MSNBC GOP Debate Tonight

Some details of the MSNBC Republican debate tonight (9-10:30 PM) that will be broadcasted both on MSNBC & MSNBC.com. Although they have reason to hype it, Chuck Todd, MSNBC's top political analyst is calling the debate a do well-or-die for some candidates. Huckabee, Romney, McCain and Guiliani all need to have a great nights due to the close nature of the debate and the fact that at least 25% of Florida voters are still undecided as to who they will vote for. Expect Romney to be slammed by Huckabee and McCain and Guiliani, and for Guiliani to also attack McCain. Should be interesting...

Here's some of the details:

From Marc Ambinder's blog on the Atlantic
"The podium order for tonight's Republican presidential debate is:, from left to right, audience view: Romney, McCain, Giuliani, Paul Huckabee.

Brian Williams will be on stage left; Tim Russert will be on stage right. Twice, the audience will be brought into the conversation."

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"Candidates will have no opening or closing statements. They will be allowed in one portion to question one another. They will have 90 seconds to respond to questions and 30 seconds to make rebuttals at the discretion of the moderator, Brian Williams.'

The questions will come from Williams and Tim Russert, host of Meet the Press. Leadership Florida, one of the debate sponsors, has passed along questions that were solicited from the public through its Web site."

In other news, Dennis Kucinich apparently has decided to drop out of the race. That leaves only Edwards, Hillary & Obama in the Democrat primary race. If anything, this just helps either Obama or Ron Paul.