GOFFSTOWN, N.H.
Mitt Romney easily survived his first test of the 2012 campaign here Monday night, cruising through a debate with six Republican rivals who were more interested in attacking President Obama than in turning their fire on the former Massachusetts governor.
In his first debate of the campaign, the nominal front-runner for the GOP nomination seemed eager for the spotlight. Through two hours of questioning, he delivered a steady performance, made no obvious errors and stuck to his campaign game plan of focusing his message on the president and the economy.
The first big debate of the Republican campaign — hosted by CNN, WMUR-TV and the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper — produced no real fireworks and few memorable moments. For most of the candidates, this was a night for introductions rather than confrontations. Among the others, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who announced her candidacy onstage, may have done herself the most good with a personable and energetic performance.
The tone and tenor of the debate suited Romney just fine. In that sense, Monday’s forum at St. Anselm College may prove an anomaly by the time the primaries and caucuses arrive early next year. Romney likely will look back at this forum as one of the easy ones and far from a true test as he seeks the nomination.
Romney was able to keep his focus on Obama in large part because the others decided not to go after him.
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty ducked an opportunity to challenge Romney for enacting a health care plan in Massachusetts that resembled the law Obama signed last year. On Sunday, Pawlenty had attacked Romney’s plan, and Obama’s, with the dismissive shorthand “Obamneycare.” On Monday night, he wouldn’t go near the phrase and insisted that he was really just criticizing the president and his health-care plan.
Pawlenty offered only tepid and indirect criticism of Romney. “In order to prosecute the case against President Obama, you have to be able to show that you’ve got a better plan and a different plan. We took a different approach in Minnesota,” he said. “We didn’t use top-down government mandates and individual requirements from government.”
With no one pressing Romney on the issue that presents one of the greatest vulnerabilities to his candidacy for the nomination, the former Massachusetts governor was able to deliver a stock answer and join others in emphasizing that, as president, he would seek to repeal the president’s health-care law.
“I can’t wait to debate him and say, ‘Mr. President, if in fact you did look at what we did in Massachusetts, why didn’t you give me a call and ask what worked and what didn’t?’ ” Romney said. “ ‘And I would have told you, Mr. President, that what you’re doing will not work.’ ”
Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum was given the opportunity to take on Romney for having changed positions on abortion before he ran for president in 2008, switching from supporting to opposing abortion rights. Asked whether that raised questions about Romney’s authenticity, Santorum equivocated, preferring to point to himself as someone who would keep issues like abortion at the front of his agenda as president. He offered only a mild rebuke of Romney.
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