The Republican Love Fest...
The five remaining Republican candidates in last night's debate at Florida Atlantic University were so nice to each other, as a group they impressed Mel Arshian, a registered republican from South Florida.
When Governor Huckabee was asked if he trusted Governor Romney as a tax cutter, Huckabee refused to take a swipe and instead talked about his own record.
HUCKABEE: It's going to be really more do the voters trust him and do they trust me. I know this: I balanced the budget every year I was governor. I left a surplus of $850 million, coming up from a deficit of $200 million.
Tim Russert pressed the issue with Governor Romney and asked about his criticism of Senator McCain's and Mayor Giuliani's tax policies. At first Romney wouldn't break out the claws. Instead, he gushed about his opponents.
ROMNEY: I trust these two gentlemen and I respect them greatly. We do have differing views and over time our record with regards to taxes has been somewhat different. But I think all of us on this stage want to see taxes brought down and want to see spending brought down. I have a sound record of doing that.
Despite Russert's best efforts, he couldn't get the candidates to yell at each other. The candidates refused to get into anything more than a minor tiff.
RUSSERT: Senator McCain, Governor Romney invoked your name. Do you believe Governor Romney raising fees, a quarter of a billion dollars, is equivalent to raising taxes?
MCCAIN: Well, I'm sure those people that had to pay it did, I
would imagine. But, look, I voted -- I voted on the tax cuts because I knew that unless we had spending control, we were going to face a disaster.
Even when it was time for the candidates to ask each other questions, they played nice.
Romney asked Giuliani a question about how can we ensure a level playing field with China, which Giuliani answered eloquently with a break down barriers-another market for U.S. goods argument. Giuliani even said later in the debate that Romney asked him a nice question. McCain gave Huckabee the opportunity to defend his Fair Tax. Huckabee asked Romney to clarify his 2nd Amendment position. Giuliani asked Romney and McCain about a national catastrophe fund.
The only real hard question for a fellow candidate was Congressman Ron Paul's question to Senator McCain that tried to get at the issue raised earlier about McCain's economic credentials. Paul asked about McCain's opinion on the President's mostly Working Group on Financial Markets and whether or not he would keep it. McCain gave a non-answer that indicated he didn't know what the group was or what it did.
...Democrat Smack Down
The GOP candidates played nice with each other, but they did pull punches on the democrats. Senator McCain declared that the Democrats will continue spending and invoked a traditional Republican critique of the Democratic party.
MCCAIN: There is nothing that anything the Democrats have said, except, that I have seen, except tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect.
Romney went on the attack as well.
ROMNEY: We are the party of fiscal responsibility. And when Republicans act like Democrats, America loses. And you've seen that over the last several years. We're going to have to make sure that we rein in spending.
And they definitely ganged up on Senator Hilary Clinton, assuming her to be the Democratic nominee after 4 states.
McCain, Romney and Giuliani on Senator Clinton's Iraq plan...
MCCAIN: If we do what Senator Clinton said that she wanted to do night before last, and that's wave the white flag of surrender and set a date for withdrawal, then we will have expenses, my friends, in American blood and treasure, because Al Qaida will then have won.
ROMNEY: What an audacious and arrogant thing for the Democrats to say, as Hillary Clinton did, that they are responsible for the progress that the surge has seen by virtue of their trying to pull out so quickly. Look, the success over there is due to the blood and the courage of our servicemen and women, and to General Petraeus and to President Bush. Not to General Hillary Clinton.
GIULIANI: It's very, very interesting, the way you put that question is with a poll, because when the polls were six and seven out of 10 Americans thinking it was a good idea, Hillary Clinton was in favor of the war. And now when the polls are six out of 10 are against, Hillary Clinton is against the war.
If anyone had doubts about who the Republican candidate will face in November, Tim Russert took care of them.
RUSSERT: Governor Romney, as has become apparent over the last few weeks, if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, she'll be running as a team with her husband.
And he gave Romney one last chance at Clinton bashing.