I’d love to see the rest of tonight’s debate asking us about what we would do to lead an America whose president has failed to lead instead of playing ‘Mickey Mouse games’.
So said Newt Gingrich last night after FOX News debate moderator Chris Wallace asked the man whose presidential campaign is more than one million dollars in debt whether, quite honestly, he might agree that his attempt to win political election had been a “mess so far”.
Mickey Mouse games were indeed the name of the game in Ames, Iowa on Thursday evening, when eight candidates came head to head in round two of the Republican presidential race, all desperate to prove themselves worthy of taking on Obama in next year’s presidential elections.
The two-hour debate cranked up the pace several notches after the much more bland affair two months ago, which saw only five of the candidates bother even to turn up. Last time, notable absences included Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Michelle Bachman, generally considered to be the more “heavyweight” candidates.
While May’s debate saw candidates on their best behaviour, uniting against Obama in a false show of solidarity, Thursday night saw the candidates turn on their fellow Republicans to pull one another’s policies apart in a bout of in-fighting that left no clear winner by the end of it all.
The repeated bickering between former governor Tim Pawlenty and congresswoman Michele Bachmann stood out. The two Minnesota candidates exchanged curt criticisms, with Pawlenty gesturing at Bachmann as he accused her record of accomplishment and results of being “non-existent”.
Not one to mince his words, he moved on to address her directly with “please stop, because you’re killing us”. Bachmann held her own, accusing her challenger of taking a stance more in line with Obama than a conservative Republican, a big put down from the Tea Party champion.
Foreign policy took its place in the spotlight for a time. Congressman Ron Paul received strong support after putting forward his pragmatic anti-war position, pointing out that the US can no longer afford to fund wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: “the threat from war in Iran is overstated”, he said with gusto. Bachmann was having none of it.
The next stage in this ongoing battle will be Saturday’s Ames straw poll, the most prominent of the Iowa straw polls running up to the presidential candidacy elections and a good early indicator of voter enthusiasm. Although non-binding, the poll gives a good indication of which candidates are faring particularly badly, in turn affecting their likelihood of winning Iowa in January and so potentially discounting them from the rest of the race.
The fact that some candidates are spending tens of thousands of dollars trying to win over tomorrow’s voters indicates just how important they think this poll is. With Texan Governor Rick Perry — the “invisible presence” at the GOP debate last night — expected to join the campaign this weekend, Mitt Romney’s front-running status looks precarious.
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