingrich as too volatile and unstable for Republicans to take a chance on him.

Santorum will attack both Romney and Gingrich as “not true conservatives,” and will continue to tout his victory in Iowa (by 34 votes) and say that only he can win in blue states like Pennsylvania.

Ron Paul will hammer on his themes of cutting the budget by $1 Trillion in his first year as President. He may face some tough questions about his newsletters and questions on whether his candidacy is really about winning or just a protest movement.

It will be fascinating to see if Gingrich can withstand all the fire that will come his way and keep his momentum going.