MANCHESTER, N.H. – Just three days from the first primary of the 2012 presidential campaign, a slightly reduced field of Republican candidates sparred freely Saturday night, but largely spared frontrunner Mitt Romney in the first to two debates they’ll endure over just 12 hours.
Romney, who has a double-digit lead in the Granite State, rarely had to defend himself at the ABC/Facebook debate at Saint Anselm College.
Instead, Romney was given room by the other candidates to position himself as the man to beat and spent most of the debate criticizing President Obama.
Even Jon Huntsman, who’s eager for a big debate moment that would jumpstart his stalled campaign, passed on several chances to attack Romney, even when prompted by the moderators.
Newt Gingrich, who is virtually tied with Huntsman in recent polls, also declined a chance to directly attack Romney over his time at Bain Capital, instead pointing voters to a New York Times article that was critical of Romney’s tenure as head of the company.
“You have to look at The New York Times coverage of one particular company. And you have to ask yourself some questions,” Gingrich said.
Romney stood at center stage but only watched as his opponents assailed each other in a fight for a strong second-place finish in Tuesday’s primary. Such a finish could boost any of the candidates offering themselves as the conservative alternative to Romney when the race turns south to the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary.
Rep. Ron Paul, who is solidly in second place in New Hampshire polls, launched one of the most volatile attacks of the night at Gingrich when he declared that the former Speaker’s lack of military service would make him an inferior commander in chief. Paul was an Air Force flight surgeon from 1963 to 1965 and in the Texas Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968.
Paul recently called Gingrich a “chicken hawk,” a derogatory characterization of pro-defense politicians who avoided their own military service, and the moderators asked Paul to repeat the charge on stage.
Gingrich, a self-described ‘Army brat,’ noted that he’d grown up on military bases during his father’s service and had acquired insight into the lives of those serving.
“I think I have a pretty good idea of what it’s like as a family to worry about your father getting killed,” Gingrich shot back. “And I personally resent the kind of comments and aspersions [Paul] routinely makes without accurate information and then just slurs people with.”
He said Paul “has a long history of saying things that are inaccurate or false.”
Huntsman, the former Utah Gov., walked away from the debate damaged by Romney on China.
Romney accused Huntsman of taking a soft approach on China, despite evidence that it manipulates its currency in a way that inflates the U.S. trade deficit.
Huntsman, the former U.S. ambassador to China under President Obama, promoted negotiating with China without imposing new tariffs, while Romney said a tougher approach would be needed.
“I’m also going to tell the Chinese it’s time to stop, you have to play by the rules, I’m not going to let you kill American jobs any longer,” Romney said, earning enthusiastic audience applause.
Huntsman, inexplicably, responded in Chinese, which appeared to confuse the studio audience.
He added, in English, that Romney’s tough approach would prompt a trade war with China that the weakened U.S economy could ill afford.
