On Tuesday, the eighth Republican presidential debate was held in Las Vegas. There have been an abundance of debates recently- this one marked the fifth since the beginning of September- but no debate so far was nearly as testy and hostile as this one.
Frontrunners Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, and Rick Perry, the current longstanding governor of Texas, were in the midst of the most heated exchanges, but almost all of the candidates made some noise at one point in the debate.
With the primary looking very hotly contested- Perry, Romney and Herman Cain have led the polls at some point during the campaign- the debates have been times of great importance for candidates looking to get the upper hand. However, few expected such a contentious encounter.
Perry, who has claimed that debating is not his strong suit, proved that to be the case once again with his performance. While it may have been an improvement over his previous dismal outings, his elocution and ability to respond to questions convincingly remains well below the standard to which Americans should hold presidential candidates.
And those faults do not even include Perry's most glaring shortcoming. Throughout the debate (most notably with Romney, but also with Santorum), Perry refused to abide by the rules of the debate and repeatedly spoke out of turn, as if shouting over his opponents made his arguments more valid.
While it is true that nearly every candidate spoke out at some point and that it could demonstrate a passion and determination suitable for a leader, that is not the reaction most viewers got from Perry's petulance. Rather, Perry appeared to have lost control and resorted to a juvenile shouting match. An inability to stay calm under pressure is entirely unbefitting of a potential President.
The squabble with Santorum came in reference to Perry's stance on the TARP bailout. Santorum claimed that Perry had written a letter (on the day that the bailout was to be voted on) to Congress urging them to ‘act' and pass the bill. Perry claimed that he instead was asking them to ‘act' by cutting regulations. Santorum appeared to have Perry dead to rights on the specifics of the issue and as a result Perry came off not only as rude, but also a flip-flopper.
Romney, on the other hand, retained his composure far better throughout the debate. At the same time, he was able to express an emotion and even a sense of power that was lacking from his campaign so far. Without getting flustered and blurting out underhanded comments as Perry did, Romney raised his voice and stopped the others from speaking over him during his turn. In response to Perry's accusation that he had hired illegal immigrants to work on his property, Romney even got angry himself. This culminated in his grabbing Perry's shoulder, an act which some have denounced as crossing the line.
However, to me at least, Romney never appeared to lose control of himself. Having said that, he appeared to have lost control in another way by repeatedly appealing to moderator Anderson Cooper to intervene against Perry and the other rule-breakers. Still, this error is relatively minor.
Cain, a former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, received criticism from all sides at the beginning of the debate for his 9-9-9 tax plan. The plan, which replaces all existing taxes with a 9 percent tax of business transactions, a 9 percent personal income tax, and a 9 percent federal sales tax, would actually raise taxes on most Americans. According to the Tax Policy Center, Cain's policy would lower after-tax income of families making up to $110,000 a year by six percent.
When confronted about his plan, Cain repeatedly stated that his competitors were confusing ‘apples and oranges'. This type of response, in which he encouraged people to read about his policy on his website rather than truly explain it, was not convincing and Romney ultimately put Cain in his place by using his own terminology.
At the end of the day, there were concrete winners and losers. Once again, and to no one's surprise, Perry faltered. Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul only grabbed the spotlight for brief moments- Bachmann for an absurd plea to single mothers and Paul for an even more absurd tirade about Reagan. Cain, despite his strong poling, did not deliver a show-stealing performance and fumbled often.
Romney, in effect, won by default. As seems to be the case in this campaign, no one seems capable of stepping up to the plate to match Romney, at least in the debates. While Romney's poll numbers have at times been surpassed by Perry and Cain, inevitably, as the campaign wears on, both of those contenders will fade away as their policies fail to hold water.
Romney was not without fault, and the fact that he has not established a substantial lead in the polls already signifies the Republican voters' inability to accept him fully. Whether this is due to his religion or his business background, his flip-flopping is unclear. The fact of the matter is that because the GOP cannot stand behind Romney (not to mention stop bickering like children at the debates), Obama can rest easy. He, not any of the candidates, was the winner of last Tuesday's debate.
