Share

Email Print Comments Share

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- In the final debate before voting begins early next month in the Republican presidential primary, each of seven major candidates faced challenges to his or her biggest weaknesses Thursday night from a panel of four Fox News moderators.

Is Mitt Romney tough enough to take the fight to President Obama? Can Newt Gingrich overcome the charge that he is unreliable? Is Rick Perry skilled enough to debate President Obama? Among the other perceived candidate vulnerabilities explored: Ron Paul is too far outside the mainstream; Rick Santorum, who lines up with staunch conservatives, can’t break through; Jon Huntsman is too moderate; and Michele Bachmann is too conservative.

The mini-narratives have emerged over the past months as the field took shape, and they collectively have kept any single candidate from becoming the consensus choice to be the GOP nominee.

While Romney has remained relatively steady as either the front-runner or a runner-up, Gingrich is the latest to ride a burst of momentum to the head of the pack. And so just this week Romney and his campaign pushed into a higher gear, blasting Gingrich for his “zany” ideas and for profiting handsomely from advising the quasi-governmental housing giant Freddie Mac. They also bashed Gingrich as too close to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, for conservative comfort.

Addressing the criticism as the debate began, Gingrich said, “I have a 90 percent American Conservative Union voting record for 20 years. I balanced the budget for four straight years, paid off $405 billion in debt. Pretty conservative. The first . . . entitlement reform of your lifetime -- in fact, the only major entitlement reform until now -- was welfare [a major piece of legislation he saw through into law in 1996 as House speaker]. Two out of three people went back to work or went to school. Pretty conservative. First tax cut in 16 years, largest capital gains tax cut in American history, unemployment came down to 4.2 percent.”

Later, he joked, trying to play down Romney’s assertion to the New York Times Wednesday that he’s “zany,” “I sometimes get accused of using language that's too strong, so I've been standing here editing. I'm very concerned about not appearing to be zany.”

Numerous attacks surfaced during the debate from the moderators and the other candidates, turning Gingrich into a punching bag for a healthy portion of the two-hour affair.

Michele Bachmann, who is trying desperately to regain the momentum she briefly enjoyed in the Hawkeye State, led the charge. She pummeled Gingrich for campaigning for Republicans who support partial-birth abortion, calling that a “seminal issue” and something the party cannot get wrong.

Gingrich accused the Minnesota congresswoman of inaccuracy and said, “I believe that life begins at conception.” He added, “I am against any kind of experimentation on embryos. And I think my position on life actually has been very clear and very consistent.”

But the two tussled more, earning Gingrich a slap from Bachmann for his repeated assertion that she was inaccurate.

“I think it's outrageous to continue to say over and over through the debate that I don't have my facts right, when as a matter of fact, I do,” she said. “I'm a serious candidate for president of the United States, and my facts are accurate.”