GOP's Last Iowa Debate: All Aboard the Crazy Train

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 5:57 AM on December 13, 2007.

Yesterday's debate for Republican presidential hopefuls is, thank goodness, the final debate before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. However, with 22 days between the event and the results of the fist contest, this was the last chance for candidates to hammer their rivals, undermine the frontrunners, and draw "distinctions" with the rest of the field. I almost wondered if actual blood would be shed on the stage.

But it was not to be. Yesterday's event might as well be labeled the Hippocratic Debate: As in, "First, do no harm."

The GOP field seemed far more interested in getting through the last debate without screwing up than scoring points at their opponents' behest. The event's host seemed anxious to play along, going out of their way to make this the single dullest, substance-less, inconsequential debate of either side this year. When the audience learned early on that the debate would include Alan Keyes, but not include questions on Iraq and immigration, we knew this would be a long 90 minutes.

How bad was it? The biggest news of the event came after it was over, when Mike Huckabee talked to CNN from the spin room.

The Arkansan said he apologized to Romney right after the debate for a quote that will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine in which he wondered out loud if Mormons believe Jesus and the Devil are brothers.

"I've stayed away from talking about Mitt Romney's faith," Huckabee told Wolf Blitzer. "And I told him face to face, I said, 'I don't think your being a Mormon ought to make you more or less qualified for being a president.'"

Huckabee, who has ridden a wave of positive media attention until a dose of scrutiny that has come with his rise, added that he is "being much more cautious now, because everything is being parsed."

At least we know what it takes to get Huckabee to apologize. He won't back down on quarantining AIDS patients, and he won't apologize for urging women to be submissive to their husbands, but he will apologize to Romney for taking a cheap shot at his religion. Good to know.

Of course, this is not to say that the Iowa debate was completely devoid of noteworthy developments.

Observations from my notes:

* Asked whether Americans should be asked to sacrifice to help pay down our debts, the candidates apparently agreed we should not. How generous.

* Fred Thompson easily had his best performance as a presidential candidate yesterday, including this mini-revolt against one of those silly hand-raising questions.

WASHBURN: Thank you. I want to take on a new issue. I would like to see a show of hands. How many of you believe global climate change is a serious threat and caused by human activity?

THOMPSON: Well, do you want to give me a minute to answer that?

WASHBURN: No, I don't. I -

THOMPSON: Well, then I'm not going to answer it. (Laughter, applause.)

Haven't debate organizers learned by now that this is a foolish way to ask questions in a debate?

* In the opening minutes, Rudy Giuliani explained his belief in the Tax Fairy: "Right now we should reduce the corporate tax. We should reduce it from 35 percent to 25 percent. It would be a major boost in revenues for the government." Has this not been debunked enough lately?

* Giuliani also had one hilarious, laugh-out-loud moment in response to a question about his Shag Fund scandal:

"The reality is that all that information was available and known to people, known six years ago. And I would make sure that government was transparent. My government in New York City was so transparent that they knew every single thing I did almost every time I did it.... [A]s far as, you know, open, transparent government, I think I've had both an open, transparent government and an open, transparent life, and it allows you to lead, then, with honesty and truth."

That Rudy is quite a cut-up. "Transparent" government? "Honesty and truth"? Stop it, Mr. Mayor, you're killing me.

* Duncan Hunter tried to take a shot at Romney, saying something about Bain Capital working with a Chinese business, which tried to get a defense contract, which may have done business with Saddam. It was so weak, Romney didn't even bother to respond. You know it's embarrassing when a candidate ignores an attack completely.

* John McCain actually had a really good answer about climate change: "Suppose that climate change is not real, and all we do adopt green technologies, which our economy and our technology is perfectly capable of. Then all we've done is given our kids a cleaner world. But suppose they are wrong. Suppose they are wrong, and climate change is real, and we've done nothing. What kind of a planet are we going to pass on to the next generation of Americans? It's real. We've got to address it. We can do it with technology, with cap-and- trade, with capitalist and free enterprise motivation. And I'm confident that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren a cleaner, better world." Republicans will probably hate this, but he's right.

* Watching the debate, I kept wondering whether Keyes should be institutionalized. Why he was invited to participate at all remains a total mystery.

* I'd be hard pressed to name a "winner," but apparently a Fox News focus group strongly backed Romney.

* Expected fireworks between Huckabee and Romney never materialized, but there was one noteworthy exchange. The question was about what the candidates thought they could achieve in their first year in office.

ROMNEY: I want to do more than talk in my first year. There are a lot of things I want to get done. First of all, I want to establish a strategy to help us overwhelm global jihad and keep the world safe. I want to end illegal immigration. We can get that done. I want to end the growth -- the expansion growth of entitlements, rein them in. I want to end the extraordinary growth in federal spending and I want to keep our tax burden down and reduce our tax burden on middle-income families. I want to get us on a track to become energy-independent. I want to get our schools on a track so they can become competitive globally, and I want to get health insurance for every citizen in America. It's going to take four years for that to happen, but I'll get us on track in that. We'll have a stronger military, a stronger economy and stronger values, with stronger families, after my first year in office.

HUCKABEE: Well, I like the laundry list that everybody's had, and I would agree that every one of those things is important. Reality is, none of that's going to happen till we bring this country back together. I think the first priority of the next president is to be a president of all the United States. We are, right now, a very polarized country, and that polarized country has led to a paralyzed government. We've got Democrats who fight Republicans, liberals fighting conservatives. The left fights the right. Who's fighting for this country again?

It summarized the last several weeks very nicely: Romney seems to care about impressing audiences with some semblance of substance, Huckabee seems to care about fluff.

So, what'd you think?

Tagged as: election08, republican debate, iowa, keyes, hunter, mccain, romney, giuliani, thompson, huckabee

Steve Benen is a freelance writer/researcher and creator of The Carpetbagger Report. In addition, he is the lead editor of Salon.com's Blog Report, and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Crooks & Liars, The American Prospect, and the Guardian.