Sharing a stage for the first time, the 10 Republican presidential hopefuls alternated between tough talk and optimism Thursday night as they wrapped themselves in the conservative mantle of the party's patron saint and their spiritual host, Ronald Reagan.
Invoking the name of the nation's 40th president nearly 20 times -- and mostly ignoring the current occupant of the White House -- the contestants repeatedly faulted the direction of Washington under GOP rule, and promised change.
"On the issue of why we lost the election in 2006, it's because we did lose our way," said Sen. John McCain of Arizona. "We began to value principle over power, and spending got out of control."
"We went to Washington to change Washington -- Washington changed us," said former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson. "We forgot to come up with new ideas, big ideas like Ronald Reagan."
The format of the 90-minute debate, held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on a brown bluff overlooking Simi Valley and attended by Reagan's widow, Nancy, tended to limit interaction among the candidates.
Still, they managed to spell out their differences on a variety of issues, including abortion, stem cell research and congressional intervention in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case.
One of the sharpest exchanges occurred early on, when moderator Chris Matthews of MSNBC quoted from a recent interview in which former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stated that it was "not worth moving heaven and Earth, spending billions of dollars" to capture Osama bin Laden.
Romney backpedaled somewhat. "Of course [we'll] get Osama bin Laden and track him wherever he has to go, and make sure he pays for the outrage he exacted upon America," Romney said.
"Can we move heaven and Earth to do it?" Matthews interrupted.
"We'll move everything to get him. But I don't want to buy into the Democratic pitch that this is all about one person -- Osama bin Laden -- because after we get him, there's going to be another and another," Romney said.
McCain, who previously called Romney's statement naive, responded vigorously. "We will track him down," McCain said. "We will capture him. We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell."
Another area of disagreement was abortion. Asked whether overturning Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, would make for a good day in America, several candidates responded in the affirmative.
