The New York Times-20080125-At Debate on the Economy- Republicans Become Kindest of Candidates
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At Debate on the Economy, Republicans Become Kindest of Candidates
With the fiercely contested Florida primary election just days away, the Republican presidential candidates engaged in some decidedly gentle sparring here Thursday night as they all tried to cast themselves as able fiscal stewards who could steer the nation's increasingly precarious economy back to health.
It was not exactly the kind of knock-down, drag-out fight that has characterized past Republican debates. Most of the candidates agreed that the economic stimulus plan being considered in Washington was a good first step but also said it should include permanent tax cuts.
All but Representative Ron Paul of Texas said the war in Iraq had been a good idea, if poorly carried out at points. And when they got the chance to ask one another questions -- usually the moment to take out the cudgel -- most of them posed bland, fairly polite ones.
Economic issues dominated throughout the 90-minute debate. In one of the few direct engagements, Mitt Romney noted that Senator John McCain had voted against tax cuts sought by President Bush.
Senator McCain voted against them originally, Mr. Romney said. He now believes they should be made permanent. I'm glad he agrees they should be made permanent. I think he should have voted for them the first time around.
Mr. McCain responded that he had opposed a big tax cut because it was not accompanied by corresponding spending cuts.
We let it get out of control, he said. And the fact is that if we had had the spending restraints that I proposed, we would be talking about more tax cuts today. We would be talking about more tax cuts.
Mr. McCain was one of only two Republican senators to vote against Mr. Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut measure in 2001. When he took to the Senate floor to declare his opposition, he said the bill unduly benefited the wealthy. In 2003, Mr. McCain again voted against Mr. Bush's tax cut proposals for similar reasons. He now says he believes the cuts should be made permanent.
When he was governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney declined to take a public position on the tax cuts, but as a candidate he has repeatedly called for making them permanent.
The Florida race holds high stakes for many of the candidates, particularly Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has said he intends to win here to rescue his flagging candidacy. On Thursday he said he was in the race to stay no matter the outcome of the primary on Tuesday.
But in this debate, Mr. Giuliani largely escaped scrutiny, even when the candidates were given the chance to engage one another.
Mr. McCain even called Mr. Giuliani an American hero. At one point Mr. Giuliani said, Senator McCain is right in calling for less government spending.
Not exactly below-the-belt stuff -- and a marked departure from the recent vitriolic debates by the Democrats. Even the candidates seemed a tad surprised.
When Mitt Romney asked me a question, notice he asked me a very nice question, Mr. Giuliani said.
Behind the scenes, the campaigns were not so polite. The Romney campaign placed an advertisement on the Internet making fun of Mr. McCain -- to the tune of a waltz -- for voting against the Bush tax cuts but now calling for them to be permanent. The McCain campaign struck back with its own Web ad, called MittSurfing, spoofing Mr. Romney for changing positions on the tax cuts himself.
The issue came up in more muted fashion at the debate, which was held here at Florida Atlantic University and was sponsored by NBC News, Leadership Florida, the Florida Press Association and Florida Public Broadcasting Service.
The candidates often found their credentials on economic issues being tested. Mr. McCain was asked at the outset of the debate about last statements in which he said he did not know as much about the economy as he did about other issues.
Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from, he said. I'm very well versed in economics.
In fact, Mr. McCain was quoted in The Wall Street Journal in 2005 as saying: I'm going to be honest. I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.
At another point, defending his conservative credentials, Mr. McCain said he had won among Republicans in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries. While he did win those primaries, exit polls suggested that he had not won a majority of Republican votes and that non-Republican voters had made the difference.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, noted that he had been the only candidate at a debate this fall to sound a warning on the economy. When they came to me, I know people acted like I was the only guy at the U.N. without a headset that night, Mr. Huckabee said.
With surveys showing him in third place in Florida, Mr. Giuliani was pressed to explain what had happened to his campaign. He used a sports analogy, saying he would follow in the path of the New York Giants, who are making a surprise appearance in the Super Bowl.
We're going to come from behind and surprise everyone, he said. We have them all lulled into a very false sense of security.
Mr. Romney was pressed to divulge how much money he has given his campaign, given the fact he is blanketing the state in television commercials. When Mr. Romney, who had given more than $17 million to his campaign through the third quarter, demurred, saying he would report the figures when required to at the end of the month, he was asked why he would not tell the voters of Florida now so they could factor the information into their decisions.
I'm not concerned about the voters, said Mr. Romney, adding that the amount he had spent was competitive information he wanted to keep from his rivals.
Mr. Romney said he had poured out his own money for his candidacy because he was concerned about the kind of country he was passing on to his children.
That led Mr. Huckabee to suggest that he be elected so Mr. Romney's five sons would inherit a great president and still get your money.
On Iraq, Mr. Huckabee suggested that there might have been weapons of mass destruction there after all, even though they were never found.
Now, everybody can look back and say, 'Oh, well, we didn't find the weapons,' he said. It doesn't mean they weren't there. Just because you didn't find every Easter egg didn't mean that it wasn't planted.
Reports by a team of American inspectors, the Iraq Survey Group, concluded that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction and had not begun any large-scale program to produce such weapons by the time American troops invaded Iraq in 2003.
[Illustration]PHOTOS: Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Representative Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee during the debate Thursday night in Boca Raton, Fla. (PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES); A technician fixes Mr. Giuliani's microphone as Mr. McCain, Mr. Paul and Mr. Huckabee come on stage with him. The debate about the economy was held at Florida Atlantic University. (PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD PERRY/THE NEW YORK TIMES)