Republicans blast Obama in first debate

14 June 2011 |permalink | email article

A consensus after Monday night’s first Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire was that Mitt Romney easily finished first, with Michelle Bachmann a strong second while Tim Pawlenty, expected to challenge Romney over Romneycare, punted and finishing a weak third.

Health care, as fact checking by The New York Times indicated, drew misleading or incomplete answers, as the candidates repeatedly sought to capitalize on the unpopularity of President Obama’s health care plan among Republicans.

Notable was that Romney flatly declared he would “repeal Obamacare,” although the president’s health care law has strong similarities to the law that Romney pushed when he was Massachusetts governor. 

Romney accomplished a longstanding Democratic goal – universal health care coverage – by combining three conservative policies. Ryan Lizza, in “Romney’s Dilemma” in The New Yorker (June 6) suggested that his greatest achievement has become his greatest liability in running for president.

Lizza wrote that aside from Obama, Romney may be the man most responsible for the national law. But during the Monday debate, Romney curiously flayed the president for not calling him on the subject.

“No Apology,” Romney’s hardcover book on the subject was published in early 2010. But in February, when the paperback was issued, Romney made a notable change, after reviewing the success of health care in Massachusetts when he wrote, ”We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country” In the paperback, the line has been deleted. Why?

Quotable

“The truth is that Romney is basically an ideological conservative who believes in tax cuts as a panacea and is content to watch the American middle class continue its long, sad decline. But in today’s Republican Party, merely positioning oneself to the right of Ronald Reagan isn’t enough” – Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson

“We need another Eisenhower.” Retired Sen. Bob Dole, 87, suggesting Republicans should nominate Gen. David Petraeus in 2012. No odds.

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