An Unrevealing Debate
Jules Witcover

June 20, 2011

Pre-primary presidential debates are supposed to provide a basis for voters to judge which of the competing candidates will give their party the best chance to win the White House in the next election. But the one among seven Republicans in New Hampshire shed little light on that question.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the frontrunner so far in the polls and in fund-raising, emerged unscathed among the participators in the debate because the other six largely chose to focus not on him, but on President Obama, the mutual target of all of them.

That fact in itself reflected an early caution among the GOP candidates. Each was more intent on conveying a sense of self, of introducing his or her own persona to a party electorate wide open to a new face, or a relatively new one, to carry the fight against Obama.

The contenders manifested their restraint by not ganging up on the putative frontrunner, but rather by quietly competing with him for approval of the party faithful. It suggested that the others do not yet regard Romney as so clearly on the road to the Republican nomination that he has to be detoured at all cost to their own chances.

The closest to a challenge to the architect of the much-maligned Massachusetts health care reform act, to which Obama's own plan has been compared, came before the debate. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty had labeled the Romney plan "Obamneycare" -- a clever-by-half play on "Obamacare," the Republican epithet for the president's own health care reforms.

Moderator John King of CNN confronted Pawlenty with the cutesy term, pressing him to use it again in the presence of Romney, standing nearby. Pawlenty finally offered only that the term was a "reflection of the president's comment that he designed Obamacare on the Massachusetts health care plan," sounding a bit apologetic.

That was about as close as the debate came to producing a confrontation, although other contenders have griped that Romney's plan mandated the purchase of health care insurance, as Obama's also does. Nor did any of he other GOP presidential hopefuls call Romney on alleged flip-flops on abortion and other issues they say put him outside the conservative party mainstream.

The one candidate who needed no introduction to the Republican faithful, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, left slashing invective at home as he sought to present himself once again as the new-ideas candidate in the wake of his campaign's recent near-implosion. Top-level aides ran for cover last week from his unwillingness to commit himself to the orthodox path they had laid out for him.

Aside from Romney escaping the slings and arrows of his competitors, the one other competitor who introduced herself in a helpful way was Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who took advantage of the television audience to announce her formal candidacy at the start of the debate.

Her presence itself made the announcement no big surprise, but she conducted herself in a restrained fashion as the co-darling of the tea party movement along with Sarah Palin, who has not declared candidacy and was not present. Cast widely as a wild-eyed extremist, Bachmann's controlled appearance could boost her stock on the party's right wing as Palin communes with herself on whether or not she'll run.

As for the other three participants in the New Hampshire debate -- Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former pizza emporium executive Herman Cain -- none provided any reason to change the general perception that they're just along for the ride. Cain's pleasing performance in a previous debate was not repeated.

So the mini-drama of which Republican will take on Obama next year moves on in the shadows, with former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman poised to enter the race and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Sarah Palin said to be considering. As the frontrunner still standing, Romney probably can be said to have been the closest thing to the debate winner, with many more tests to come.

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