The Republican presidential candidates met in Los Angeles last night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for an NBC and Politico hosted debate. Although all the major GOP candidates were in attendance, the focus was squarely on newcomer and recent frontrunner, Texas governor Rick Perry.
With a bullseye on his back, Perry was the target of the night and the subject of heated discussion. He and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney engaged in a back and forth “tit-for-tat” over everything from their job creation records, to their positions on health care and Social Security.
“When I came in as governor, we were in a real free-fall,” Romney said. “But unemployment was 4.7% when I left office,” the former frontrunner continued.
Perry rebutted that although Romney had a great record creating jobs in private business, he had very little luck doing so as a political leader. When Perry said he helped create 1 million jobs in the past decade, Romney countered that Texas had advantages over Massachusetts, including no income tax, a lucrative oil and gas industry, and fewer unions.
Romney also criticized Perry over his anti-Washington book “Fed Up,” where Perry referred to Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme.”
“A candidate should be committed to saving Social Security,” Romney said, making the point that Perry’s position could make him vulnerable to Democratic attacks in a general election campaign should he win the Republican nomination. But Perry stood by his “Ponzi scheme” remark, saying “maybe it’s time to have provocative language” because the current Social Security system will fail younger Americans.
But the line of the night came when Perry took a shot at Romney, saying “[former Democratic Mass. Gov.] Michael Dukakis created jobs 3 times faster than you did Mitt,” to which Romney replied: “As a matter of fact, George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor!” a personal dig to Perry, who has an extremely poor relationship with former president George W. Bush.
Although most of the criticism from fellow candidates was aimed primarily at Perry and Romney, the remaining bunch also took turns knocking Mr. Obama for his policies on energy, Libya, the minimum wage and health care reform. Michele Bachmann tried to call attention to her sinking candidacy by saying President Obama has weakened the U.S. military presence across the globe. Surprisingly, Rick Perry congratulated the president for capturing and killing Osama Bin Laden, as well as for keeping the Guantanamo Bay prison camp open.
The candidates now have a few days to regroup and prepare for the next debate, which will be a CNN hosted tea party debate this coming Monday.
Quote of the Day"Gov. Perry's responses were shaky, simplistic and grammatically challenged. He actually makes GWB sound like an Ivy League scholar!" ~ Commenter @The Washington ExaminerI watched the entire debate and afterwards thought__really only 2 people should've been on that stage, Huntsman and Romney (neither of which is a favorite of the Repub Tea-party base). NONE of the candidates spelled out a specific plan for tackling even ONE critical issue this country faces right now. But compared to EVERYBODY else on stage, Huntsman and Romney came across as articulate, SANE and reasonably intelligent, which makes both of them NON-favorites of the base. IMO, Huntsman did better then Mitt and I think he'd actually pose the greater challenge for Pres. Obama next Nov. However, Huntsman's chances of winning the GOP nomination are slim to NONE. Mitt "the shapeshifter" pretends to be whatever the Repub base wants him to be. When the media began hyping Perry as the front-runner I stood firm that Mitt is the man to beat for the nomination. I still believe that that's the case UNLESS tea-party voters decide "DAMN ELECTABILITY. RICK IZ OUR MAN." Which brings… Read more »