WASHINGTON ? The Republicans running for president are mostly in one of two camps: those introducing themselves, and those trying to live down political pasts.
Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum are in the former category. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and three-time candidate Ron Paul are in the latter.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who is expected to officially announce on Tuesday, is in both. Republicans have high expectations, but also want him to explain why he served as ambassador to China for the Democrat they're trying to beat, President Barack Obama.
Monday's presidential debate in New Hampshire was the first opportunity for the casually interested to catch the 2012 buzz. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, got a firmer front-runner grip, and newbies like Pawlenty and Bachmann survived any jitters about being in the national spotlight.
Several threads and strains came out of it that are worth watching:
The former Massachusetts governor was patient, prudent and on point, directing almost all his criticism at Obama. Romney looked like a president. But all these traits were part of the rap that Romney was rigid and unlikeable, a presidential caricature without character, when he lost the 2008 nomination to John McCain. Romney's experience and name identification give him a running start this time. But he's also got the biggest hill to climb: explaining why a Massachusetts health-care law he signed was not a Republican version of the Obama health reform plan.
The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza said he would not appoint a Muslim to his administration because of the difficulty of differentiating between "peaceful" and "militant" Muslims. Afterward, Cain told reporters he did not think it was a bigoted answer. While Gingrich came to Cain's defense, Romney ? who, as a Mormon, has been on the receiving end of religious bigotry ? reminded viewers that "our country was founded on religious tolerance."
Cain's lack of political experience may have attracted prospective voters to his argument that the government needs a successful outsider-businessman to fix the budget. But religious litmus tests are not the products of experienced, winning politicians.
The day before the debate, the ex-Minnesota governor gave Democrats a perfect anti-Romney bumper sticker by criticizing Romney's Massachusetts health-care law as "ObamneyCare." Democrats have mocked Romney for trying to run away from a plan they say was a template for Obama's health-care reform. But pressed to address Romney with the criticism during the debate, Pawlenty backed off, and said he was merely paraphrasing Obama.
The rap on Gingrich has always been he's more of a human think tank than a leader. The mass defection of his senior staff just days before the debate didn't help. Gingrich tried to spin the campaign chaos into a case for a non-traditional path to the White House, telling Fox's Sean Hannity in a post-debate interview that he would run a "people-oriented grassroots" campaign that is "different from the normal Republican model." Translation: Little money for ads or organization, but enough staying power to get a debate microphone.
The model depends upon Gingrich excelling in debates, where he can deliver lines like this one from the CNN debate: "The Obama administration is an anti-jobs, anti-business, anti-American destructive force." But Gingrich's verbosity can also take him places where only an apology can get him out, as it did after he criticized House Budget Committee Paul Ryan's Medicare reform plan as "right-wing social engineering."
Most people don't yet know enough about Bachmann to spell her first name with just one "l." The "tea party" favorite has gotten a national media rap as a conservative gadfly, but her solid debate performance ? she came across as reasonable and informed ? was a good first national stage appearance as a presidential candidate.
Describing Bachmann as a thinking-woman's Sarah Palin, as some pundits do, is harsh on Palin, but it does speak to the surprise when people learn that Bachmann practiced tax law, and that she fostered 23 children without making a reality show about it. Bachmann has gotten an early presidential hook into the "tea party" activists that were attracted to Palin last year. Bachmann's solid debate performance could force Palin to make a decision on her own candidacy sooner rather than later.
Chuck Raasch writes from Washington for Gannett. Contact him at craasch@ gannett.com, follow him at www.twitter. com/craasch or join in the conversation at www.facebook.com/raaschcolumn.
Source: http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20110617/OPINION01/106170316/1014/rss03
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