Congratulations to ABC News for the format of Saturday night’s Republican and Democratic debates from New Hampshire. Despite the staggering number of debates in this campaign cycle, this was really the first time that there was any real back-and-forth between candidates. The first 45 minutes of each debate was essentially a free-for-all.
On the Republican side, one thing is sure. Nobody on that stage likes former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He’s viewed as a wealthy venture capitalist who is a newcomer to conservatism trying to buy the GOP nomination. Both Senator John McCain and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee attempted shots at Romney’s variable policy positions.
Mitt’s problems pre-date his current Presidential run. In his 1994 Massachusettes Senate race against Ted Kennedy, Romney described himself as a moderate Pro-Choice Republican. In their debate, Kennedy called him “not Pro-Choice, but multiple choice.” Romney’s many “flip-flops” will haunt him as long as he hangs on to his Presidential ambitions.
In my view, there was no clear winner in the Republican debate, although former Senator Fred Thompson fared best. The hangdog Law and Order star was quick with a quip and demonstrated some wonky credibility on the subject of terrorism. Mayor Rudy Guiliani, was solid playing his now familiar trump card – his handling of 9/11 and the continuing threat of Islamic terrorism, McCain was mistake-free and statesmanlike and Ron Paul did what Ron Paul does.
This debate, however, was about Romney. Today on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos pointed out that he “watched Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, all of them jumping on, and it seems like they have almost a visceral dislike of you.” The Governor countered by saying he’s “in a pretty good position” and believes that voters will wonder why his opponents are more focused on insults than issues.”
Regardless of Romney’s spin, by late Tuesday, I suspect that he will have come from ahead to lose the first 2 contests in the race for the GOP nomination, and it’s not all that long ago that he appeared to be a sure-thing in Iowa and New Hampshire. McCain and Huckabee have determined that knocking Romney out of the race is their surest path to the nomination. Giuliani and Thompson also benefit from an early Mitt exit.
The polls say that McCain is surging toward a repeat of his 2000 win in New Hampshire, and the question becomes how close can Huckabee get to Romney’s total. Then it’s onto Michigan where a damaged Romney is a favorite son, Huckabee is running 2nd and McCain won 8 years ago over Bush. Then comes South Carolina where Huckabee seems to have a solid lead thanks to the evangelical base there.
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