CONCORD, N.H. -- Picking up where they finished hours before, the Republican presidential hopefuls sparred across two states Sunday as they vied to slow front-runner Mitt Romney ahead of New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.
At a pugnacious morning debate, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum both took shots at Romney's performance as Massachusetts governor and Romney's depiction of himself as a businessman first and politician second.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., smarting from a Saturday night exchange over his service as President Barack Obama's ambassador to China, chided Romney for failing to appreciate Huntsman's sense of duty.
Likening his service to that of his two sons in the U.S. Navy, Huntsman said, "They are not asking what the affiliation of the president is. I want to be clear: I will always put my country first."
Romney was unyielding. "I just think most likely that the person who should represent our party running against President Obama is not someone who called him a 'remarkable leader' and went to be his ambassador in China," Romney said.
"This country is divided because of attitudes like that," Huntsman shot back, drawing applause from the audience inside the Capitol Center for the Arts.
Romney faced other uncomfortable moments. Andy Hiller, a veteran Boston TV reporter and debate co-moderator, resurrected a quote from Romney's failed 1994 U.S. Senate run against incumbent Democrat Edward M. Kennedy: How, Hiller asked, had Romney fulfilled his pledge to make the Republican Party more gay-friendly?
Romney said he had a gay Cabinet member and appointed people to the bench "regardless of their sexual orientation."
"If people are looking for someone ... who will discriminate against gays or will in any way try and suggest that people that have different sexual orientation don't have full rights in this country, they won't find that in me."
Turning to Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania who has made controversial remarks about gays and same-sex marriage, Hiller asked what he would do if one of his sons told him he was gay. "I would love him as much as I did the second before he said it," Santorum replied.
Romney still appears to hold a solid lead in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, making the fight for second place - and continued viability in the GOP race - crucial for others in the field, as they head next to South Carolina. The state votes Jan. 21.
Santorum, who trails Ron Paul in New Hampshire, renewed his jousting with the Texas congressman. Referring to Paul's fiscal tightfistedness and isolationist foreign policy, Santorum said, "All the things that Republicans like about him he can't accomplish, and all the things they're worried about he'll do Day One."
Paul said failure to pass his bills shows Congress is out of touch. As for foreign policy, he reiterated his assertion that the U.S. is overstretched. "We cannot have 900 bases overseas," Paul said. "We have to change policy."
The debate also was notable for something unusual in this highly charged political season: a rare discussion of bipartisanship. Asked what they would do to move the country past its deep partisan breach, several of the candidates cited their prior work across party lines.
Romney touted the relationships he forged in the overwhelmingly Democratic Massachusetts Legislature (though he made no mention of the health care plan passed as one of the fruits of that relationship). Santorum touted welfare reform passed in concert with the Clinton administration, as did Gingrich.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/08/2580229/gop-presidential-contenders-spar.html
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