Qué esperar del debate de esta noche en New Hampshire

Union Leader:

The debate is sponsored by the New Hampshire Union Leader, CNN and WMUR and runs tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. at St. Anselm College's Sullivan Arena.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, businessman Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum are scheduled to participate.

(...) “Most of them are looking to build name recognition,” said Dean Spiliotes, a political science professor at Southern New Hampshire University who runs a political blog, nhpoliticalcapital.com. “The way to build name recognition is by being at the mike and saying something interesting.”

Spiliotes said he is looking to see how the other candidates will respond to Romney, who has been consistently leading the polls. Four years ago, Republican candidates “ganged up” on Romney, he said. Romney placed second in the New Hampshire primary in 2008 to the eventual Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Deborah Jordan Brooks, an assistant professor of government at Dartmouth College, said early debates rarely result in focused attacks, as candidates usually try to stay on message and not run the risk of alienating themselves from voters.

“You will generally tend to see candidates in front of the pack such as Romney focusing on promoting positive messages and probably also on attacking President Obama, rather than on attacking the other primary contenders,” she said. “But the fun of primary debates, especially early on, is that they are not predictable. And this Republican primary, in particular, does not lend itself to easy predictions.” (...)