Debates : Category on Electapres.com

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Mitt Romney said Wednesday that John McCain is out of the conservative mainstream, as the rivals for the Republican presidential nomination vied for votes in next week's multistate primary.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said McCain twice voted against President Bush's tax cuts and pushed campaign finance reforms that restricted fundraising and spending. The Republican establishment embraced the tax cuts and opposed the new campaign law, which many saw as more helpful to Democrats.

"Those views are outside the view of mainstream Republican thought," Romney said in the opening moments of a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The forum came 24 hours after McCain won Florida presidential primary despite criticisms that he is too moderate on several issues dear to party loyalists.

Permalink [Category: Debates, McCain Archive, Romney Archive]

Sparks Fly Between Romney and McCain Over Iraq

ABC News

The genuine dislike that has apparently developed over the last year between the remaining two serious contenders for the Republican presidential nomination was on display during their final debate before Super Tuesday, when Republicans will go to the polls in 21 states.
However, a senior adviser to one of the top campaigns suggested the sour tone on stage might be attributed to having a debate the night following a critical primary.

McCain came into the debate riding a wave of good news after his Florida victory on Tuesday. The Arizona senator entered the Reagan library complex with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to accept his endorsement. Giuliani ended his candidacy for the White House and threw his support to McCain -- instead of taking a seat on the debate stage, as he had planned before he came in a devastating distant third in Florida.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Iraq, McCain Archive, Romney Archive]

January 25, 2008

Republican Candidates Make Nice, Offer Few Contrasts in Florida Debate

ABC News

It was less a Republican debate than it was a Rotary Club discussion -- and a soporific one at that. There were no attacks made, few contrasts drawn, little indication that the candidates are just five days away from a crucial primary contest.
In fact, the candidate who has the most to lose here -- former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has staked his campaign on success in the Sunshine State -- even said "these are terrific candidates ... running very, very good races."

The various campaigns' press secretaries were busy writing nasty e-mails and press releases about their bosses' opponents, but on stage it was the Hippocratic debate -- first do no harm. And no one did any harm to themselves, or to each other.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

January 22, 2008

Obama and Clinton Tangle at Debate

The Washington Times (register)

In the most intense and personal exchange of the presidential campaign, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama assailed each other’s integrity and voting records during a televised debate on Monday in South Carolina, the site of a critical primary in five days.
In the most intense and personal exchange of the presidential campaign, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama assailed each other’s integrity and voting records during a televised debate on Monday in South Carolina, the site of a critical primary in five days.

If the debate was full of memorable moments — Mrs. Clinton accusing Mr. Obama of associating with a “slum landlord,” Mr. Obama saying he felt as if he were running against both Hillary and Bill Clinton, the two candidates talking over each other — the totality of the attacks also laid bare the ill will and competitive ferocity that has been simmering between them for weeks.

“You know, Senator Obama, it is very difficult having a straight-up debate with you, because you never take responsibility for any vote, and that has been a pattern,” Mrs. Clinton said, drawing a chorus of jeers from a crowd at the Palace Theater in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Hillary Clinton Archive, Obama Archive]

Debate brings Clinton, Obama conflict to fore

Sen. Barack Obama took his most aggressive tone yet last night, accusing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a South Carolina debate of dishonestly twisting his statements and record.
The two Democratic presidential candidates locked in a race for enough delegates to win the party nomination stood within arms' distance confronting each other on issues that before last night had mostly been fought by their campaign staff behind the scenes.

It was a stark contrast from last week's debate in Las Vegas where the candidates were cordial as they sat around a table.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Hillary Clinton Archive, Obama Archive]

January 15, 2008

Kucinich OK'd for Debate, Appeal Planned

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- NBC News said Monday it will appeal a judge's ruling rather than include Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich in a candidates' debate in Nevada.
''We disagree with the judge's decision and are filing an appeal,'' said a statement provided by Jeremy Gaines, a vice president for MSNBC, sponsor of Tuesday night's debate. Gaines said the parent network would seek an immediate hearing before the Nevada Supreme Court.

Hours earlier, Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson ruled that Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, must be allowed to participate. If he is excluded, Thompson said he would issue an injunction to stop the televised debate.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Kucinich]

January 11, 2008

The S.C. Debate: Fred's Not Dead...

MSNBC News

The first 20 minutes of the debate was not good for the entire Republican Party. All of the candidates struggled on the issue of the economy; Their answers may have been fine for a primary audience but don't expect swing voters or indie voters to like what these guys said on the economy. They tried to sound in touch but their collective hesitance for government involvement explains why voters tend to want Democrats in economic down times; that's when folks look to government. The middle class doesn't like government involved when the economy is good.
After the torture of dealing with the economy was over, I think all of the candidates can feel good about their performances. Fred Thompson was funny, biting and energetic. Easily, his smoothest performance but it wasn't necessarily presidential; it was Jack Cafferty-esque... or Paul Harvey like. He sounded like a smart pundit. Thompson, btw, did McCain a big favor by softening up Huckabee. I'm guessing, though, his style played VERY well with South Carolina Republicans. They kind of like that smart allecky chatter.

Permalink [Category: Debates, South Carolina Primary, Thompson Fred]

January 07, 2008

Accuracy Takes a Hit in Debates

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney denied describing Senator John McCain’s immigration proposal as “amnesty” in an advertisement. John Edwards claimed he had “never taken a dime from a Washington lobbyist in my entire time in public life.” Rudolph W. Giuliani said the Islamic terrorist threat “has nothing to do with our foreign policy.”
All of those statements from back-to-back debates Saturday night are incorrect, misleading or incomplete, and they show how, as the clock ticks down to the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday and the candidates find themselves under increasing pressure, truth and accuracy are sometimes sacrificed on the stump.

Mr. Romney made his claim during a heated back-and-forth on immigration with Mr. McCain, saying: “I don’t describe your plan as amnesty in my ad. I don’t call it amnesty.” But Mr. Romney has run television and Internet commercials and has sent mailings describing Mr. McCain’s immigration proposal as just that: amnesty.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

January 06, 2008

Clinton on the Attack in N.H. Debate

Given the short period of time between Iowa's caucuses and New Hampshire's primary, it will be difficult for Clinton to change the underlying dynamics of the race in such short order. Obama is at ease when talking change and he showed it again tonight; "Regardless of what the Republican candidates are talking about I think there are a whole hosts of Republicans and Independents who have lost hope in their government," he said. "We can draw those independents and some Republicans into a working majority for change."
Clinton's tactic to disrupt Obama in New Hampshire is to raise questions about the consistency of his record. Time and again, she sought to take the offensive against Obama, beseeching voters (and, more obliquely, the media) to look more closely at alleged contradictions in his statements on health care and the influence of special interests. She even noted that Obama's New Hampshire chairman is a lobbyist. "Words are not action and, as beautifully presented and passionately felt as they are, they are not action," she said, directly taking on the lofty rhetoric that has installed the Illinois Senator as the frontrunner in the primary.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Hillary Clinton Archive]

In debate, Republicans praise Bush

MANCHESTER, N.H. — President Bush, whose name is almost never mentioned by Republican presidential candidates, re-emerged tonight as a major issue, with Sen. John McCain saying in a debate that the president deserves credit for preventing another terrorist attack against the United States.
"We are succeeding now in Iraq, but as we blame the president for the failed strategy, we should give him credit, we should give him credit for changing the strategy" by ordering the "surge" of troops, said the Arizona senator, who acknowledges he must win New Hampshire to keep his presidential aspirations alive.

During a 90-minute debate three days before New Hampshire holds the first primary of the 2008 presidential campaign, the five major candidates on the stage voiced support for Mr. Bush's policy to stay the course in Iraq. Each said there will be a lengthy war against radical Islamic extremists bent on killing Americans, which will require executive courage and the ability to look beyond the polls.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

December 17, 2007

The Latest Reality Show: Die-Hard, Freeze-Frame Politics With a Life of Their Own

Of the thousands of minutes the 2008 presidential candidates have spent in debate, maybe four stand out.
Primary debates have become the raw footage of political discourse; hours and hours of well-scripted disquisition about troop withdrawal, taxes, immigration law, trade rules, farm subsidies and gay marriage pile up on a digital cutting room floor; only a few highlights — a snappy comeback or a telling fumble — are culled and showcased on newscasts, YouTube and other Web sites.

There is a kind of paradox beneath it all: candidates, ever desperate to attract voter attention, feel obliged to surrender more and more time to the straitjacket of televised debate, while technology conspires to allow voters to see as much as they want — or as little.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Internet, Television]

December 14, 2007

GOP debate moderator was a bust

The moderator of Wednesday's Republican presidential debate provoked a cloud of censure yesterday.
Carolyn Washburn — the editor of the Des Moines Register — imposed rigid rules of order and strict time limits on the nine Republicans, ignoring several candidates, and forbade detailed discussion of Iraq and immigration. Mrs. Washburn said Iowans had heard enough on both issues.

The restrictions came at a pivotal time: The Iowa caucuses are only three weeks away, without any other debates scheduled until after the vote.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Iowa Caucus]

Democrats Soften Tone for Final Debate in Iowa

In the final Democratic presidential debate of the year Thursday, both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama were put on the spot about leadership: whether she tended to be too secretive and insular, and whether he could mold a new foreign policy when many of his advisers had worked in Bill Clinton’s White House.
Mrs. Clinton, confronted at the debate in Johnston, Iowa, specifically about her closed-door health care task force in 1993-94, said she had “learned a lot from that experience,” but did not blame herself for being secretive.

“Clearly one of the principal lessons is that you have to have a very strong communication strategy, and we didn’t do that,” she said, before promising to have an “open and transparent government” if elected president.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Iowa Caucus]

December 11, 2007

Democratic Debate in Boston Canceled

BOSTON (AP) -- A Democratic presidential debate scheduled for next week in Boston has been scrapped because of the earlier-than-usual Iowa caucuses, a spokeswoman for CNN, one of the event's organizers, said Monday.
The Dec. 17 debate also was sponsored by the foundation that runs the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum and Politico.com, an online political magazine.

''Due to the early scheduling of the Iowa caucuses, organizers decided to cancel the December 17th debate in Boston,'' CNN's Edie Emery said in a brief statement, declining to discuss factors that influenced the decision.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

December 10, 2007

Debate Season Ending, at Least for Iowans

The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are holding debates in Iowa this week. After an eight-month blur of debates, that might not seem like stop-the-presses news. But these are the last debates before the Iowa caucuses. And they are taking place three weeks before Republicans and Democrats assemble to caucus on Jan. 3.
It is another oddity in what is shaping up as the most peculiar of political years, beginning with the fact that the caucuses are taking place two days after New Year’s.

These debates — Iowa institutions sponsored by The Des Moines Register (Republicans on Wednesday, Democrats on Thursday, both at 1 p.m.) — may not have the political resonance that they have had in normal years, when they would be held closer to the actual vote and without Christmas in between.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Iowa Caucus]

GOP Hopefuls Temper Anti - Immigrant Talk

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- The Republican presidential candidates sought to embrace Hispanics in a Spanish language debate Sunday, striving to mark common ground with a growing voter bloc while softening the anti-illegal immigration rhetoric that has marked their past encounters.
The candidates avoided the harsh exchanges and name-calling of their most recent debate, while still emphasizing the need for border security and an end to illegal immigration. The polite debate came less than four weeks before the first votes are cast in Iowa and amid a topsy-turvy race in which former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has bolted to the lead in the state.

Only Sen. John McCain warned that harsh immigration views voiced by some Republicans have driven Hispanics away from the party. The Arizona senator has stood apart from most of his Republican rivals because he supported changing immigration laws and creating a path for citizenship for illegal immigrants.

''I think some of the rhetoric that many Hispanics hear about illegal immigration makes some of them believe that we are not in favor of or seek the support of Hispanic citizens in this country,'' he said.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Immigration]

December 05, 2007

For Democrats, a Strained Debate on Immigration

The Boston Globe

DES MOINES, Dec. 4 — If there is one issue that has challenged presidential candidates of both parties in Iowa this year, it is immigration, and the Democratic contenders were confronted with it again Tuesday, in a provocative way. Should American citizens, they were asked, turn in someone they know to be an illegal immigrant?
In the end, the answer from most of the candidates was no. But the question, posed in various forms during a two-hour debate over National Public Radio, had the candidates struggling anew with a topic looming large both in the Iowa caucuses next month and in the general election.

Tracking down illegal immigrants, the candidates said, is the job of the government, not civilians. But the moderators pressed the issue, pointing to what they suggested were inconsistencies.

After Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said she did not think that civilians should be “enforcing the broken laws of our federal immigration system,” Steve Inskeep of NPR asked her, “If a citizen witnessed some other kind of crime, wouldn’t you want them to report it?”

Permalink [Category: Debates, Immigration]

November 30, 2007

Public questions inspire combative GOP debate

The LA Times

WASHINGTON -- In an animated, fast-paced debate marked by personal attacks between the candidates, Republican presidential hopefuls Wednesday night sparred over illegal immigration, torture, gun control, abortion -- and even whether the Bible should be taken literally.
The unconventional debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube featured often raw and emotional questions from the public, in the form of 33 videos. Questions came from a gay general from Northern California, a black father and son from Atlanta worried about crime, and a young white Texan asking the candidates for their views on flying the Confederate flag.

As the debate continued over two hours, the most frequent target was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has been a leader in the two states that loom largest in the early voting -- Iowa and New Hampshire.

Romney was attacked from all sides, on multiple issues. Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani accused him of employing illegal immigrants, while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested that he was heartless for opposing college scholarships for immigrants. Sen. John McCain of Arizona faulted Romney for refusing to concede that an interrogation practice called waterboarding amounts to torture. And former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee -- via a campaign video -- chided the former governor for changing his position on abortion.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

McCain sour about Hillary plant

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Sen. John McCain said this morning that CNN should have made clear that a retired general who asked a question in last night's Republican debate about homosexuals in the military works for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I think that should have been revealed," the Arizona senator said. "I think that should have been made public if this individual was a member of another — any other campaign, then people would, obviously, have a better way of judging the quality of the question."

Retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr was named a co-chairman of Mrs. Clinton's National Military Veterans group this month, according to a campaign press release. He asked a question last night at the CNN-YouTube debate here, and after answers from candidates, debate host Anderson Cooper asked the general if he was satisfied with the answers.

The general then stood up and delivered what amounted to a two-minute speech, stopping only when the audience of 1,500 booed.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Hillary Clinton Archive, McCain Archive]

Romney, Giuliani get testy

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The eighth Republican debate got off to a blistering start and quickly became the Mitt and Rudy Show, with the two front-running candidates going toe to toe on immigration, interrupting each other until they were booed by the boisterous crowd.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, responding to the first question in the CNN/YouTube debate, accused former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of retaining New York's status as a sanctuary city for illegal aliens while he was mayor.

The mayor fired back, saying Mr. Romney employed illegal aliens and ran a "sanctuary mansion" as governor — he had landscapers at his Belmont, Mass., home who turned out to have been in the country illegally.

The governor grew red in the face and said sternly to the mayor: "I think it is really kind of offensive."

Permalink [Category: Debates, Giuliani Archive, Romney Archive]

November 29, 2007

Debate an immigration showdown

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The eighth Republican debate got off to a blistering start and quickly became the Mitt and Rudy Show, with the two frontrunning candidates going toe-to-toe on immigration, interrupting each other until they were booed by the boisterous crowd.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, responding to the first question, accused former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of retaining New York's status as a sanctuary city for illegal aliens while he was mayor.

The mayor fired back, saying Mr. Romney employed illegal aliens and ran a "sanctuary mansion" as governor. Mr. Romney had landscapers at his Belmont, Mass., home who turned out were in the country illegally. He told the mayor it would "not be American" to ask all workers to see their papers just because have a "funny accent."

The mayor fired back, pointing at the governor: "Mitt usually criticizes people when he usually has the far worse record."

Permalink [Category: Debates]

November 23, 2007

YouTube GOP debate approaches

The Boston Globe

Web-savvy political junkies have until the end of Sunday to submit questions for the CNN/YouTube Republican debate next week.
And if the powers-that-be at CNN pick your question, you could get a free trip to St. Petersburg, Fla., to watch the debate in person Wednesday night and offer reaction.

Some rather provocative questions have already been submitted about Rudy Giuliani's three marriages and about Mitt Romney's change of position on abortion. FreedomWorks, led by former US House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, has submitted a question about scrapping the income tax code and replacing it with a different system.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Internet]

November 16, 2007

Democratic Debate: Winners and Losers

The first 15 minutes of the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas featured clashes between the top three candidates -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards -- over Social Security, Iran and telling the truth.
The next hour and 45 minutes were, well, slower. All seven candidates got into the act, offering bits of their stump speeches and trying to cajole CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer into giving them a little more speaking time.

Anyone who reads the Fix regularly (Fixistas unite!) knows which part of the debate we liked better.

Below you'll find the night's winners and losers (according to The Fix). Ranking the candidates' performances is an inherently subjective exercise so remember this is just one man's opinion. Disagree? Or -- fingers crossed -- agree? Sound off in the comments section.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

Quotes From the Democratic Debate

Quotes from the Democrats' debate Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

November 15, 2007

Clinton's Rivals Adopt More Partisan Approach

With Democrats heading into another debate tonight in Las Vegas, the race is more fluid than it has been in months. Clinton encountered her first string of perceived stumbles on the trail, starting with her rivals' assertions that hedged answers in their Oct. 30 debate in Philadelphia suggested a lack of forthrightness. This was followed by negative reviews of her campaign's complaints about "piling on" at the debate, reports that aides had planted questions at an Iowa event, and widespread praise for Obama's speech at a party fundraiser in Des Moines on Saturday.
Clinton's campaign dismisses the Obama team's talk of a narrowing race. "His rhetoric may no longer be hopeful, but it sounds like his campaign still is," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said.

For the past several months, Clinton has hewn to a front-runner's strategy, rarely engaging her challengers directly and instead focusing her attacks on Republicans. The closest she has come to taking on Obama has been to stress her own experience -- drawing attention to his brief tenure in Washington -- and to upbraid rivals for attacking fellow Democrats.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Hillary Clinton Archive]

November 07, 2007

Clinton Says Debate Made Dems Vulnerable

CHICAGO (AP) -- Former President Clinton said Wednesday that all the Democratic presidential candidates could be open to a ''swift boat kind of ad'' if they try to give quick responses to complicated issues like driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
A day after being criticized for defending his wife, the former president tried to explain his comments linking criticism of Hillary Rodham Clinton to the swift boat campaign against John Kerry's military record in the 2004 campaign. Bill Clinton made the comparison Monday during a speech in Las Vegas.

Sen. Chris Dodd said it was ''way over the top.'' Sen. Barack Obama said he was stunned to hear the former president make such a comparison.

At the end of a Democratic presidential debate last week, Hillary Clinton hedged when asked whether she supported a plan by her home state governor to issue licenses to illegal immigrants. Dodd, Obama and others have accused her of trying to have it both ways on the issue.

Permalink [Category: Bill Clinton, Clinton, Debates, Hillary Clinton Archive]

November 03, 2007

Edwards Says Debate Boosted His Campaign

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday this week's televised debate was a pivotal moment in his campaign, making it clear now to voters what choices they have.
''From my perspective, the choices are between the status quo and change,'' the former North Carolina senator said. ''And we need change in the worst kind of way in America.''

Edwards has recently increased the intensity of his criticism of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has a big lead in national polls. During Tuesday's debate Edwards sharply challenged Clinton, saying she ''defends a broken system that's corrupt in Washington, D.C.''

On Saturday he again stood by his earlier claim that Clinton has engaged in ''doubletalk.''

Permalink [Category: Debates, Edwards]

October 31, 2007

In debate, rivals say Clinton is too divisive

The LA Times

Obama and Edwards concede strengths in her campaign style, but they voice doubts that she's electable.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

Biden scores with debate zinger

The LA Times

....First, he termed Giuliani "probably the most under-qualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency." That garnered some laughter and applause, but Biden was merely setting up the sound bite of the night.
"Rudy Giuliani," he went on. "I mean, think about it. Rudy Giuliani. There's -- there's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11."

Permalink [Category: Biden, Debates, Giuliani Archive]

Clinton's Foes Go on the Attack

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 30 -- With just over two months until the first primary contest, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic rivals aggressively challenged their party's front-runner here Tuesday night, accusing her of being dishonest and of emboldening President Bush to declare war against Iran.
Former senator John Edwards (N.C.), lingering in third place in most polls, took the lead in attacking Clinton as Democrats gathered for the fourth of their six official debates. He mocked Clinton for voting to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, and all but accused her of being corrupt.

Voters, Edwards said, "deserve a president of the United States that they know will tell them the truth, and won't say one thing one time and something different at a different time."

Permalink [Category: Debates]

Obama, Edwards Target Clinton

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards sharply challenged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's candor, consistency and judgment Tuesday in a televised debate that underscored her front-runner status two months before the first presidential primary votes.
Obama, the Illinois senator, began immediately, saying Clinton has changed her positions on the North American Free Trade Agreement, torture policies and the Iraq war. Leadership, he said, does not mean ''changing positions whenever it's politically convenient.''

Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, was even sharper at times, saying Clinton ''defends a broken system that's corrupt in Washington, D.C.'' He stood by his earlier claim that she has engaged in ''doubletalk.''

Permalink [Category: Debates]

October 30, 2007

CNN Finalizes Debate, MSNBC Postpones

Experts say the crowded presidential primary race has delivered more debates than voters saw in the long stretch leading up to the Iowa caucuses in late January of the 2000 campaign, which also had contested primaries.
At least 15 debates and forums have taken place so far this year, with a possible 13 scheduled for the upcoming months. Democrats will debate Tuesday in Philadelphia.

While the debates offer candidates a chance to distinguish themselves, the numerous sessions also raise questions of whether debate fatigue is setting in among those watching.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

October 22, 2007

GOP Rivals Argue Who's Most Conservative

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)-- Republican front-runners Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney defended their conservative credentials in the face of pointed attacks from campaign rivals Sunday night in the most aggressive debate to date of the race for the White House.
''You've just spent the last year trying to fool people about your record. I don't want you to start fooling them about mine,'' Arizona Sen. John McCain bluntly told Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson made Giuliani his target, saying the former New York mayor supported federal funding for abortion, gun control and havens for illegal immigrants.

''He sides with Hillary Clinton on each of those issues,'' added Thompson, referring to the New York Democrat who leads in the polls for her party's presidential nomination.

Permalink [Category: Conservatives, Debates]

October 15, 2007

Big Easy aims to host '08 debate

Super Bowls. Final Fours. College football championships. Mardi Gras. New Orleans has put on megaspectacles often, and always in style
So two years after being ripped apart by Hurricane Katrina, "the city care forgot" is eager to remind the world that it's back in business by hosting one of the presidential debates next year.

"This is very important to the city of New Orleans," says Anne Milling, founder of Women of the Storm, a New Orleans nonprofit group that's organizing the city's bid to host one of the three scheduled debates. "A presidential debate would ignite our tourist industry and show the country, and the world, that we're open."

The nonpartisan, nonprofit Commission on Presidential Debates is expected to announce next month the winning cities from among the 16 that applied, executive director Janet Brown said.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

October 11, 2007

Free Trade and Low Taxes Star in Republican Debate

DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 9 -- On a day when stock indexes hit record highs, Republican presidential candidates gathered here Tuesday for a group defense of low taxes and free markets and warned that Democrats, particularly Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, pose the greatest danger to the nation's future prosperity.
Former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) finally joined his rivals in a televised debate, adding his voice to the chorus singing the praises of free trade, a reduction in regulation, private health care and reduced government spending. Like the others on the stage, he made his points by taking aim at the opposition party.

"When the Democrats start targeting the rich guy, if you're a middle-class guy you ought to run to the other side of the house, because you're going to get hit," Thompson said. The former "Law & Order" star appeared nervous as the debate began but seemed to grow more comfortable by the end of the two-hour event.

"I've enjoyed watching these fellas," he said when asked if he enjoyed himself. "I gotta admit it was getting a little boring without me."

Permalink [Category: Debates]

October 09, 2007

In Debate Reviews, Thompson Survives

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 — Based on the previews of Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, it seemed much of the wise-guy set was expecting the newcomer, former Senator Fred D. Thompson, to star in the political equivalent of a Nascar wreck.
“All he has to do is not fall asleep,” the columnist Roger Simon wrote of Mr. Thompson in Tuesday’s edition of the Politico, a political Web site. “All he has to do is not throw up.”

And upset of upsets — Mr. Thompson did not throw up, fall asleep or, for that matter, drool (another stated benchmark).

Plus, he even knew who the leader of Canada was. “Harper,” Mr. Thompson answered confidently in response to a potential gotcha from Chris Matthews of MSNBC.

Permalink [Category: Debates, Thompson Fred]

Romney, Giuliani Spar on Taxes, Spending

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani quarreled over tax and spending cuts Tuesday, each claiming greater commitment than the other in a debate in the nation's struggling manufacturing heartland.
The government ''is spending money of future generations and those yet to be born,'' added Fred Thompson, making his debut on a debate stage after a late entry into the race. He said future retirees should receive smaller Social Security benefits than they have been promised.

After months of polite debate sparring, Giuliani and Romney squared off without hesitation, a reflection of their struggle for primacy in the race for their party's presidential nomination.

''I cut taxes 23 times. I believe in tax cuts,'' said Giuliani, former mayor of New York and leader in national Republican polls.

Permalink [Category: Debates]

Analysis: Thompson Sticks to Script