The top Republican candidates for their party's nomination for the presidency will square off Monday night in the first serious debate in the presidential primary season. The debate is likely to focus on the economy, which an emphasis on jobs and health care. 

Mitt Romney at CPAC (Creative Commons)

Pundits will watch as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will attempt to preserve his front-runner status. If the debate focuses on jobs, it will line up with his recent talking points. If the candidates spar over health care, Romney will be in trouble. As a recent New Yorker profile points out, his Massachusetts health care plan was the basis of the "individual mandate" provision in President Barack Obama's health care law. 

This debate will also show whether or not outsider candidates, such as pizza mogul Herman Cain, can be true contenders. Newt Gingrich will try to revive his own campaign, which suffered another setback last week when much of his team quit. Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul will also take part. Jon Huntsman will sit out.

Beyond the political jockeying, what remains to be seen is whether any of the candidates have a credible plan for job creation. The most recent report showed that the economy added only 53,000 jobs in May, which signals a slowdown in payroll growth. Romney has vocally berated Obama for referring to this as a "bump in the road."

Meanwhile, Obama's most recent suggestions for economic recovery have, as Jared Bernstein points out, aligned with Republican supply-side ideology. Republicans and Obama both want to cut corporate taxes, instance, the hopes that they will encourage businesses to hire again.

However, economists and liberals are increasingly calling for more demand-side solutions. Paul Krugman has gone as to suggest politically impossible WPA-like programs. Former Treasury secretary Larry Summers has called for another round of government stimulus. Furthermore, recent reports have contested the conventional wisdom that the Bush-era tax cuts were helpful for the economy. Those ideas are unlikely to get any play in the debate.

The debate airs at 8 p.m. EDT on CNN.

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