Huckabee, McCain take aim at Romney in GOP debate

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January 6, 2008

Huckabee, McCain take aim at Romney in GOP debate

Margo Sullivan, Staff writer The Daily News of Newburyport Sun Jan 06, 2008, 12:12 AM EST

MANCHESTER – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took fire from all directions in last night’s fast-moving Republican presidential debate.

Romney, the one-time frontrunner now fighting for his political life in New Hampshire, withstood attacks from both Mike Huckabee and John McCain, his chief rival in the Granite State.

During one exchange on foreign policy, Romney became upset with Huckabee, who beat him out for the top spot in Thursday’s Iowa caucuses.

“Governor, don’t try to characterize my position,” Romney said.

“Which one?” Huckabee retorted, seizing on Romney’s reputation for changing his mind on issues ranging from abortion to firearms.

McCain, who has passed Romney in the latest poll of New Hampshire voters, accused Romney of being disingenuous in his television commercials.

“My friend, you can spend your whole fortune on these attack ads, but it still won’t be true,” the Arizona senator said.

President Bush’s decision to preemptively invade Iraq emerged as one of the most volatile issues in last night’s debate, which also included Ron Paul, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani.

Moderator Charles Gibson started the 90-minute discussion with a question about the Iraq war, asking the candidates if they would run on or away from Bush’s war policies. He then asked McCain directly if he supports the idea that America has the right to start wars against other nations.

McCain said he agrees with preemptive attacks, but then quickly changed the subject to praise Bush for the fact that terrorists have not hit the U.S. since Sept. 11.

Paul said he opposes preemptive attacks, and said the Bush doctrine is not a “minor” change for the U.S.

“This is huge,” he said. “This is the first time we accept we start the wars.”

Paul differed sharply with the rest of the candidates over the connection between U.S. foreign policy and the terrorist attacks and said the presence of U.S. bases on foreign soil and the policy was bankrupting the U.S. by rewarding nation’s which accept our ideas with money and punishing the ones that oppose us by threats of war.

Romney said Paul was reading the propaganda, and said the jihadists represent a fanatical group of extremists bent on U.S. destruction. Romney said the U.S. should work to help moderates in the Islamic world embrace modernity and moderation.

Romney, the subject of most of the attacks last night, wound up with the last word in the debate, saying that the nation’s top domestic priority should be making the U.S. independent of foreign oil.

Before last night’s debate, Jim Mitchell of Londonderry joined dozens of activists on the campus of Saint Anselm College hoping to win attention for his cause.

He said he wants to see the candidates promise to balance the federal budget and reallocate $60 billion from the defense budget into other areas, like education, hunger and health care.

“I was in the Air Force, and I retired about 40 years ago,” Mitchell said. “So, I know something can always be squeezed out of the Defense Department budget.”

Mitchell said he also believes trimming the defense budget would reduce the threat of war.

“When we have a large Army, Navy and Air Force, we tend to use it,” he said. “And George Bush certainly did that.”

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