January 26 GOP Florida Debate Recap: “It’s Not Worth Getting Angry About” Edition

The music and lead-in to this debate were reminiscent of the lead-ins to the NFL play-off games. And indeed, since there will be not be another 2012 GOP debate for another month (or possibly ever), this debate took on the feeling of a titanic struggle to reach the political Superbowl–the GOP nomination for the presidency.

So how did the candidates do? The clear winner by every measure was Rick Santorum. While his last several debates have been quite good, until tonight he never had a debate moment. In this debate, he had several. Mitt Romney took some hard body blows, but gave as well as he got, and was still standing after the debate. Ron Paul was nearly a nonentity on the stage, though he did have a debate moment when he challenged Newt Gingrich on his talk about having balanced the budget. Newt Gingrich simply stepped in it–several times. He pulled the same debate tactics that he has pulled in every debate thus far, and in each case his words either landed on the stage with a thud, or he was devastated by his opponent’s response.

In a normal situation, one would think that Newt Gingrich’s political career was over–his performance was that bad. But there has been nothing normal about this political season. One thing is true, however, and was illustrated handily in this debate: Gingrich is not and never has been the conservative alternative to Romney. Santorum is. And conservatives need to stop wasting time with Gingrich and get behind Santorum unless they want to see Romney get the nomination.

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The debate began with a major skirmish between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich on illegal immigration. Whatever one thinks of their respective proposals, Gingrich came off quite poorly in the exchange. Gingrich attempted to distort Romney’s position, and Romney simply would not have any of it.

Romney fumbled the next question about an ad that his campaign had out saying that Gingrich called Spanish “the language of the ghetto”. Apparently, Gingrich did in fact imply this, but did not say it directly. Nevertheless, Romney was caught flat-footed.

On Latin America, Ron Paul would normalize relations with Cuba. Rick Santorum came out swinging in this issue, however. He used Honduras–a country that is close to my heart–as an example of Barack Obama’s failed policies in the region.

On housing, Romney attacked Gingrich for his work for Freddie Mac. Gingrich replied by accusing Romney of having shares in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This was an unfair and unwise attack, as Gingrich had to have known that Romney’s investments are in mutual funds and through a blind trust. Romney turned this attack around against Gingrich to devastating effect, pointing out that Gingrich had himself invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through mutual funds.

Ron Paul and Rick Santorum tried to get back to the issue at hand–the housing crisis. Santorum scolded both Romney and Gingrich for squabbling about trivia, and challenged them to “focus on the issues”. In all of the debates, Santorum has been looking for a moment to shine. This was it.

Wolf Blitzer then went after Gingrich on his criticism of Romney over his personal finances. Gingrich tried to turn this against Blitzer, and it blew up in his face.

Both Gingrich and Santorum defended the use of taxes to encourage investment. Paul wanted to repeal the 16th Amendment altogether. Paul then challenged the other candidates to a 25-mile bike ride, but no one took him up on it.

On NASA, Romney wants to keep the space program going, but does not want to build a colony on the Moon, as Gingrich proposes. Gingrich thinks that building a colony on the Moon would not break the bank, as he would finance it through the private sector. Santorum is in favor of the space program, but thinks that Gingrich’s Moon proposal–along with many other of his proposals–is irresponsible from a financial perspective. Paul would like to send some politicians to the Moon. As a final remark on the subject, Romney hammered Gingrich on this–and many of his ideas–essentially accusing him of pandering.

Gingrich defended himself by saying that one did not have to be a cheap skate to balance the budget, as after all he had balanced the budget four times previously. Paul then pointed out that all of this balanced budget talk from Gingrich is really not what it cracks up to be, as the national debt went up during that time.

On health care for people without insurance, Paul pointed out that medical costs have risen because of government involvement in medicine since the 1960s. Romney and Gingrich want to reform the health care system and get the economy going again. Santorum hammered Gingrich and Romney for flip-flopping after both having supported the individual mandate, and then went on to point out that Romneycare is identical to Obamacare. Both Gingrich and Romney tried to rebut Santorum, but Santorum went head to head with them, and got the better of the exchange.  This is where Romney uttered the most ill-fated words of this election season: “It’s not worth getting angry about.” Even though Romney went on to do a good job of delineating the differences between Romneycare and Obamacare, this was a disastrous unforced error on his part.

There was a softball question about which Hispanic-American the candidates would want in their cabinet. (Why not ask what color they like? Or favorite song?) Then there was the epic in inanity: “Why would your wife make a good first lady?” However, at least Santorum made good use of this by talking about family values.

There was then a hardball question to Romney about how he viewed Ronald Reagan back in the day, and he admitted that he was not politically sophisticated at the time. A good answer. Gingrich wrapped himself in the Reagan flag, and accused Romney of stirring up talk that Gingrich was not as close to Reagan as he claimed. Gingrich then noted that Romney voted for Paul Tsongas. Incredibly, Romney countered that he never voted for a Democrat when there was a Republican on the ballot.

The debate turned back to Cuba, and Santorum once again stood against normalizing ties. Paul wants to improve relations with Cuba. Romney and Gingrich basically agreed with Santorum.

On the issue of Palestine, Romney blamed the problem on Hamas, Fatah, and the Palestinian leaders and their belief that Israel does not have a right to exist. He then went on to attack Obama’s policy on Israel. Gingrich repeated the nonsense that the Palestinian people was a concept invented in the 1970s, and then went on to advocate moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Otherwise, he agreed with Romney.

On Puerto Rico, Santorum noted that Puerto Ricans should be able to decide whether they should become a state, but that more aid should be given to Puerto Rico.

On religious beliefs, Paul said that they would not affect his political decisions. Romney harkened back to Judeo-Christian values, noting that many of our ideas of freedom come from these values. Gingrich thinks that the president should seek God. He says that he is running for president because there has been a war against Christians in the US.  Santorum expanded upon what Romney said, talking at length about how the foundation of our country is in God-given rights. This was another point in the debate where Santorum really shined.

Blitzer then asked why the candidates are electable. Paul noted that he does well in national polls against Obama. Romney thought that he was more appealing as a candidate because he is an outsider. Gingrich cited his past record. Santorum said that he was simply a better candidate than the others, and then talked about how both Romney and Gingrich have varied from conservative principles. He feels that with his interest in reviving manufacturing in the US, he would be the best candidate to bring Reagan Democrats back into the GOP fold.

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