CNN Arizona Debate

"Okay, I'll endorse you again! Quit twisting my arm!"

Openings statements:

Why do they still have to introduce themselves?


Ron Paul calls himself the champion of liberty.

Rick Santorum says we've got troubles right here in River City.

Mitt Romney whistles the theme from The Andy Griffith Show.

Newt Gingrich will make sure no president ever bows to a Saudi king again.

FIRST QUESTION:

1. For the first time in 65 years, our debt exceeds our GDP; what will you do about it?

SANTORUM - I'll cut $5 trillion in 5 years. I have experience in cutting entitlements. When I was born, the budgets were at low levels now they're at high levels. Cut welfare, freeze it, give it to the states. Poverty is not a disability.

ROMNEY - Rick voted to raise the debt ceiling five times, but to the question, I've been in business where you have to balance the budget or you go out of business. I've balanced budget in business, in the Olympics and in Massachusetts.

SANTORUM - You use Occupy Wall Street rhetoric.

ROMNEY - I have a better record than you.

GINGRICH - As Speaker, I balanced the budget for four straight years. Going to the Founding Fathers, Hamilton said you have to have jobs to generate growth. We need a better energy policy.

Romney always looks directly at whoever's speaking so if they happen to glance at him, they'll meet his eyes.

(John King: Ron Paul, you called Santorum a "fake" in one of your ads. Why?)

PAUL - Because he's a fake. (Laughter/applause.)

SANTORUM - I'm real.

PAUL - Congratulations. When people run for office, they run as fiscal conservatives. When they get there, they do something different, then they say, "Oh I want to repeal that!" You lose credibility.

SANTORUM - You serve in one of the most conservative districts in Texas; it was easy for you. I served in Pennsylvania.

PAUL - You know what this is? The world's tiniest violin.

(John King: Mitt, you called yourself "severely" conservative. Defend yourself.)

ROMNEY - I was a pro-life governor. I stood up for the Catholic church. I saved the Olympics. I balanced the budget as a businessman. You can't be anything but a fiscal conservative to be a successful businessman.

GINGRICH - Romney moved in the right direction in getting closer to supply-side economics, but frankly not cutting more capital gains taxes would be disastrous. I want to fundamentally change everything, making me kind of like Ron Paul. Secure the border, balance the budget.

(John King: Earmarks are a sliver of the budget but Tea Party activists think it's a big deal.)

SANTORUM - Romney asked for earmarks for the Olympic Games. I fought against earmarks once I saw there was abuse in the system. I'm like Jim DeMint, except he's an earmarker.

ROMNEY - Whatever. Ban earmarks. Rick voted for the Bridge to Nowhere. In the history of the Olympics, the Fed Govt has always taken care of transportation and security, so that's what we asked for.

SANTORUM - You would've been for earmarks. I'd like the president to have a line-item veto. ANd hey, Paul, is a huge earmarker. (Some audience grumbles.) Hey, I'm not criticizing...

GINGRICH - Olympics earmarks were appropriate but how can Mitt criticize Rick for doing the same thing because he thinks his earmarks were right and Rick's were wrong?

PAUL - All of Congress is screwed up; that's the problem. If you don't like the spending bill, vote against the bill.

(John King: Question on auto bailouts.)

SANTORUM - I've been on the consistant side against bailouts. Romney was not.

ROMNEY - Nice try, but let's look at the facts. In 2008, Bush was still in office. The 3 auto-heads flew on their jet planes to Congress and asked for $50 billion bailout. I found that inappropriate. I said they should go through managed bankruptcy. (The fact that this gets applause shows the audience here is pro-Mitt.) The head of the UAW said the auto industry would disappear.

SANTORUM - Wall Street got bailed out and you supported that.

GINGRICH - The auto bailout was just Obama paying off the UAW.

PAUL - There aren't good bailouts and bad bailouts. They're all bad. Calling the auto bailout a success is like saying if you robbed a bank and got away with it, you're a success.

John King then asks about birth control and it gets boos from the audience. Newt then says no one in the elite media asked Barack Obama in 2008 why he supported "legallizing infanticide." Mitt says no administration in history has been more opposed to religious freedom. (Um, James Buchanan, anyone?) Rick is against birth control, but gives a great answer, he says the difference between him and the left is that just because he's talking about something doesn't mean he wants a government program to fix it. (Applause!) But then he also talks about contraception encouragin morality. Ron says contraception cannot be blamed for the immorality of a nation. Mitt then cites all the stats on how being born out of wedlock puts you at a disadvantage.

GINGRICH - As Ron Paul has been saying for a generation, when you have government enter health care, you're on the road toward tyranny, whether it's Obamacare or Romneycare, any cetralized government approach to health care takes aware our freedom.

PAUL - If you vote for Planned Parenthood as Rick has, you voted for birth control pills. Planned Parenthood should get nothing.

SANTORUM - Well, I did vote for appropriation bills that had stuff in it I didn't like, but to counter I also pushed for abstinence programs.

PAUL - That costs money too. I'd be against this.

Starting to feel bad for Rick Santorum. This crowd is clearly pro-Romney and pro-Paul, and the two are doing some good tag-teamming on Rick.

Romney points our Rick endorsed him in 2008, also points out Rick endorsed Arlen Specter, the 60th vote for Obamacare.

It shifts to immigration. Gingrich pimps his double-fence border idea. We get a shot of Callista Gingrich sitting next to Rick Perry. Where's Mrs. Perry? "Danger! Danger!"

Santorum says we need to use E-Verify (a federal program).

John King asks them to use one word to describe themselves.

PAUL - "Consistant."

SANTORUM - "Courage."

ROMNEY - "Resolute."

GINGRICH - "Cheerful." (Laughs.)

We now go to foreign policy. Romney slams Obama, points out Syria's a mess. King asks about women in combat. Gingrich and Santorum give artful, dodgy answers, but Paul vehemently comes out against war. He doesn't want women to die in combat, he doesn't want men to die in combat.

We slide now to the question of Iran, and Gingrich said this is one of the times he's for pre-emption, if Israel belived Iran was about to bomb them, he'd be okay with them striking first. Which was pretty much the rationale for going to Iraq.

I am honestly starting to lose interest now.

They shift back to Syria, and Santorum passionately pleads that if Obama's re-elected, it will be a cataclysmic doomsday World War III apocalypse started by the nuclear Iran and Syria. Gingrich says we need to make the US the biggest supplier of oil in the world. We need to have our allies covert destroy the regimes over there. Romney says he agrees with both of them, but he says it's great that Syria's leader is in trouble. We should encourage Saudi Arabia and Turkey to provide Assad's enemies weapons.

PAUL - I've tried the moral argument and the Constitutional argument, let's try the financial argument. We're spending trillions being bogged down in the Middle East. We don't have the money. Remember, the Soviets left Afghanistan because they were bankrupt.

John King brings up No Child Left Behind, and Santorum says yeah, Bush wanted it and I voted for it, and I regret it. (Boos.) Hey, politics is a team sport. I believe the federal government should get out of the education business, and the state government. Send it to local communities. (Slow down, dude.)

Final question. What's the misconcpetion about you?

PAUL - That I can't win. I clearly can.

GINGRICH - I wish people understood the amount of work it actually took to balance the budget and get welfare reform.

ROMNEY - Gives his usual summation speech, doesn't answer the question.

SANTORUM - Takes Mitt's lead, pleads for people to vote for him becuz he can do a lot with a little, doesn't really answer the "misconception" question either.

I didn't feel like there was a clear winner here, if you're talking momentum changer. Ron Paul was his usual twinkly-eyed self, only lost the crowd on foreign policy. I don't think he or Mitt Romney ever directly criticized each other. Romney showed no fear in going after others, and I think he did enough here to solidify Arizona and probably squeak out Michigan. All the polls right now show that no one is going to dominate Super Tuesday. Newt should win Georgia, Rick should win Pennsylvania, but Santorum, by not hitting a home-run in the debate, should slip. Therefore I'd have to say Romney was the winner and Santorum the loser.