Republican Debate

Republican Debate: GOP Presidential Candidates Face Off Ahead Of 2012 Iowa Caucus

Sam Stein Said

Seven candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination face off in a discussion in Iowa on Thursday night.

The following contenders can share the stage within the Hawkeye State: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Below, a live blog of the latest developments to unfold.

Gingrich Backs Off Criticism Of Romney's Bain Days: 'Frankly, He Got under My Skin'

Newt Gingrich backed off one in every of the defining (and only) criticisms he has leveled at Mitt Romney during this presidential campaign, telling Fox News' Sean Hannity that the previous Massachusetts governor "got under my skin."

Speaking after Thursday night's discussion, the last before the Iowa caucuses, Gingrich called his attack on Romney for losing folks and shutting companies while at the pinnacle of Bain Capital the type of line that "doesn't reflect my values."

"There was a really temporary moment where, frankly, he got under my skin and i responded in a approach that made no sense," said Gingrich. "I've said publicly he's an honest manager, he's an honest business manager. He got that spherical. If you're scoring sphericals in boxing i'll offer that round to Mitt."

This might be a case of too very little, too late for Gingrich. His attack on Romney's Bain tenure came in response to Romney's attacks on his profitable, quasi-lobbying work for Freddie Mac. but the road was poorly received by conservatives who argued that it echoed the type of charge Democrats would level in a general election.

Romney, too, said he fully expected President Obama to attack his Bain days should he find yourself the nominee. When asked by Hannity about Gingrich's mea culpa, he seemed to settle for it.

"That’s terribly nice of him," he said within the post-debate forum. "I got broad shoulders and i will handle it. it's appropriate for us to speak about the various variations the candidates have."

-- Sam Stein

Gingrich Boasts Of His 'Camaraderie' With All the lads within the GOP Field

In the post-debate spin room , Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Newt Gingrich about the tough attacks he received from Rep. Michele Bachmann during the talk. Bachmann went after the previous House speaker for his consulting with Freddie Mac.

"I did notice that there have been times that it seemingly was openings for folks to go after you. They did not take it. One person going after you quite anybody clearly was Michele Bachmann," Hannity said.

Gingrich responded by saying that everybody has "their own vogue," but then noting that there was "some genuine affection" among the candidates. He went on to create nice remarks about all of the other candidates who stood on the stage with him tonight, except Bachmann:

I really like Rick Perry, i actually like Rick Santorum. I've known them a protracted time. Mitt and i have gotten to be abundant nearer over the course of this. Jon Huntsman and i did a great discussion last Monday in New Hampshire -- terribly substantive, a lot of fun. therefore there's a camaraderie building. i believe the toughest ads against me are being run by Ron Paul. it is very arduous to dislike Ron Paul. he's simply variety of who he's. (LAUGHTER)

11:09 AM – nowadays
Romney: Consistent until he alters

Chris Wallace served up the "you knew this was coming" question on Mitt Romney's history of flip-flops. Citing position switches on problems like gay rights and abortion, he asked Romney if they were a matter of "principle or politics."

Romney forged his history on gay rights thusly: He was "firmly in support" of protecting the LGBT community from discrimination, but was never in favor of same-sex marriage. On the matter of abortion, he said he merely changed his mind on the matter, which "every call [he] made as governor was on the aspect of life."

Wallace persisted, pointing out this letter to the Log Cabin Republicans, within which Romney wrote, "I am more convinced than ever before that as we have a tendency to obtain to determine full equality for America's gay and lesbian voters, i'll give simpler leadership than my opponent." Who happened to be Ted Kennedy. Romney continued to insist that the difficulty was discrimination, which he was creating the case that he was more capable of protecting the LGBT community from it than Kennedy.

In the letter, he never mentions gay marriage directly. However, it did embrace this: "I believe that the Clinton compromise ['don't ask, don't tell'] was a step within the right direction. i am additionally convinced that it's the primary of a number of steps which will ultimately lead gays and lesbians being able to serve brazenly and honestly in our nation's military. That goal can only be reached when preventing discrimination against gays and lesbians may be a mainstream concern, that may be a goal we have a tendency to share."

So Romney, to the current day, is suggesting that "preventing discrimination against gays and lesbians may be a mainstream concern" with a full throat. but on "don't ask, don't tell," Romney has not been speaking clearly. At a CNN discussion, he told John King that "the answer is that 'don't ask, don't tell' should are kept in place until conflict was over."

He additionally wasn't nearly as full-throated when the New Hampshire Union Leader gave him the chance to condemn the booing of a gay soldier that occurred at a previous debate:

ROMNEY: I don’t recall whether or not this soldier, whether or not folks were booing his question or just booing…

UNION LEADER: They booed as soon as he identified as a gay person.

ROMNEY: you've got to appear at that. I don’t grasp once they booed and i don’t grasp why they booed. but i'll tell you, that the boos and applause hasn’t always coincided with my very own views, but I haven’t stepped in to try and say, ‘this one is right, this one is wrong.’ Instead, I target the items i believe i'll say.

UNION LEADER: I ask as a result of Herman Cain over the weekend was asked about it and he said in result that he should have criticized whoever was booing within the audience.

ROMNEY: That’s…I perceive his thoughts.

-- Jason Linkins

11:00 AM – nowadays
Romney: i do not Discriminate Against Gays, I simply don't think they ought to Marry

When running for the U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy in 1994, Mitt Romney said he may well be simpler fighting for LGBT rights than his opponent, arguing, "When Ted Kennedy speaks on gay rights, he's seen as an extremist. When Mitt Romney speaks on gay rights, he's seen as a centrist and a moderate."

However, Romney doesn't believe that gay men and girls should be able to get married. In tonight's discussion, he argued that he nevertheless may be a champion of LGBT rights.

I don't believe in discriminating against folks based on sexual orientation. There are some people who do. I had a member of my administration, my Cabinet, who was gay. I did not ask justices that i was trying to appoint, rather people who are candidates for the duty, what their sexual orientation was. i believe as a Republican, I had the potential to fight for anti-discrimination in a approach that would be higher than Sen. Kennedy, the Democrat who was expected to try to to therefore. At constant time, Chris, in 1994, and throughout my career, I said I oppose same-sex marriage. marriage may be a relationship between a person and a girl. My view is...protect the sanctity of marriage, shield the sanctity of life.

-- Amanda Terkel


10:58 AM – nowadays
Can I Rebuttal?

Would everyone please simply take Michele Bachmann's facts seriously? Bachmann seemed to grow somewhat weary of being told "over and over through the talk that i do not have my facts right," after Newt Gingrich, defending his own record on abortion and life, accused Bachmann of having her facts wrong.

"As a matter of fact , I do," Bachmann said. "I'm a heavy candidate for president of the u. s., and my facts are accurate."

Then she accused Gingrich of "tolerating infanticide."

-- Joshua Hersh

 

michele bachmann response

Transcript: Bachmann's response to State of the Union

 

 Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, responded to President Obama's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night from the National Press Club. Here is a transcript of Bachmann's speech.

Bachmann: Good evening. My name is Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from Minnesota's 6th District.

I want to thank the Tea Party Express and Tea Party HD for inviting me to speak this evening. I'm here at their request and not to compete with the official Republican remarks.

The Tea Party is a dynamic force for good in our national conversation, and it's an honor for me to speak with you.

Two years ago, when Barack Obama became our president, unemployment was 7.8%, and our national debt stood at what seemed like a staggering $10.6 trillion. We wondered whether the president would cut spending, reduce the deficit and implement real job-creating policies.

Unfortunately, the president's strategy for recovery was to spend a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus program, fueled by borrowed money. The White House promised us that all the spending would keep unemployment under 8%. Not only did that plan fail to deliver, but within three months, the national jobless rate spiked to 9.4%. It hasn't been lower for 20 straight months. While the government grew, we lost more than 2 million jobs.

Let me show you a chart. Here are unemployment rates over the past 10 years. In October of 2001, our national unemployment rate was at 5.3%. In 2008, it was at 6.6%. But just eight months after President Obama promised lower unemployment, that rate spiked to a staggering 10.1%. Today, unemployment is at 9.4% with about 400,000 new claims every week.

After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the massive budget bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money that we don't have. But instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt. It was unlike anything we've ever seen before in the history of the country.

Well, deficits were unacceptably high under President Bush, but they exploded under President Obama's direction, growing the national debt by an astounding $3.1 trillion.

Well, what did we buy? Instead of a leaner, smarter government, we bought a bureaucracy that now tells us which lightbulbs to buy and which may put 16,500 IRS agents in charge of policing President Obama's health care bill. Obamacare mandates and penalties may even force many job-creators to just stop offering health insurance altogether, unless, of course, yours is one of the more than 222 privileged companies, or unions, that's already received a government waiver under Obamacare.

In the end, unless we fully repeal Obamacare, a nation that currently enjoys the world's finest health care might be forced to rely on government-run coverage. That could have a devastating impact on our national debt for even generations to come.

For two years, President Obama made promises, just like the ones we heard him make this evening, yet still we have high unemployment, devalued housing prices, and the cost of gasoline is skyrocketing.

Well, here's a few suggestions for fixing our economy. The president could stop the EPA from imposing a job-destroying cap-and-trade system. The president could support a balanced budget amendment. The president could agree to an energy policy that increases American energy production and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

The president could also turn back some of the 132 regulations put in place in the last two years, many of which will cost our economy $100 million or more. And the president should repeal Obamacare and support free-market solutions, like medical malpractice reform and allowing all Americans to buy any health care policy they like anywhere in the United States.

We need to start making things again in this country, and we can do that by reducing the tax and regulatory burden on job-creators. America will have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Think about that. Look no further to see why jobs are moving overseas.

But thanks to you, there's reason for all of us to have hope that real spending cuts are coming, because last November, you went to the polls, and you voted out the big-spending politicians and you put in their place great men and women with a commitment to follow our Constitution and cut the size of government. I believe that we're in the very early days of a history-making turn in America.

Please know how important your calls, visits and letters are to the maintenance of our liberties. Because of you, Congress is responding, and we're just beginning to start to undo the damage that's been done the last few years, because we believe in lower taxes, we believe in a limited view of government and exceptionalism in America. And I believe that America is the indispensable nation of the world.

Just the creation of this nation itself was a miracle. Who can say that we won't see a miracle again? The perilous battle that was fought during World War II in the Pacific at Iwo Jima was a battle against all odds, and yet this picture immortalizes the victory of young GIs over the incursion against the Japanese. These six young men raising the flag came to symbolize all of America coming together to beat back a totalitarian aggressor.

Our current debt crisis we face today is different, but we still need all of us to pull together. But we can do this. That's our hope. We will push forward. We will proclaim liberty throughout the land. And we will do so because we, the people, will never give up on this great nation.

So God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.