Gop Debate

When Republicans attack President Obama, as they inevitably will in tonight's latest presidential primary debate, they'll be doing so barely a few hundred yards from where the incumbent sits at the White House. Yes, it's time for another meeting of the leading contenders for the GOP nomination -- the 11th nationally-televised session in just over half a year. But this time, the Republicans who regularly decry the excesses of Washington will be doing so from the nation's capital, at the DAR Constitution Hall just across the street from the White House grounds.

Two new polls in the showdown state of Michigan suggest that Rick Santorum failed to gain a badly needed shot of momentum in Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate. The opinion surveys reflect a race that still remains close in a must-win state for Mitt Romney.  The Michigan native holds a three-point edge over Santorum in one poll and a slightly more comfortable six-point advantage in the other. Romney arrived in Michigan on Thursday evening and plans to campaign around the state every day through Tuesday's primary.

Mindful that the president is often a punching bag in the Republican contests, the Obama campaign is keeping score of the CNN/Tea Party debate and trying to hold would-be rivals accountable on key issues. And by their playbook, the GOP candidates lose points no matter whether they stick to their guns or change positions. "At the halfway point, we've got one backtrack and two double-downs," the @BarackObama Twitter account reported to its more than 10 million followers. Rick Perry was branded with a "double down," for instance, for saying Social Security had been called a "Ponzi scheme long before me. " Mitt Romney, long the main target of team Obama, was given a "backtrack" for his counterpunch at Perry on the same program.

If Rick Santorum falls short in the 2012 Republican presidential contest, he may look back at Wednesday night's freewheeling presidential debate as a crucial opportunity that got away. The former Pennsylvania senator had his winning moments, but he probably failed to do enough to change the dynamics of a race that seems to be shifting slowly back in Mitt Romney's direction, particularly in Arizona and Michigan, which hold pivotal primaries Tuesday. A strong performance by Santorum had the potential to reset the GOP nomination battle.

Saturday night's ABC/Yahoo debate got personal pretty quick, as Ron Paul explained, at the urging of moderator George Stephanopoulos, why he has accused former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in ads of corruption. “It was a quote,” explained Paul. “Somebody did make a survey and he came up as one of the top corrupt individuals because he took so much from lobbyists.” At that moment, there was a loud thump, the origin of which was unclear. Santorum piped up: “They caught you not telling the truth, Ron.” Paul, humorless as ever, barely paused as he accused Santorum of voting against right-to-work legislation, voting “to double the size of the Department of Education” by supporting the No Child Left Behind bill championed by President George W. Bush and voting to increase the federal entitlement program known as Medicare Plan D. “So he's a big-government person,” said Paul.

If Rick Perry were a football team, commentators in the booth would lament his failure to make second-half adjustments. For the second straight Republican debate, the Texas governor seemed to fade as he neared the end of the contest, with a noticeable drop in energy. The most telling moment Thursday evening was a botched attack on top rival Mitt Romney for Romney's move during his political career toward more conservative stances in a number of issues, an attack that obviously had been readied in advance.

It was an exchange reminiscent of Abbott and Costello's famous Who's on First routine. George Stephanopoulos repeatedly asked Mitt Romney about whether he thinks that states have the right to ban contraception, and Romney repeatedly replied that he had no idea why Stephanopoulos would ask such a question. In fact, Stephanopoulos was prodding Romney about whether he believes there is a constitutional right to privacy as the U.S. Supreme Court has found in two landmark cases, 1973's Roe vs. Wade, and 1965's Griswold vs. Connecticut , which found that states do not have the right to ban contraception.

It took NBC debate moderator Brian Williams about 15 minutes to turn to Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and when he did, he hinted at the question on the minds of most observers of the Republican presidential race: When will Paul drop out? “To say that there has only been three races and talk about not being electable, I think is a bit of a stretch,” Paul said. Paul finished in third place in the Iowa caucuses and second in the New Hampshire primary. But he placed last in South Carolina last weekend among a narrowed field of four candidates.

Mitt Romney was reminded Sunday morning on the NBC/Facebook debate stage of a pledge he made in 1984, that he would “be a voice in the Republican Party to foster anti-discimination efforts” in the gay community. Asked how he had fulfilled that pledge, Romney said that as governor of Massachusets, he had a gay cabinet member and appointed judges regardless of their sexual orientation. “From the very beginning, in 1994, I said to the gay community, 'I do not favor same sex marriage,'” Romney said.

The last time the four remaining contenders in the GOP presidential race met on a debate stage, all eyes were on Newt Gingrich, who was trying to ride the momentum off his surprise victory in South Carolina. On Wednesday night, the spotlight turns to Rick Santorum. In a race that has seen a cast of not-Mitt Romney characters take turns challenging the sometimes-front-runner, Santorum is on his second surge. He won the Iowa caucuses, albeit by a tiny margin and weeks after Romney was initially declared the winner.

The last time the four remaining contenders in the GOP presidential race met on a debate stage, all eyes were on Newt Gingrich, who was trying to ride the momentum off his surprise victory in South Carolina. On Wednesday night, the spotlight turns to Rick Santorum. In a race that has seen a cast of not-Mitt Romney characters take turns challenging the sometimes-front-runner, Santorum is on his second surge. He won the Iowa caucuses, albeit by a tiny margin and weeks after Romney was initially declared the winner.

Rick Santorum, asked by an audience member about No Child Left Behind, said he supported President George W. Bush 's signature education reform law that is now reviled by conservative voters out of loyalty to his party. “It was against the principles I believe, but when you're part of the team, sometimes you take one from the team for the leader, and I made a mistake,” he said, and some in the audience booed. Santorum reiterated that he would like to see federal and state power over education returned to the local level, and added that his personal life showed his commitment.

“When I'm shot at, I'll return fire. I'm no shrinking violet,” Mitt Romney said after Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, the final one before voters go to the polls in next week's Florida primary. By most accounts, the former Massachusetts governor had a strong night. He stayed on the offensive against his top rival, Newt Gingrich, seemingly determined not to deny Gingrich a chance to play the role of the bully on the block. And when Romney was attacked -- either by Gingrich or Rick Santorum or Ron Paul -- he effectively swatted them away.

Here's the only question that might really matter at Thursday night's GOP presidential debate in Jacksonville, Fla.: Good Newt or Bad Newt? Which Gingrich is going to show up? And which, actually, is which? Is Good Newt the one who, like at Monday's debate in Tampa, tried to act more statesmanlike, refraining from savagely browbeating both Mitt Romney and the media (except for a brief spat with his rival over Gingrich's consulting work for Freddie Mac) in a bid to show independents and moderates that he can be presidential when he wants to be?

The stakes couldn't be much higher for Mitt Romney in Thursday night's televised debate (CNN, 8 p.m. Eastern). It's the final debate ahead of the pivotal Florida primary, and perhaps the last, best chance for the former Massachusetts governor to head off what is shaping up to be a prolonged, and debilitating, race for the nomination. Polls show Romney in a virtual dead heat for the lead in Florida, the biggest primary test yet of 2012.  Those numbers represent an uptick over his standing in recent opinion surveys, but he's hardly home free.  Romney still has some distance to go in reestablishing his primacy in Florida, and in the GOP contest.

Mitt Romney said at the Republican presidential debate in Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday night that he was not “terribly politically involved” until he ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. That statement, of course, omits his failed run for theU.S. Senateagainst Ted Kennedy in 1994. Romney was answering a question from debate moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN about the Romney's campaign suggestion that Newt Gingrich wasn't as close to Republican icon Ronald Reagan as Gingrich ceaselessly contends.

Newt Gingrich defended the questions he's raised about Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital while Rick Perry called on the GOP front-runner to offer greater disclosure of his finances as the Republican presidential candidates began the first of two debates before what could be the decisive nominating contest in South Carolina on Saturday. Perry, the Texas governor, urged Romney to release his tax returns so that Republican voters could fully vet the candidate they will put up against President Obama this fall.

If Rick Santorum falls short in the 2012 Republican presidential contest, he may look back at Wednesday night's freewheeling presidential debate as a crucial opportunity that got away. The former Pennsylvania senator had his winning moments, but he probably failed to do enough to change the dynamics of a race that seems to be shifting slowly back in Mitt Romney's direction, particularly in Arizona and Michigan, which hold pivotal primaries Tuesday. A strong performance by Santorum had the potential to reset the GOP nomination battle.

Rejecting Newt Gingrich's charge that  Mitt Romney is anti-immigrant, the former Massachusetts governor responded with an accusation of his own, saying Wednesday that his main rival is pandering to Latino voters in next week's Florida presidential primary. But Romney, during a quick visit to Miami, did a little bit of special-interest catering of his own. He told a Cuban American audience that he would appoint a czar to promote freedom in Cuba and throughout Latin America if he is elected president.

In a potentially pivotal GOP presidential debate, Newt Gingrich repeatedly found himself on the defensive Monday night, as Mitt Romney sharply assailed his record as House speaker and his work as a highly paid consultant to Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage giant. The gloves came off at the start, with Romney, reeling from a double-digit loss to Gingrich two days earlier in South Carolina, saying he had learned from that defeat not "to sit back and get attacked, day-in and day-out, without returning fire.