Big stakes for smaller field in GOP debate
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential candidates began their final faceoff Saturday, each hoping for a breakthrough before a New Hampshire primary that could dramatically reshape the battle for their party’s nomination.
All week, the candidate who has been the primary target has been Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and, as expected, he quickly became the center of attack, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush criticizing what they said was his lack of leadership experience and comparing him to President Barack Obama — not a
compliment on a Republican stage.
Christie offered withering criticism after Rubio began listing his accomplishments as a senator.
“You weren’t even there to vote for it,” Christie snapped after Rubio mentioned a piece of anti-terrorism legislation. “That’s not leadership. That’s truancy.”
Rubio responded by assailing Christie for New Jersey’s nine credit downgrades on his watch, then started repeating his criticisms of the president.
“That’s what Washington, D.C., does,” Christie shot back. “The drive-by shot at the beginning, with incorrect and incomplete information, and then the memorized 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him.”
As the exchange continued and the two rivals spoke over one another, Rubio cranked up the volume. He accused Christie of not wanting to leave the campaign trail to return to his state after a huge snowstorm hit last month.
“You know what the shame is, Marco?” Christie replied. “The shame is that you would actually criticize somebody for showing up to work, plowing the street, getting the trains to run back on time, when you’ve never been responsible for that your entire life.”
The debate offered perhaps the last, best chance for candidates to cut into what has been a command- ing lead here for Donald Trump — that is, if they dared to challenge him.
Sen. Ted Cruz, winner of the Iowa caucuses, was asked early on whether Trump had the temperament to be commander in chief.
“I think that is an assessment that the voters are going to make,” he said.
Trump seized on Cruz’s unwillingness to answer the question and made it an argument against his leadership.
“That’s what’s going to happen with our enemies,” he said. “People back down with Trump.”
Candidates, meanwhile, who fear being squeezed out by Rubio, the third- place winner in Iowa, have been trying to blunt his momentum, accusing him of being a sheltered “boy in the bubble” (Christie) or a “great speaker” who can’t make a tough decision (Bush).
Later Saturday night, Trump and Bush got into a spat over Bush’s accusation that the New York developer had tried to use the government’s eminent domain power to condemn an elderly woman’s Atlantic City, N.J., home to build a parking lot near his casinos.
“That is downright wrong,” Bush said, arguing that eminent domain should be limited to public purposes.
Trump defended not only his own conduct but eminent domain, in general, saying it was a necessity for developing the economy.
Trump is trying to sustain his celebrity-driven candidacy after finishing second in the Iowa caucuses.
Even though he finished third in Iowa, Rubio’s campaign has picked up momentum. Averages of New Hampshire polls show Rubio in second place, narrowing the gap with Trump.
Cruz and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio currently are tied for third place, the polling averages suggest.
Saturday night’s debate was a smaller affair than previous debates. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum dropped out after Iowa.
In addition, there was no undercard debate, meaning Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard executive, and Jim Gilmore, the former Virginia governor, were excluded from the stage.
The debate turned strange even before it began, with candidates and moderators somehow managing to botch the process of walking in.
The problems began with Ben Carson, the re- tired neurosurgeon and the final person on the sevenperson debate stage, who was introduced by the moderators, but then did not walk in as other candidates had. Carson waited, even as others passed him.
When the event finally did begin, Carson criticized Cruz for his campaign spreading false reports that Carson was dropping out on the night of the Iowa caucuses.
Cruz responded uncharacteristically.
“Ben, I’m sorry,” he said.
chris.megerian@ tribpub.com