ABC News/Yahoo Iowa Republican Debate: The Candidates, Issues

Tonight, ABC News and Yahoo hosted six remaining Republican candidates for president at Drake University, in Des Moines, Iowa. Front-runner and former House speaker Newt Gingrich will face former Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Gov. Rick Perry, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, and former Sen. Rick Santorum.

Here is a transcript of some of the night's best (and worst) moments:

Where is Jon Huntsman?

Former Chinese ambassador and governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, who is polling last according to the RealClearPolitics average, is holding a New Hampshire town hall meeting, according to Salt Lake City's ABC4.

On Jobs

9:04 p.m. - Gingrich says lowering taxes and less regulation will create jobs, and invokes his experience with Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton in his ability to grow jobs in America.

9:06 p.m. - "Their not created in government, they are not created in Washington," Romney said.

9:07 p.m. - Ron Paul emphasizes the need to recognize why we really have an impression--excessive credit and dealing in the Federal Reserve system. "The debt is dumped on the people, and what did we do? We bailed out the people who" caused the issues to begin with. "I would like to cut, in the first year, $1 trillion."

9:08 p.m. - Perry: "Get rid of the regulatory burden that's killing people." Fingers corruption on Wall Street and regulation as the reason for the loss of jobs.

9:10 p.m. - Bachmann says she wants to embrace a pro-growth policy by creating a fairer tax code, making sure "everyone pays something." Legalizing American energy will create 1.5 million jobs, she said, while Obamacare would kill 1.5 million jobs over five years.

9:11 p.m. - "Barack Obama has given us a bevy of regulations that need to be repealed, including many which are driving up our energy costs," Santorum said. Puts emphasis on rural and small-town America in his jobs plan.

Payroll Tax Cut

9:14 p.m. - "We have to pay the Social Security checks that are going out. I am completely different from Barack Obama on this issue. We have candidates on this state who stand with Barack Obama on this issue," Bachmann said, without identifying which candidates side with the president.

9:16 p.m. - "People aren't investing in America because this president has made this country a less attractive place" to invest, Romney said.

9:17 p.m. - "The president of the United States runs around saying the Republicans" are going to harm Social Security, while he hasn't said how he will pay for it, Santorum quips. "You either care about Social Security and you want to pay for it, or you don't."

9:18 p.m. - Paul says he wants to cut hundreds of billions overseas. "American needs to stop being the policeman of the world," he said, adding, "We don't have to raise taxes to pay for Social Security."

Most Consistent Conservative

9:19 p.m. - Romney says he would not support Speaker Gingrich's view of lunar colony development, kids cleaning cafeterias, and siding with Nancy Pelosi on global warming. States he is from the private sector, not a career politician.

9:21 p.m. - "The only reason you didn't become a career politician is because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994," Gingrich shot back.

9:25 p.m. - "We don't need people are lifetime Washington people," Mitt said.

9:26 p.m. - "[Gingrich] has so many issues," Paul said. "He received a lot of money from Freddie Mac... I think this is something that the people need to know about." Paul adds, "I think there would be a little trouble for people to challenge me on consistency."

9:28 p.m. - Bachmann attacks "Newt-Romney" on liberal positions.

9:30 p.m. - "I did no lobbying," Gingrich responds.

9:30 p.m. - "You would have to go back to 1993 to find that Newt advocated for the individual mandate," Bachmann said. "Our nominee is someone who is a stark, distinct difference from Obama who can go toe-to-toe."

9:33 p.m. - "I am stunned, because Michele pretty much hit the nail on the head with the individual mandate and Newt and Mitt Romney," Perry said. "I wish you could have had the conversation with the people of Massachusetts a long time before you would with President Obama, because you are for individual mandates."

9:34 p.m. - Romney says Gingrich was for a federal individual mandate, while his health care plan was created by Massachusetts for Massachusetts. "It is wrong for health care, it is wrong for America and it is unconstitutional," Romney said. "You had a mandate, too," he said, reminding Perry of the HPV mandate he made in Texas.

9:35 p.m. - "In 1993, while I was fighting Hillarycare, the individual mandate" was less polarizing as it is now, Gingrich said.

9:38 p.m. - "Back in 1994, when I was running, Newt, I was a conservative and I did not support the individual mandate... you have since changed your position," Santorum said. The former Pennsylvania congressman said he is able to win more fights than Bachmann has.

On Marital Fidelity

9:49 p.m. - "I have always been of the opinion that if you cheat on your wife, you'd be willing to cheat on your business partners," Perry said. "Individuals who have been in infidelity with their spouse... sends a very powerful message."

9:49 p.m. - Santorum says a person's entire record is important. "I don't think [marital infidelity] is necessary" a campaign-killer, he said.

9:50 p.m. - "I think character is very important," Paul said, "but I don't think we should have to talk about. What is every bit important is our oath-of-office, and I think that is where quite a few people come up real short. If we kept that oath-of-office serious," Paul said we would be in a free and prosperous society.

9:53 p.m. - Bachmann says whether a man or woman will operate with integrity is the most important characteristic of a president, invoking The Federalist Papers. Says she became a Christian at 16 years old.

9:54 p.m. - "I've made mistakes, and I've had to go to God at some times," Gingrich said.

Immigration

9:55 p.m. - Diane Sawyer stipulates they all support securing the U.S. border with Mexico.

9:56 p.m. - Gingrich on Review Board: "I started with cases that are hard to argue about. People who have been her for 25 years, who may belong to your church... I do not believe the people of the United States are going to send the police to rip those people out. We should make deportation dramatically easier," make English the official language, and have a good guest worker program.

9:58 p.m. - "I believe anytime we start talking about a form of amnesty... that they are going to be able to stay here permanently," Romney said, "creating another magnet which will draw them illegally." Romney said we must secure the border first.

10 p.m. - Perry says everything is an intellectual discussion until we secure the border. "If this country would simply enforce the laws on the book," the Texas governor said, "we will have a substantially smaller number of people to make a decision about at that point of time."

On Newt Gingrich's Palestine Comments

10:02 p.m. - Paul said he believes in a non-interventionist foreign policy.

10:05 p.m. - "I happen to agree with much of what the Speaker [Newt Gingrich] says, except that the Palestinians are an invented people," Romney said. "We stand with the Israeli people, we link arms with them."

10:07 p.m. - "I didn't speak for the people of Israel, I spoke as a historian," Gingrich said. "It would be nice for an American to tell the truth about the war there..."

10:11 p.m. - "We have an ally, and the policy of this country should be to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our ally," Santorum said. "Mitt's point was the correct one. We need to be working with our ally."

10:12 p.m. "We have a president with a muddled foreign policy," Perry said. The governor said Newt's comments were becoming an issue exaggerated by the media. Instead, he said Obama's loss of the drone in Iran was more important.

On Personal Financial Strain

10:20 p.m. - Perry talks about the poverty he grew up with, and that luxury "was not in my lexicon."

10:22 p.m. - "I grew up with a dad who was poor," Romney said. "They made sure we had jobs when we were growing up, that we weren't spending foolishly... I am in this race, not because I didn't grow up with means, but because I...understand what it takes to create jobs again."

10:23 p.m. - Paul said he was in a "fairly poor" family during WWII, but did better in medical school because his wife worked for the both of them, to laughs from the audience. "The elimination of the middle class is going to get a lot worse if we continue to overspend, print more money," he said.

10:24 p.m. - Santorum said he grew up in a modest home, and blessed to have a mother and a father. With family breakdown, he said, poverty increases. 40 percent of single-parent homes are in poverty, he said.

10:26 p.m. - "We still clip coupons, we still shop at consignment shops," Bachmann said, remembering how the divorce of her parents and living with a single mother affected the family finances. "I know what it is like to be a single mother."

Individual Mandate Returns

10:30 p.m. - "For the federal government to do it, it is unconstitutional," Gingrich said. "I have been working on health issues since 1974, and I tried to find a way to break out of where we are because the third-party payment program wasn't working. We need to fundamentally re-think" how people are engaged in their own health care.

10:32 p.m. - Ron Paul: "Why should we have a candidate who should have to explain themselves? If you talk about Obamacare using force, but that is all government is is force. Do you have a choice on paying Medicare taxes? You have to stop the force. They have violated our whole concept of... the Constitution."

10:33 p.m. - "I happen to think it's the state's call," Perry said. "Congressman Paul and I disagree from time to time, but Americans are sick of Washington D.C. and the corruption. Washington D.C. is out of touch with the country." Perry said we should move to a part-time Congress, as Texas has with the state legislature, along with a balanced budget amendment.

One Thing You've Learned...

10:40 p.m. - Santorum said he's listened to Newt Gingrich's vision for conservative governance in a tough Pittsburgh congressional district. His conservative roots have distinguished him, he said.

10:42 p.m. - Perry: "Congressman Paul has got me very interested in the Federal Reserve," a subject the governor finds quite interesting. "The people of this country really want to get this country back on track."

10:43 p.m. - "One of the things about Ron Paul I find amazing is all the people holding up Ron Paul signs out there," Romney said. "This is a time America must return to principles and I will help restore it."

10:44 p.m. - Gingrich said Gov. Bransted (R-Iowa) influences him. "Rick Perry got me engaged three years ago about the 10th Amendment in a very big way, and Rick Santorum's consistency on Iran."

10:45 p.m. - "I work from the assumption that freedom brings people together," Paul said. "We shouldn't be fighting among ourselves, or fighting in Washington. If we all take the same oath-of-office, someone is messing up somewhere."

10:46 p.m. - Bachmann says Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan shows the power of being very plain-spoken. "People were very excited about that plan," she said. "I am going with 'win-win-win' rather than 9-9-9."

--Brandon De Hoyos, Guide to IM