CAMPAIGN STARTS TONIGHT – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  The 2012 presidential campaign essentially starts tonight, with the first debate among GOP contenders, in South Carolina.  Unfortunately, a good part of the field is staying home, making for an anemic, unimpressive start, as WaPo points out:

Normally, the first debate of the presidential primary season serves as a starting gun. The one that will take place on Thursday night could sound more like a distress call.

Consider the contrast with this very week four years ago, when a field of 10 Republican contenders lined up for the first time, onstage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. It included four former governors, two sitting senators, three members of the House and a former New York City mayor who had become something of a national hero for his leadership in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The group that assembles for the Fox News-South Carolina GOP debate in Greenville, S.C., on Thursday will be half the size — and distinguished more by who isn’t there than by who is. Of the presumed top-tier candidates and most-buzzed-about names, only former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty has agreed to show up.

That fact alone speaks to the turbulence and uncertainty of a political party known for the orderly way in which it usually picks its nominee, with its all-but-predetermined outcome.

With the strongest possible contenders holding back — not just from debating, but also from gearing up their campaign operations — a queasiness is setting in among Republicans about whether their field will be strong enough to produce a standard-bearer who can beat an incumbent.

COMMENT:  No Romney tonight.  No Huck, no Sarah, no Michelle, no Mitch Daniels or Newt, and, of course, no Marco Rubio.  We get Pawlenty, but we also get Herman Cain of Godfather Pizza, the terminally unbalanced Ron Paul, some former governor of New Mexico named Johnson, and Rick Santorum.

We yearn for the A-team.  In fact, we yearn for there to be an A-team.  Look, we'll even take a debate with the B- or C-team.  But tonight's debate doesn't have much anticipation factor.  While we'll take a peek, the insignificance of the event is underwhelming.

May 5, 2011