This Sunday ABC's This Week featured the first debate in Iowa among all of the Republican candidates. As with every other similar event so far in the presidential campaign, this was less a debate than parallel press conferences; very few moments of interaction occurred between the candidates, and everyone seemed frustrated with their amount of face time.
George Stephanopoulos, the moderator, opened the event by confronting Mitt Romney with a robo-call paid for by the Sam Brownback campaign. The message highlighted Romney's pro-choice history, but the former Massachusetts governor dismissed the calls as "desperate " and "negative,"--the back and forth between Brownback and Romney got a little testy. As Romney explains--in a somewhat peevish tone of voice--"I was pro, pro-choice; I am now pro-life.… I changed my position." He gets some support from the crowd when he admits to being tired of the "holier than thou " attitude of his opponents on the issue. When a statement Romney made about Rudy Giuliani's stance on social issues is brought up, Romney backtracks a little, saying that the former New York City mayor should be allowed to voice his own thoughts, and Rudy gladly does so:
"I support the second amendment. … I clearly believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, though I do support domestic partnerships and still do. A contractual relationship. And I believe the best way we can have common ground in this debate that you're hearing is if we put our emphasis on reducing abortions and increasing the number of adoptions, which is something I did as mayor of New York City. But I think ultimately that decision that has to be made is one that the government shouldn't make."
In one of the odder moments of the debate, McCain tried to connect abortion to his main strength, national security, by saying that America's approach to abortion "says very much what kind of a country we are in our respect for human life; whether it be here in the United States, or whether it be in China or Bangladesh or the Congo, or anywhere else in the world."
Ron Paul spoke about the war in Iraq much as he has in the past, announcing he would "Just come home. … We went in there illegally, we did not declare war, it's lasting way too long. … We shouldn't be there, we oughta just come home." The libertarian has a disproportionate amount of supporters in the audience; though he's polling at just two percent, according to the ABC/Washington Post poll cited at the beginning of the debate, he definitely has more than two percent of the audience cheering for him. Rep. Duncan Hunter is given a chance to respond, and makes a strong case for the American presence in Iraq.
"I watched the Democrat debate. I watched them say, as my colleague has said, just bring them home, come home, and it was a race to see who could stampede for the exit the quickest. And you know something? The Marines in Anbar province, which is almost half of Iraq, have turned that situation around. They've brought the communities there fighting on our side against al Qaeda. [Massive cheers, easily louder than Paul's defeatist friends.] Not a single Democrat candidate paused in their rush for the exit to say to our Marines, ‘Good job. You guys are fighting and achieving with blood, sweat, and tears what this country needs.' We've got our best military leadership in Iraq right now; we're standing up the Iraqi military, the 129 battalions, when they are stood up, reliable and battle ready, they rotate onto the battlefield they displace American heavy combat forces. That's the right way to lead, not a stampede for the exits."
The response from the crowd was impressive and made Paul's support seem minimal by comparison. The rest of the candidates touched on the topic: McCain warned that if we don't get the job done right the first time, we'll just have to go back; Giuliani mentioned that in the Democratic debate, not one of the candidates used the phrase "Islamic terrorism"; Romney broke out one of the best lines in the debate (and elicited some chuckles from the crowd) when he mocked Barack Obama's foreign policy plan--"I had to laugh at what I saw Barak Obama do. In one week he went from saying he's going to sit down for tea with our enemies, but he's going to bomb our allies. He's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week."
At this point, Rep. Tom Tancredo broke in, petulantly noting "there are other people here in the room, George. I mean, after all, I did miss votes to get here." Well, no offense Mr. Tancredo, but your time probably would have been better spent making sure the House passed the Protect America Act than making an appearance at this dog and pony show.
