MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (AP) — Republican presidential hopefuls assailed President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy in their first major debate of the campaign season, seizing on an issue they hope will open a path to the White House.
The New Hampshire debate Monday night unfolded more than six months before the state hosts the first primary of the 2012 campaign. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be the party’s early frontrunner, but the Republicans who shared a stage were plainly more interested in criticizing Obama than one another.
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The seven Republican candidates ganged up on Obama, who remains popular but could be vulnerable in the 2012 race due to the staggering economy, high unemployment and steep gasoline prices.
Romney had a surprisingly easy two hours Monday night. He looked calm and steady, criticizing Obama on the economy and health care while rarely being forced on the defensive.
Recent polls show Romney to be the Republican in the best position to defeat Obama in November 2012, but it’s not clear that he can win over the party’s right wing and secure the nomination. Rivals have criticized him for a Massachusetts health care law that requires people to obtain health insurance because it served as a model for Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul that many conservatives detest.
“It was a very friendly debate to say the least, which helps Romney,” Republican adviser Greg Mueller said. “No one took center stage and emerged as the main challenger to Romney.”
On Sunday, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty had derided the Massachusetts health law as “Obamneycare,” a play on critics’ term “Obamacare” for the president’s health reform. But Pawlenty seemed loath to revisit the issue Monday. Pressed by the moderator three times to explain his use of “Obamneycare,” Pawlenty replied somewhat weakly that it was “a reflection of the president’s comments that he designed Obamacare on the Massachusetts health care plan.”
If any candidate had nearly as good an evening as Romney, it was Rep. Michele Bachmann. She made maximum use of CNN’s live telecast to announce she was formally entering the race. She drew one of the loudest rounds of applause Monday night from a partisan debate audience when she predicted that Obama would be “a one-term president.” She is popular with social conservatives which makes her a credible threat to other candidates courting core Republican voters.
The seven Republican candidates found little if anything to like in what the president has done since taking office in the midst of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
“When 14 million Americans are out of work we need a new president to end the Obama Depression,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich was trying to revive his campaign after suffering the mass exodus of the entire top echelon of his staff last week, an unprecedented event that left his chances of winning the nomination in tatters.
Other candidates who participated were former Sen. Rick Santorum, businessman and political novice Herman Cain and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who recently stepped down as Obama’s ambassador to China, did not participate in the event. He is expected to announce his candidacy shortly.
Already, this race has had its share of surprises as the Republican field has been slow to settle.
Several likely candidates decided not to run — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee among them — and at least one who ruled out a race is reconsidering. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has said he will decide after the state Legislature completes its current session, and the party’s 2008 vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, has not yet said if she will run.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.