GOP debate: Romney takes heat but avoids disaster

AP Photo/David Goldman

Mitt Romney didn't offer up a great performance at Monday night's Republican presidential debate. But he also avoided the sort of disastrous moment that would have jeopardized his apparent march toward the GOP presidential nomination.

There's no doubt that his rivals landed some punches. Rick Santorum, who needs to win the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary to have a realistic shot at the nomination, set a trap for Romney early in the debate on the issue of whether convicted felons should have the right to vote.

Romney was clearly unprepared for the challenge, and he tried to dodge Santorum's call to state a position; Santorum, a gleam in his eye, pressed for an answer. When Romney finally said violent felons shouldn't have the vote even after they've served their time, Santorum went in for the kill, stating that when Romney was Massachusetts governor, "the law was that not only could violent felons vote after they exhausted their sentences, but they could vote while they were on probation and parole, which was a more liberal position than I took when I voted for the bill in the Congress."

Romney seemed off-kilter during the exchange, and Santorum looked smug over the punch he landed. But the moment was far from catastrophic; Romney isn't going to lose the GOP presidential nomination by opposing voting rights for violent felons.

Romney also stumbled on the question of releasing his tax returns, first ignoring a challenge to do so from Rick Perry and later stopping short of promising to follow tradition and do so.

"I have nothing in them that suggests there's any problem and I'm happy to do so," Romney said. "I sort of feel like we're showing a lot of exposure at this point, and if I become our nominee and what's happened in history is people have released them in about April of the coming year, and that's probably what I'd do."

It was a weak answer, but it was far from the sort of "oops" moment that would have endangered his strong frontrunner status.

Romney was on firmer ground when he faced expected attacks, like one on his record at Bain Capital: He upped his (questionable) estimate of the number of jobs he helped create while there to 120,000 and said that "we learned from the experience" when businesses weren't successful and people were laid off.

"Ultimately, do I believe that -- that free enterprise works?" he said. "And that -- and that private equity and the various features of our economy work to actually improve our economy? To make America more productive with higher incomes and a brighter future? Absolutely. This is a major part of our economy, has been for a long time. Free enterprise, with all of its different dimensions and players, makes America the strongest economic nation in the world."

The two men who have perhaps the best chance of beating Romney in South Carolina, Santorum and Newt Gingrich, had good nights: Santorum looked commanding and confident, and Gingrich landed some of the best applause lines of the evening, including when he went after a 99-week period for unemployment benefits by saying "ninety-nine weeks is an associate's degree." Gingrich also won a rare debate standing ovation for his battle with moderator Juan Williams over whether he has made comments that were offensive to African-Americans. 

As for the other two men onstage: Ron Paul had one of his worst debates of the cycle. He was piled on by the other candidates over his relatively isolationist foreign policy and struggled to articulate his Libertarian ideals as clearly and forcefully as he has in the past. Texas governor Rick Perry, meanwhile, had a relatively solid performance - but with each passing day, his stagnant poll numbers make it increasingly clear that Republican voters are not going to forget his stumbles out of the gate.

Romney's rivals have just four days to figure out a way to keep the former Massachusetts governor, who leads in South Carolina polls, from a third straight primary victory that most believe would allow him to effectively wrap up the nomination. Based on Monday's performance, it's difficult to see how they will do so. The other candidates will spend the next few days harshly attacking Romney, both on the campaign trail and during Thursday night's GOP debate, in an effort to find some way to bring down the frontrunner. If they fail and Romney wins Saturday, the question turns to whether the time has come for the other candidates to hold their fire for the good of their party. 

MORE:

Rick Santorum hammers Romney over felon voting rights

Romney contradicts past comments on abortion

Gingrich: My position should not offend blacks

Has Romney been hunting since 2008 "small varmints" gaffe?

Romney won't promise to release tax returns

[noloyalisti]

Robmee is living in the Twilight Zone if he thinks anyone is stupid enough to buy his lies and BS. This is a backwards religious wacko through and through.

[hopetrumps]

All good Christians and other truthseekers should google "tract mormon"---there's loads of excellent tracts explaining "mormonism"----It's one thing to have a different religion, but it's another thing to distort the truth as Mitt Romney does so consistently--if he isn't telling an outright whopper he's twisting truth so ugly that it bleeds---truth is, Mormonism is based on a "prophet" that came AFTER Jesus Christ like Mohammedanism and is filled with wild and fantastical stories and theories about reality--Good Christians and all men of good will: print those tracts out and distribute them before good people are fooled before they vote!

[answerman1949]

I appreciate your coverage of the debate, though I do disagree that Ron Paul had one of his weaker debate performances; though, I wish he'd answered the "Osama Bin Laden" question more forcefully.
Pakistan has gone from being a relatively stable ally to a really big IF, largely because of the bombings begun under George W. Bush and continued under Barack Obama. However, I have read polls that showed US popularity REALLY nose-dived when a SEAL team, one of our most elite forces, killed an unarmed, sick man, even if his name was "Osama Bin Laden." It doesn't take a "Middle East Expert" to realize this is seen as a cowardly, murderous act by many people and not just Muslims. Pakistan is the only Muslim country with nuclear weapons PLUS Pakistan has weapons systems capable of launching these nuclear weapons against Israel, our troops in Afghanistan and our embassy in Iraq. Would it have been too much to ask to coordinate our SEAL team assault with Pakistani Special Forces and, at least, ATTEMPTED to capture an unarmed Osama? Have Americans become so callous and so cowardly as not to consider the possible consequences of such a reckless act of retribution?

[Parrots10]

You started out in ur post, by using your head - then suddenly nose-dived into republican jargon ..... Do you know what the ISI is ?? and do you really believe they did not know bout OBL in Pakistan ?? And what happened to all the times we planned joint raids with these pakis ?? Dumb Dumb Repugs - we got the POS OBL and somehow Repugs can't accept that the POTUS did well to order the strike . .........

[nearl451]

The circus goes on.

Can't they just write in "Howdy Doody" on the ballot? Cause a puppet have more soul than this fellow.