Some of the highlights of the first hour of last night’s first-of-the-cycle Republican primary debate in Simi Valley, Calif.:

Mayor Giuliani: Got the first question. Seconds it took for him to tout his record in New York City: 1. Seconds it took for him to invoke President Reagan: 10. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Senator McCain: Comes out of the gate swinging to prove he’s not the Democrats’ favorite Republican. He lays into Senator Reid & Co. on the question of withdrawal. “What were they cheering,” he asks, “surrender?”

Governor Huckabee: He’s asked if he would have fired Defense Secretary Rumsfeld sooner. This leads to the first frontal attack of the night on President Bush: “I think I would have done that before the election. I certainly wouldn’t have said that we are not going to do it and after the election done so. But that’s the president’s call. Clearly there was a real error in judgment.”

Governor Gilmore: The moderator asks him a question. America has its own question: “Who are you? And why are you here?”

Mr. McCain: Fred Thompson isn’t in Simi Valley tonight — he’s the elephant not in the room — but Chris Matthews invokes him anyway: Mr. Thompson says Iran has already committed acts of war. What does Mr. McCain think? Iran is exporting IEDs, terrorists attacking Israel, “poses one of the greatest threats to the security of the world. … We cannot allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.” But, Mr. Matthews presses, what would be the trip wire? “If they acquire these weapons and our intelligence tells us that this is a real threat to the state of Israel, to other states in the region.”

Governor Romney: He’s put on the spot about his recent comments suggesting that catching Osama bin Laden isn’t that big a deal. He corrects course — severely. “Of course we get Osama bin Laden. … We’ll move everything to get him. … But I don’t want to buy into the Democratic pitch that this is all about one person. … It’s more than Osama bin Laden, but he is going to pay, and he will die.”

Mr. McCain: He’s asked whether he’d be comfortable with Tom Tancredo as head of the INS in a McCain administration. “In a word, no,” Mr. McCain says. But he has to get in on that bin Laden question (it’s time for all the candidates to show how tough they can talk): “I’ll follow him to the gates of hell.”

Ahnold: Chris Matthews asks a clever question. With Governor Schwarzenegger in the crowd, will the candidates look him in the eye and tell him whether they ‘d change the Constitution to allow people who weren’t born in America to run for president? Perhaps afraid of looking soft on immigration, eight of 10 candidates say they wouldn’t change the Constitution. Mr. McCain gets in a good line: “It depends on whether he endorses me or not.” Mr. Giuliani says he would amend the Constitution.

Mr. Romney: He’s asked a truly odd question: What’s his least favorite thing about America? He answers the only way possible: “I love America.” Panderer!

Mr. Giuliani: Lastly, Mr. Giuliani gets nailed by a question on abortion. Would the day Roe v. Wade is overturned be a good day? “It would be okay,” he says, sounding rather casual. The answer goes downhill from there.