7 GOP Hopefuls Attack Obama and Not Each Other in Debate

Republicans on stage steered away of criticizing one another, and even the evident differences among them were expressed in muted terms.

Seven Republican presidential candidates made news Monday night by concentrating their attacks on President Barack Obama?s policies and not each other in a debate televised from New Hampshire by CNN.

The headline to the debate came from Rep. Michelle Bachman (R- Minn.) who announced on air that she had filed paperwork to enter the presidential race.

Journalists and analysts who predicted that the candidates would take the opportunity to gang-up on front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney were proven wrong by six men and a woman who instead focused their attacks on the failed policies of President Barack Obama and refused to take the bait and fight each other, even when prompted by debate moderator John King of CNN.

Most would be surprised if they knew that the first person to question the candidates, Manuel M?rquez-Sterling, was a Cuban exile who came to the United States in 1960 fleeing from communism and is now a Professor Emeritus of History at Plymouth State University. The distinguished professor and regular op-ed columnist for Diario Las Am?ricas in Miami, asked what the candidates would do to repeal the anti-jobs, anti-growth laws passed by the Democrats, including the Dodd?Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

His question set the tone for the debate. There were no Republicans attacking another Republican despite King?s repeated efforts. Instead they all focused on a sharp criticism of the president?s policies and their views on how they would go about changing them.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who was expected to go after Romney, went out of his way to explain that his comment about Obamneycare, a comment he had made earlier, was not as much to criticize the former Massachusetts governor for having enacted a healthcare program in the state, but rather a criticism of Obamacare.

Associated Press said in its story that the first sharp criticism of Obama?s economic policies during the debate came from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

?When 14 million Americans are out of work we need a new president to end the Obama Depression,? declared Gingrich, the first among seven contenders on stage to criticize the president?s economic policies.

It went on from there.

All seven candidates defended the right of New Hampshire to become a right to work state. Romney questioned where were the president?s ideas ?on entitlements, on the debt? or on finding jobs for the millions of unemployed Americans. Bachman said that the unsecured federal debt had risen by 35% since Obama took office.

?It?s time for us to bring our troops home as soon as we possibly can,? Romney said during Monday?s presidential debate. ?Only the Afghanis can win Afghanistan?s independence from the Taliban,? he said.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum accused Obama of pursuing ?oppressive policies? that have shackled the economy.

?If Brazil can have 5 percent growth, if China can have 5 percent growth, then America can have 5 percent growth,? Pawlenty added, shrugging off criticism that his own economic projections were impossibly rosy.

Businessman Herman Cain, a political novice, called for eliminating the capital gains tax as a way to stimulate job creation. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the seventh contender on the stage: ?As long as we are running a program that deliberately weakens our currency, our jobs will go overseas. And that?s what?s happening.?

According to AP, Obama?s rivals found little if anything to like in what he has done since taking office in the midst of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. Instead, the most conservative presidential field in memory all but said what Ronald Reagan once preached ? that government was the problem.

Romney said the auto bailout was a mistake, and said more generally, ?Instead of thinking in the federal budget what should we cut, we should ask ourselves the opposite question, `What should we keep???

Santorum criticized the financial bailout that Presidents George W. Bush and Obama backed, and Bachmann said she had worked in closed-door meetings in Congress to defeat the legislation when it was originally passed.

Pawlenty said politicians had caused the housing price bubble that contributed to the recession, and Paul blamed the recession on the Federal Reserve.

?As long as we do what we?re doing in Washington it?s going to last another 10 years,? Paul said. ?What we?re doing now is absolutely wrong,? he said of federal programs meant to support the housing industry.

Republicans on stage steered away of criticizing one another, and even the evident differences among them were expressed in muted terms. 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.

The Americano/Agencies

Source: http://theamericano.com/2011/06/14/7-gop-hopefuls-attack-obama-debate/

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