Politics
Romney, Bachmann Lead Republicans' Obama Bash
New Hampshire debate reveals more similarities than differences in GOP field
Around the State
Michele Bachman, stepping out of Sarah Palin's shadow at New Hampshire GOP Debate Monday night
From the economy and bailouts to Obamacare and immigration, the seven GOP hopefuls talked up free markets and bashed President Barack Obama's performance.
Bachmann and Romney dominated portions of the two-hour CNN debate from Manchester, N.H.
Buoyed by speculation that Sarah Palin may not enter the 2012 race, Bachmann tapped into tea party enthusiasm with a mixture of fiscally and socially conservative positions.
"Obama is a one-term president," she declared to cheers.
Mitt Romney
Though standing next to Romney on the Saint Anselm College stage, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty passed on an opportunity to sharpen his recent attacks on what he cleverly branded "Obamneycare" on Sunday.
Instead, Pawlenty -- along with former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Sen. Rick Santorum -- promoted market-based solutions to spur the economy and pledged to rein in the federal government.
Santorum revived talk about "trickle down" economics while Cain bragged that he was "not a politician. I'm a problem solver."
Gingrich, asked about the future of the space program, said "NASA is a case study in why bureaucracy cannot innovate. If we had put all the money that had been spent by NASA since the moon landing into the private sector, we would have stations in space and on the moon and a heavy-lift rocket."
Ron Paul
"Politicians do the dumb things," Paul said. "It's a fallacy to think politicians are smart enough to manage the economy."
Bachmann, a three-term congresswoman from Minnesota, reiterated Paul's skepticism by touting "principle over party," and staking a claim to being the second biggest tax cutter after Paul.
The first House member to introduce legislation to repeal Obamacare, which she said will "kill 800,000 jobs," Bachmann bucked her own party by refusing to sign off on nearly $1 trillion for the controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program for banks and other businesses.
Although Republicans and Democrats have differing views of the wide open GOP field -- which may soon see the entry of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- one group felt that Monday night's debate showed a Republican Party lurching too far to the right.
Jonathan Miller, a founding leader of the national "No Labels" movement and currently Kentucky's secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet, said, "I'm afraid we all lost tonight."
"While everyone was struggling to outflank each other to the right, the great center was not represented on that stage," said Miller, who formerly was the deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Department of Energy under President Bill Clinton.
Of the seven candidates on stage Monday night, Miller said Romney has the best potential to capture centrist votes.
"Governor Romney was the kind of centrist who was electable in a state that was overwhelmingly Democratic. One of his greatest accomplishments in office was health care, which is something he's trying to run away from now," Miller said.
Ostensibly bipartisan, "No Labels" has itself been criticized as a Democratic Party front co-opting disaffected moderate Republicans.
Miller disputed that contention.
"We're equally critical of people who are pulling the Democratic Party to the left," he said, acknowledging that "some people believe Obama has done that."
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or (772) 801-5341.
Comments (5)
Next it would be Newt Gingrich. Yeah, he's too much of a politician but I think he had it right on immigration (it doesn't have to be one way or another)- and a couple other things. Plus I like that he seems he would buck his party if he thinks it's the right thing to do.
(Which was the thing I liked best about Herman Cain. That he said he'd do what's right for America. But otherwise, unfortunately, his best attribute is his worst. That he isn't a politician. Though Governor Scott isn't doing too badly in spite of that, so who knows.)
As for Michelle Bachmann- no way. Yup, it was the EPA statement. Some of the others talked about doing a better job with regulations stifling business which is okay, I'm sure the EPA could do better. But we'd be no different than China right now without an agency like the EPA. Our cancer rates are bad enough, I don't think cancer as the leading cause of death is an acceptable trade off for minimum wage jobs. We can do better.
Next it would be Newt Gingrich. Yeah, he's too much of a politician but I think he had it right on immigration (it doesn't have to be one way or another)- and a couple other things. Plus I like that he seems he would buck his party if he thinks it's the right thing to do.
(Which was the thing I liked best about Herman Cain. That he said he'd do what's right for America. But otherwise, unfortunately, his best attribute is his worst. That he isn't a politician. Though Governor Scott isn't doing too badly in spite of that, so who knows.)
As for Michelle Bachmann- no way. Yup, it was the EPA statement. Some of the others talked about doing a better job with regulations stifling business which is okay, I'm sure the EPA could do better. But we'd be no different than China right now without an agency like the EPA. Our cancer rates are bad enough, I don't think cancer as the leading cause of death is an acceptable trade off for minimum wage jobs. We can do better.
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