Nineteen debates later, it was finally Rick Santorum’s turn at center stage.
His prize: fire from both sides.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney accused Santorum, the latest leader in national polls, of being a big spender who as a senator from Pennsylvania voted five times to raise the debt ceiling and to approve earmark spending. Texas Rep. Ron Paul called Santorum “a fake” and said he was running as a conservative after voting for big government programs such as the No Child Left Behind education law.
“While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the ‘Bridge from Nowhere,’ ” Romney charged. The Romney campaign immediately blasted out details in an e-mail headlined: “Santorum and earmarks: A love story.”
A few minutes later, Santorum shot back, arguing that he had taken a principled, consistent position by opposing the government rescue plans for banks as well as the auto industry — unlike his rival. “With respect to Gov. Romney, that was not the case,” he said. “He supported the folks on Wall Street… and when it came to auto workers and the folks in Detroit, he said no.”
The debate at the Mesa Arts Center, the final four contenders sitting side by side at a curved table, began with prickly scrapping and continued with charges about everything from their positions on immigration to political endorsements they have made.
In the early debates — they’ve been going on for eight months, and through nine candidates — the contenders typically had aimed their harshest language at President Obama. This time, they hammered the president on foreign policy but unleashed their sharpest attacks on one another on domestic issues.
Perhaps that’s no surprise: The future of their candidacies was at stake.
Although the debate was in Arizona, the targeted audience was in Michigan. Both states hold primaries Tuesday, but Romney’s home state of Michigan has become a battleground between him and Santorum.
The candidates were asked about the federal bailout of the auto industry but not about the housing crisis that has hit Arizona hard, leaving almost half of homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.
One moment of relative lightness came when they were asked to describe themselves with a single word.
“Consistent,” Paul said.
“Courage,” Santorum said.
“Resolute,” Romney said.
“Cheerful,” Gingrich said — and smiled.
For much of the two-hour forum, Santorum had to explain and defend controversial comments that have made headlines in recent days. Immediately after the debate, in an interview on CNN, Santorum noted his central position on stage. “You fight for that real estate,” he said, laughing. But he acknowledged that, with Romney on one side and Paul on the other, “You get smacked around a little bit.”
During the debate, Santorum said he made a mistake in voting for the No Child Left Behind law setting federal education standards, then drew boos when he said “sometimes you take one for the team” — that is, to support a signature proposal of then-president George W. Bush.
He said he wasn’t necessarily opposed to an expanded role for women in the military but instead had simply expressed “concern” and explained why he had voted for a federal program that included funding for Planned Parenthood. On the issue of contraception, he said he had a “personal moral objection” to birth control but had voted for bills that included it.
“The left gets all upset: ‘Oh, look at him talking about these things …,’ ” he said. “Just because I’m talking about it doesn’t mean I want a government program to fix it.”
Paul, an obstetrician, replied that birth control pills “can’t be blamed for the immorality of our society.”
Romney used the question to criticize the Obama administration for moving to require religious-affiliated institutions to provide contraceptives to employees.
After an uproar from Roman Catholic leaders, the proposed rule was revised to require insurance companies, not the institutions themselves, to do so. Obama has made attacks on “religious conscience, religious freedom, religious tolerance,” he charged.
Gingrich said, “When you have a government as the central provider of services, you inevitably move toward tyranny … and move towards the coercion of the state.”
In another heated exchange, Santorum raised the Massachusetts health care law Romney signed, saying “Romneycare … was the model for Obamacare.”
“Wait a minute,” Romney broke in, detailing differences between the state and federal laws. Then he reminded Santorum: He endorsed Romney for president four years ago.
He blamed Santorum for the passage of the federal health care law, saying the senator had supported Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter for re-election in a primary over a more conservative Republican challenger only to see Specter provide a critical vote for the bill years later.
There was more unity on stage when the topic turned to foreign policy.
Romney, Santorum and Gingrich reiterated their belief that Iran must be stopped from obtaining a nuclear weapon in order to protect Israel and the United States.
Gingrich said that if Israel feels a threat is imminent, it is acceptable to pre-emptively strike Iran.
“If you think a mad man is about to have nuclear weapons and you think that mad man is going to use those nuclear weapons, then you have an absolute moral obligation to defend the lives of your people by eliminating the capacity to get nuclear weapons,” he said.
Romney said the threat of higher gas prices “pales” in comparison with the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
