MESA, Ariz. — With both battling for frontrunner status ahead of next week’s crucial Arizona and Michigan primaries, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney dominated the discussion at Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate — but quickly became bogged down in a series of messy exchanges.
Political pundits conceded there was no clear winner in the debate — the 20th of the presidential cycle and the first in almost a month — as candidates staked their claim for the nomination in the last showdown before Super Tuesday on March 6, when voters in 10 states will head to the polls.
Santorum and Romney went toe-to-toe on their spending records in office, while also pushing their own conservative records and presidential credentials.
At the same time Texas Rep. Ron Paul appeared to tag-team with Romney in taking aim at Santorum — notably accusing the former Pennsylvania senator of being a fake conservative. The effect was not lost on Santorum, who after the debate told FOX News’ Great Van Susteren, “I felt like a couple of the guys up there were focused on double-teaming me.”
By contrast, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took more of a back seat than in past debates, avoiding the GOP infighting to direct his barbs at the Obama administration.
The CNN-hosted discussion — which had candidates seated rather than at their usual position at a lectern — started off less fiery than many of the 19 debates that had preceded it.
In the night’s opening question, from a member of the audience at the Mesa Arts Center in Arizona, candidates were asked how they would bring down the growing national debt, with Romney once again calling on his experience as a budget-balancing businessman and using the opportunity to tout his latest tax proposal.
The former Massachusetts governor also attacked Santorum’s record as a senator representing Pennsylvania, calling him a “big spender” in Congress and starting off a series of disagreements between the two candidates.
“Voting to raise the debt ceiling five different times without voting for compensating cuts,” Romney said.
But Santorum shot back, saying, “When you look at my record of never having raised taxes — Gov. Romney raised several hundred million dollars in taxes and fees in Massachusetts. I never voted to raise taxes.”
Later in the debate, Santorum pointed out that Romney balanced the budget in Massachusetts because he had to — it was a legal requirement. “Don’t go around bragging about something you have to do,” Santorum said.
Meanwhile, asked if there were any earmarks he regrets making during his time in Congress, Santorum said there were always votes that former senators regret, but that some of the spending he secured was good for his state.
Romney replied that he would ban earmarks altogether — leading to another lengthy back-and-forth with a clearly irritated Santorum.
Paul landed a strong early blow when asked about a new TV ad from his campaign that labeled Santorum a fake when it comes to being a fiscal conservative. Asked why he had decided to launch such an ad, Paul simply replied, “Because he’s a fake,” to laughter from the audience. “I’m real, I’m real,” the Texas congressman added.
Paul justified his comment by giving examples of legislation Santorum voted for and is now running on a campaign to remove, such as the “No Child Left Behind” policy, which Santorum admitted later in the debate he was wrong to support.
“I’ve never voted for a budget deficit. I never voted to increase the national debt,” Paul said. “I find it really fascinating that when people are running for office they’re really fiscally conservative. When they’re in office, they do something different.”
A question on whether candidates support birth control or not drew boos from the audience, with Gingrich defending the topic, saying, “There is a legitimate question about the power of the government to impose on religious activities.”
Santorum, meanwhile, turned the discussion of contraception into a criticism of Romney’s health care overhaul in Massachusetts, saying that kind of legislation is what caused the government to delve deeper into the health business — and leading to another messy exchange between the rivals about the so-called “Romneycare” legislation.
Romney quickly reminded Santorum that he endorsed him for president four years ago, before pointing out the differences between the Massachusetts law and Barack Obama’s health care legislation — and once again declaring he would repeal “Obamacare” as president.
In a lighter moment of the debate, candidates were asked to sum up their candidacy in just one word. Paul used “consistent,” Santorum said “courage,” and Romney said “resolute.” Gingrich, meanwhile, drew laughs for his description of himself as “cheerful.”
In a pattern becoming familiar from previous debates, candidates were in agreement when the topic turned to foreign policy, all using it as an opportunity to criticize Obama, with Romney saying the president was making a number of hotspots around the world worse. He said Obama’s dealing with Iran was his “most serious failure.”
Gingrich called Obama “the most dangerous president on national security grounds, in American history,” while Santorum noted a bill he sponsored in the Senate that would have imposed sanctions on Iran.
Paul, however, said there was no proof Iran has nuclear weapons and the US needs to proceed with more care.