Republican debate candidates brace for Iowa fight night



By ALEXANDER BURNS & MAGGIE HABERMAN | 8/11/11 4:27 AM EDT

Forget about the pledges of civility and the widespread reluctance to engage in explicit personal attacks. The polite phase of the 2012 campaign is about to come to an end.

When eight Republicans face off in the first Iowa debate Thursday night, almost all of them will be feeling pressure to get noticed — and get tougher.

That’s because in the two months since the last debate — a stiff, largely uneventful New Hampshire forum — few of the GOP hopefuls have done anything to shake up the low-key, largely civil primary race. Among the declared candidates, only Michele Bachmann is on the move, and her Iowa-centric surge has yet to put a scare into national front-runner Mitt Romney.

That could begin to change Thursday evening, as a pack of lagging hopefuls seeks to make up ground on the eve of the Ames Straw Poll by taking on Romney and Bachmann.

“This is that window where the candidates can rise to the occasion or crumble. We’ll look back on this in about five months and the field won’t look anything like it does now because some people will have risen to this moment,â€