The New Hampshire debate Monday night unfolded more than six months before the state hosts the first primary of the 2012 campaign, and the Republicans who shared a stage were plainly more interested in criticizing Obama than one another.
The seven Republican candidates ganged up on Obama, who remains popular but could be vulnerable in the 2012 race due to the staggering economy, high unemployment and steep gas prices.
Obama was hundreds of miles (kilometers) away on a day in which he blended a pledge to help companies create jobs during a visit to North Carolina with a series of campaign fundraisers in Florida. He won the two states in 2008, and both figure to be battlegrounds next year. He heads to Puerto Rico on Tuesday with an eye firmly placed on Puerto Ricans back on the mainland who could help him deliver at least one key state during his 2012 re-election campaign.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who first sought the nomination in 2008, was the nominal front-runner as the curtain rose on the debate.
Recent polls show Romney to be the Republican in the best position to defeat Obama in November 2012, but it’s not clear that he can win over the party’s right wing and secure the nomination.
Romney had a surprisingly easy two hours Monday night. He looked calm and steady, criticizing Obama on the economy and health care while rarely being forced on the defensive despite some well-known vulnerabilities of his own.
“It was a very friendly debate to say the least, which helps Romney,” Republican adviser Greg Mueller said. “No one took center stage and emerged as the main challenger to Romney.” A stiff challenge to Romney from the right “is there for the taking,” Mueller said, “but did not happen tonight.” Before the debate, there were signs that Romney might be pressed harder on his record, especially the Massachusetts health care law that requires people to obtain health insurance. On Sunday, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty had derided the state law as “Obamneycare,” because it served as a model for Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul that many conservatives detest.
Pawlenty seemed loath to revisit the issue Monday. CNN moderator John King pressed him three times to explain why he had used the term “Obamneycare.” Pawlenty replied somewhat weakly that it was “a reflection of the president’s comments that he designed Obamacare on the Massachusetts health care plan.” If any candidate had nearly as good an evening as Romney, it was Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. She made maximum use of CNN’s live telecast to announce she was formally entering the race. And she showed a feisty but folksy style, perhaps grabbing an audience that many once thought would go to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the party’s 2008 vice presidential candidate, who was not present.
An outspoken critic of Obama, Bachmann is popular with libertarian-leaning tea party activists and social conservatives which makes her a credible threat to other candidates courting core Republican voters.
The seven Republican candidates found little if anything to like in what the president has done since taking office in the midst of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
“When 14 million Americans are out of work we need a new president to end the Obama Depression,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum accused Obama of pursuing “oppressive policies” that have shackled the economy.
Businessman Herman Cain, a political novice, called for eliminating the capital gains tax as a way to stimulate job creation.
Romney stressed his experience as a businessman over 25 years as evidence that he can lead the nation out of a lingering recession.
Gingrich, Bachmann, Romney and Pawlenty all pledged to seek repeal of the health care law that Obama won from Congress earlier in his term. The others on stage hold the same position.
All seven flashed their anti-abortion credentials, and were largely unified in opposition to same-sex marriage, which is legal in New Hampshire.
Even when they differed, the White House hopefuls did so in muted terms.
Romney and US Rep. Ron Paul of Texas both said the United States should withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, but disagreed on a timetable.
Romney said that generals in Afghanistan should guide the pullout schedule of American troops based on conditions on the ground. He said the troops should come home as soon as possible under those conditions. Paul said the president must tell the generals what to do. He said if he were president he would begin withdrawing troops almost immediately. The libertarian-leaning Paul said the United States has no purpose fighting a war in Afghanistan.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who recently stepped down as Obama’s ambassador to China, did not participate in the event. He is expected to announce his candidacy within a few weeks.
Already, this race has had its share of surprises as the Republican field has been slow to settle.
Several likely candidates decided not to run — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbor, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee among them — and at least one who ruled out a race is reconsidering. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has said he will decide after the state Legislature completes its current session, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s plans are still unknown.
Gingrich was trying to revive his campaign after suffering the mass exodus of the entire top echelon of his staff last week, an unprecedented event that left his chances of winning the nomination in tatters.
Bachmann drew one of the loudest rounds of applause Monday night from a partisan debate audience when she predicted that Obama would not win re-election.
