GOP candidates ready for CBS News/National Journal debate

SPARTANBURG, SC - Eight candidates looking to unseat President Obama will gather on stage at Wofford College Saturday night for a debate on national security and foreign policy hosted by CBS News and National Journal.

Watch the debate live here, starting at 8:00 PM ET

Special Report: The CBS News/National Journal debate

Submit a debate question: What do you want to ask the candidates?

The Spartanburg, South Carolina, debate is chance for Texas Gov. Rick Perry to revive his candidacy after a major flub Wednesday night in Michigan where he said he wants to eliminate three government agencies but could only name two of them. The awkward pause has been played over and over again on TV and the Internet since then. 

In the CBS News poll released Friday, Cain leads the field with 18 percent, followed by Romney and a surging Newt Gingrich at 15 percent. Perry is in fourth place in the poll with 8 percent, followed by Ron Paul at 5 percent, Michele Bachmann at 4 percent, Rick Santorum at 2 percent and Jon Huntsman at 1 percent.

The poll also showed that GOP primary voters consider Gingrich the presidential candidate most qualified to lead the military and handle an international crisis. He was cited by 31 percent of those surveyed, followed by Romney at 19 percent and Cain at 8 percent.

Meanwhile, political observers will be watching Herman Cain closely to see how he fares on matters of foreign policy. He has zero foreign policy experience, and may have the most to lose. Cain has been criticized as a Johnny one-note with his signature 9-9-9 tax plan and been immersed in battling sexual harassment accusations for the past two weeks. Saturday night's forum will be a signifcant test for the former restaurant executive.

Asked which GOP presidential candidate is most qualified to be commander-in-chief, Republican primary voters chose Romney more than any other candidate, at 26 percent. Gingrich took 21 percent, Cain 11 percent and Perry 9 percent. (Read more from the poll on Americans' views about foreign policy.)

CBS/NJ GOP debate tonight: 5 things to watch

South Carolina is key for Republican primary voters. Since 1980, the winner of the South Carolina primary has gone on to win the Republican nomination every time.

The race for the GOP nomination is still in flux, however. According the CBS News poll, 7 in 10 Republican primary voters say it is still too early to say for sure which candidate they will support.

Moderated by CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley and National Journal congressional correspondent Major Garrett, the debate airs at 8:00 p.m. ET on the CBS Television Network and will be webcast at CBSNews.com and NationalJournal.com. The final half hour will only be available online, except for the West Coast where the full debate will air on television.

After the debate, CBS News political analyst John Dickerson will host a post-debate webcast analysis of the candidates on CBSNews.com.

The debates are closely watched among Republican primary voters, 61 percent of whom said they have seen at least one in the latest CBS News poll. Slightly more than half of all voters have seen at least one debate so far.

Three in four Republican primary voters say the debate performances matter when they are deciding which candidate to back. About 30 percent said they are "very important" and another 46 percent said they are "somewhat important." About one in four voters said debate performances do not matter at all when they are choosing a candidate.

Among the questions to be answered tonight:

Can Perry clear the low bar of expectations? Will Gingrich contain himself? Can Cain get back on message? For five key things to watch, check out Jan Crawford's analysis here.

Video: What to expect in the GOP debate

What does each candidate have at stake?

Rob Hendin contributed to this story.

[cbsnot]

where is Buddy, I think we should boycot the debate and tweet all night "Where is Buddy"

[Tahuaya]

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have never served in the military. Romney had a missionary deferment during Vietnam and spent time in France then when he returned, he got a college deferment. Upon graduation, he drew a high number in the draft and never served. Newt Gingrich was adopted by a military family and raised on several bases but never served himself.

I tire of Republican war mongers wanting to send our service members off to war. George Bush Jr began two wars and one was optional, the one in Iraq. During Vietnam, he joined the Air National Guard and spent the war flying around the United States. There is even some question about his doing all his required training.

Compare this with George Bush Sr who had to send our troops to war during the first Gulf War. He stopped the war as soon as possible and got us out. He had fought during World War II and had some idea what war was like.

I do not think military service is essential for being president but when you have a trigger happy candidate such as Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich I think some war experience might give them a much needed perspective. These two candidates need to spend a couple of weeks in an outpost in Afghanistan and get a feel for what they are planning to do to our military service members.

At least Obama is trying to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan and kept our military members out of Lybia.

[Rocko191]

Save your money and time, Paul will never get the nod.

The main thing is get Obama out of the House..

http://www.cspanvideo.org/program/VicePresidentialCandidate ....

Would love to see Palin as Romney's VP..
24,000 emails and Palin comes out smelling like a ROSE..
Romney is the only other one of the bunch that would come out clean..Romney and Palin are the only two I would trust with my money and life, (National security)
Obama, Perry, Cain, Christie, Newt, would all go right to jail if they ever had 24,000 emails exposed...Obama, Perry, Christie would never get out..

Sheriff Joe to replace Janet at Homeland Security
Jeff Sessions to replace the crook Eric Holder..
Palin if not VP then to replace the other crook, Salazar at the EPA...If Palin gets VP, then Bachmann to head EPA..
Mark levin, Allen West, Michell Malkin, Carol Swain somewhere in Romneys cabinet..

Drill Baby Drill...

[noloyalisti]

The Republicons hate Ron Paul because he does not want to spend all out money taking over countries for the Top 1%. Everyone else hates Ron Paul because he does not like old people, women, children, minorities, the poor or the government.

Did I mention he does not care about the environment?

[noloyalisti]

What are they ready for. Yet another round of seeing who is the most extremist sellout to the Top 1%. Who can fool enough fellow Repubicons into stupidly voting to cheat and steal even more of their money.

I am still waiting for one good thing a Republicon has done for anyone personally. Time to sweep the failed and obsolete party of Death and Spending into the Dust Bin of History. Enough embarrassment already.

[DRPAUL12]

Debate what a joke the only man that can lead this country back to prosperity through social and economic balance via freedom instead of militarism that these other NEO-CONS support and you give him 89 seconds!!!!CBS you sicken me like the rest of these scum bag candidates do. Cain, supports tarp supported Romney care, Fed scum bag banker! Romney- romneycare flip flop extraordinaire, Perry god help us!!, Newt, supported bailouts support global warming agenda war monger!! Bachmann insane Patriot Act supporter RON PAUL IS THE ONLY CHOICE WHO CAN SAVE AMERICA!!!!

[noloyalisti]

Except he hate union and worker rights, social security, Medicare, environmental protection, women's rights. He's a Republicon, only worse.

[wolverina]

I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS COMMENT! Every one of us has to get out and vote. RON PAUL IS THE ONLY CHOICE WHO CAN SAVE AMERICA!!!!

[wolverina]

It has taken me 2 hrs. to be able to leave this comment. I am getting more and more disgusted with how Ron Paul is being excluded and ignored both during the debates and in the media in general. The 'Powers That Be' have a vested intrest to make sure that the masses follow blindly along and make a popular choice when voting whether it be Republican or Democrat. We all need to put on our on 'thinking caps' and really listen. Ron Paul makes the most sense and would truly be a vote for Change to keep our country FREE.

[richardbl-2009]

What don't you people understand? Romney is your candidate. The media will NEVER allow a principled conservative like Ron Paul obtain the nomination. Accept it and move on.

[gary4909]

If Roosevelt declared war on the economy to end the depression, and was given presidential powers to help in the fight against the down economy. There was never a declared end to that war as we moved into world war 2 and have been kept in a state of war or marshal action to this day. So if we are in a war to turn our economy around as president Roosevelt declared, then is not every company that sends jobs overseas or to any country other than keeping them here in the United States as guilty as the individual that was fighting with our enemies in the middle east? They are Benedict Arnold's of our day and should be asked to leave this country and take their families with them and live in the country they are sending the jobs to, they are guilty of treason to the United State of America at a time of war. How would Gingrich handle this type of treason is there two standard or is there just one for people committing treason to our country. The breaking down of our country either by violent actions or by distroying our country from within by underminding the people welfare in exchange for a few more dollars of profit are just as equally guilty of distroying our country and it's future.

[ccmist]

Why sponsor a debate and then cut the last 3rd of it off? Went to live feed and it was awful, blip-ping in and out. Never heard an entire question or response. Tried to find post debate poll...good luck with that. This is one of the least user friendly sites I have dealt with. I'll stick to Fox and Politico...thank you very much.