All eyes to be on Newt Gingrich at Iowa debate

The first Republican presidential debate in almost three weeks comes with no shortage of intrigue.

For one thing, the debate, which begins at 6 p.m. PST at Drake University in Des Moines and will be nationally televised on ABC, will be the first to feature Newt Gingrich and his suddenly surging candidacy as the main attraction. And it won’t be a surprise to see Gingrich’s rivals go gunning at his record as House speaker and his outside activities as a consultant to companies such as Freddie Mac.

In that regard, the candidate to watch will be Mitt Romney. For several days, Romney’s had surrogates picking Gingrich and his record apart, particularly his criticism earlier this year of Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan.

Will Romney rip Gingrich face-to-face or will he hope another candidate does it for him—perhaps someone like Rick Perry, who is doing everything he can to stay relevant in the race. Perry has launched an advertising blitz in Iowa, the site of the first Republican presidential contest in less than a month.

Romney, for the first time, is signaling that he, too, is in it to win it in the Hawkeye State. The debate comes at a pivotal time for the former Massachusetts governor, as Gingrich has emerged as the largest threat to date to Romney’s quest for the nomination.

Until now, Romney has largely had the luxury of sitting back in GOP debates, often seeming to be on cruise control, while others have engaged in combat. But it’s possible that Saturday could bring a different, more animated candidate.

How Gingrich bears the weight of expectations will be something else to keep an eye on. Earlier, as a more marginal candidate, Gingrich often pleaded for his fellow contenders to refrain from criticizing each other while continuously poking the media and often indulging his sometimes wandering rhetorical attention span. The question remains whether this debate will feature a more polished and tightly controlled candidate.

Then there is Ron Paul, quite possibly on course for a competitive finish in the Iowa caucuses. (Watch video below.) The most recent poll by the Des Moines Register showed Paul in second place, behind Gingrich. Paul, too, has been highly critical of the former House speaker. The question with Paul, as it usually is in forums such as this, is how his isolationist brand of foreign policy plays with voters beyond his dedicated band of supporters.

Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have made significant commitments to winning Iowa, but both continue to struggle in the polls. Now that time is running out, they have to hope that somehow Gingrich emerges damaged from this debate and one next week in Iowa so that they can make a late run.

With Herman Cain out of the race and Jon Huntsman skipping the debate to focus on winning New Hampshire, this will be the smallest crowd for a major debate yet. It just won’t be the same without frequent mentions of “9-9-9.”

This time around, it’s more likely to be Newt-Newt-Newt.