Online NewsHour: Report | GOP Candidates Debate in S.C. | January 11, 2008

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REGION: North America

TOPIC: Politics

Online NewsHour

Originally Aired: January 11, 2008


	GOP Candidates Clash in South Carolina Debate

	Candidates for the Republican nomination battled each other last night in South Carolina's GOP debate. The NewsHour's Kwame Holman reports on the highlights.

JIM LEHRER: Next, with an eye toward Michigan, the Republicans debate in South Carolina. NewsHour correspondent Kwame Holman reports.

TV ANNOUNCER: The South Carolina Republican presidential candidates debate, live from the Myrtle Beach...

KWAME HOLMAN: Thursday night's debate in Myrtle Beach was the last head-to-head meeting of the Republican candidates before primaries next Tuesday in Michigan and a week from tomorrow in South Carolina.

Fox News moderator Chris Wallace opened with a question to Mitt Romney about the economy, which Romney used to turn on John McCain.

CHRIS WALLACE, Fox News Anchor: There are growing concerns that the country is headed for a recession. Here in South Carolina, they lost more than 12,000 manufacturing jobs in just the last year.

Governor Romney, do you believe that we're headed for a recession?

GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), Massachusetts: Could we be headed for a recession? Absolutely. Do we have to be headed for a recession? Absolutely not.

It's time for us not just to talk about improving our economy; we're going to have to do the hard work of rebuilding our economy, strengthening it.

And I know that there are some people who think, as Senator McCain did, he said, you know, some jobs have left Michigan that are never coming back. I disagree.

I'm going to fight for every single job, Michigan, South Carolina, every state in this country. We're going to fight for jobs and make sure that our future is bright. We're going to protect the jobs of Americans and grow this economy again.

KWAME HOLMAN: McCain responded.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), Arizona: One of the reasons why I won in New Hampshire is because I went there and told them the truth. And sometimes you have to tell people things they don't want to hear, along with things that they do want to hear.

There are jobs -- let's have a little straight talk -- there are some jobs that aren't coming back to Michigan. There are some jobs that won't come back here to South Carolina.

But we're going to take care of them. That's our goal; that's our obligation.

We need to go to the community colleges and design education and training programs so that these workers get a second chance. That's our obligation as a nation.

KWAME HOLMAN: Later, Rudy Giuliani targeted McCain for claiming exclusive support for the U.S. troop surge in Iraq.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), Former Mayor of New York: I'd also like to say something to my friend, John. John gets great credit for supporting the surge. But, John, there were other people on this stage that also supported the surge.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: Not at the time.

RUDY GIULIANI: The night of the president's speech -- yes, John. The night of the president's speech, I was on television. I supported the surge; I've supported it throughout.

I believe that the goal in Iraq has to be, from the beginning, a stable Iraq that will be an ally of the United States. And we should return troops from Iraq on success.

That has been my position since 2003. It has never changed. I respect the fact that you haven't changed yours; I haven't changed mine, either.

BRIT HUME, Fox News Anchor: Thirty seconds.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: My point was that I condemned the Rumsfeld strategy and called for the change in strategy. That's the difference.

Battle for Reagan's mantle

KWAME HOLMAN: Then there was this exchange between Iowa winner Mike Huckabee and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson over who was most like Ronald Reagan.

FORMER SEN. FRED THOMPSON (R), Tennessee: This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and its future.

On the one hand, you have the Reagan revolution. You have the Reagan coalition of limited government and strong national security.

On the other hand, you have the direction that Governor Huckabee would take us in. He would be a Christian leader, but he would also bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies.

He believes we have an arrogant foreign policy in the tradition of "Blame America first." He believes in taxpayer-funded programs for illegals, as he did in Arkansas.

He has the endorsement of the National Education Association. And the NEA said it was because of his opposition to vouchers.

He said he would sign a bill that'd ban smoking nationwide. So much for federalism. So much for states' rights. So much for individual rights. That's not the model of the Reagan coalition; that's the model of the Democratic Party.

KWAME HOLMAN: Huckabee was quick to defend his record.

FORMER GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE (R), Arkansas: Fred, I want to say, I appreciate the analysis of my record, but let me try to give you some of the facts of my record.

I came into Arkansas as a governor, put in that position as a lieutenant governor when my predecessor, a Democrat, was forced out of office on a felony conviction.

I did something that had not been done in my state in 160 years. I cut taxes, with the legislature working with me, and we continued to do that 94 times.

We cut spending. I'll tell you, the most painful time of my being a governor in 10 1/2 years was looking at a budget that 91 percent of which was pretty well fixed on education, Medicaid and prisons, and cutting 11 percent out of that budget.

Everywhere I went, I had people protesting me and screaming and yelling and doing demonstrations because I had cut government.

But I stayed faithful to the things that Ronald Reagan stayed faithful to. You know, what I did was I governed. And the people of my state must have liked the way I did it, because they kept re-electing me.

KWAME HOLMAN: Texas Congressman Ron Paul followed, insisting the Republican Party had lost its way since the Reagan years.

REP. RON PAUL (R), Texas: And I don't think we're fiscal conservatives anymore. Look at what we've done over these last 10 years.

We finally got control of the government, and we became big government people. Our deficit's out of control, and we no longer are opposed to new entitlements. We are entitlement people.

And then we turn around, and we talk about liberty, and we've undermined the Fourth Amendment and personal liberty and personal privacy.

In the year 2000, we won the election by condemning the Democrats for nation-building and policing the world. And now what are we doing? We're policing the world. We're involved in all of these countries around the world and threatening going into Iran and in Pakistan and on and on.

KWAME HOLMAN: This weekend, Huckabee, McCain and Romney all will campaign in Michigan, where polls indicate a tight three-way race.


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GOP Candidates Clash in South Carolina Debate

Battle for Reagan's mantle