2012 Presidential Candidates

Date : January 26, 2012
Time : 8:00-10:00pm (ET)
Venue : Lazzara Performance Hall, Fine Arts Center;
University of North Florida, Jacksonville

Participants (alphabetical order)
Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum

Moderator
Wolf Blitzer

Sponsors
CNN
Republican Party of Florida

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum emerged as the consensual winner among political observers in tonight’s debate, just shading an equally impressive Ron Paul. Both men played a starring role as front runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were left floundering on the sidelines. Gingrich, in particular, probably had his worst performance of the season, one that could seriously jeopardize his chances in next Tuesday’s primary.

The debate kicked off with immigration, and Santorum, perhaps buoyed by the presence of his mother, Catherine, delivered a well-crafted and emotional defense of immigration, a stance that set his tone for the rest evening.

“We are a country of laws. People come to this country. My grandfather came to this country because he wanted to come to a country that respected him. And a country that respects you is a country that lives by the laws that they have… And people who have come to this country illegally have broken the law repeatedly. If you're here, unless you're here on a trust fund, you've been working illegally. You've probably stolen someone's Social Security number, illegally. And so it's not just one thing that you've done wrong, you've done a lot of things wrong. And as a result of that, I believe that people should, no, should not be able to stay here.”

Paul offered another excellent, if all too familiar response on the subject.

“You can't deal with immigration without dealing with the economy. The weaker the economy, the more resentment there is when illegals come in. If you have a healthy, vibrant economy, it's not a problem; we're usually looking for workers. Even under today's circumstances, a lot of businesses are looking for workers and they don't have them. They're not as well-trained here. But also, the way we're handling our borders is actually hurting our economy because the businesspeople -- you know, visitors have a hard time coming in. I mean, we don't have a well-managed border. So I think we need more resources and I think most of the other candidates would agree we need more resources. But where are the resources going to come from? I have a suggestion. I think we spend way too much time worrying about the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Use some of those resources on our own border.”

Gingrich, when questioned by debate moderator Wolf Blitzer on his claims that Romney was an anti-immigrant candidate, responded with a meandering answer that had grandmothers, churches and ‘English as the official language’ in it, paving the way for a Romney gimme moment

“That's simply unexcusable. That's inexcusable. And, actually, Senator Marco Rubio came to my defense and said that ad was inexcusable and inflammatory and inappropriate. Mr. Speaker, I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife's father was born in Wales. They came to this country. The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don't use a term like that. You can say we disagree on certain policies, but to say that enforcing the U.S. law to protect our borders, to welcome people here legally, to expand legal immigration, as I have proved, that that's somehow anti anti-immigrant is simply the kind of over-the-top rhetoric that has characterized American politics too long. And I'm glad that Marco Rubio called you out on it. I'm glad you withdrew it. I think you should apologize for it, and I think you should recognize that having differences of opinions on issues does not justify labeling people with highly charged epithets.”

As the audience erupted into applause, Gingrich could be forgiven for looking back at the no-clapping policy at the Tampa Bay debate earlier in the week. It wasn’t over for Gingrich, however, as Romney aggressively went after him, calling him out for his the language of the ghetto remarks. And a little later, Gingrich, in a move that raised quite a number of eyebrows, went after Romney on his alleged investments with troubled housing giant Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – offering Romney yet another gimme moment, alongside another thunderous round of applause.

Gingrich’s attempt at reigning in the very experienced Blitzer also fell flat. This was simply not going to be Gingrich’s night. Even his peace overture was turned down by Romney.

Gingrich: I'm happy to simply say, you know, it would be nice if you had the same standard for other people that you would like applied to you and didn't enter into personal attacks about personal activities about which you are factually wrong. So I would be glad to have a truce with you, but it's a two-way truce.

Romney: I'm happy on any occasion to describe the things that I believe with regards to the Speaker's background. We'll probably get a chance to do that as time goes on.

But Santorum brought Romney crashing down to earth by producing his kryptonite - the explosive Massachusetts healthcare legislation.

“The problem with the answers from Congressman Gingrich and Governor Romney is that, well, they didn't always say what they're saying. Governor Romney was the author of Romneycare, which is a top- down government-run health care system which, read an article today, has 15 different items directly in common with Obamacare, everything from the increase in the Medicaid program, not just that government is going to mandate you buy something that's a condition of breathing, mandate that you buy an insurance policy, something that Governor Romney agreed to at the state level, something Congressman Gingrich for 20 years advocated, that the federal government can force each and every person to enter into a private contract. Something that everyone now, at least up on this stage, says is radically unconstitutional, Congressman Gingrich supported for 20 years.

… Now, think about what that means… going up against Barack Obama, who you are going to claim, well, top-down government-run medicine on the federal level doesn't work and we should repeal it. And he's going to say, wait a minute, Governor. You just said that top-down government-run medicine in Massachusetts works well.

The subject of space travel and moon colonies, incredibly, came up once again. Thankfully, Paul managed to save the day with the best line of the evening.