Romney, Change Argument Dominate Post-Debate Spin

The gang-up on Mitt Romney and the ongoing "change" debate among the Democrats were the dominant storylines coming out of last night's debates, and they were also the leading topics of questions in the post-debate spin room, where the surrogates, aides and operatives of the candidates put themselves in front of hordes of journalists.

The Romney campaign set out to portray the wisecracks about his shifts on several issues – a floodgate that seemed to open after Mike Huckabee's "Which one? – as a series of personal attacks that were proof the GOP field still views the former Massachusetts governor as a threat, even though most evidence indicates his campaign is still reeling from the loss in Iowa.

"Of course, that's been a continual criticism of almost everyone on that stage, on the issue of illegal immigration in particular," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, a former candidate who has since backed Romney. "Some of them were cheaper shots than others, I suppose, but the reality is, now, who's got the best plan and who can go the distance. It is Gov. Romney in my point of view.

Tancredo also offered praise for Sen. Barack Obama, using words not unlike those that got Joe Biden in trouble last January.

"I tell ya, I actually hope he wins the Democratic nomination," he said. "Because, No. 1, I think we can beat him. No. 2, if that happened, the Democrats nominated Barack Obama, what they're doing is showing a really good role model, I think, for black youngsters, especially young men in this country. Here's somebody who's a good family man, well-spoken, a good individual who's achieved this great goal of winning the nomination."

But his boldest words may have been reserved for Sen. John McCain, who Tancredo called "one of the most dangerous threats" facing the nation.

"By dangerous, I mean he does not get the issue of the totality of the problem we face with illegal immigration," said Tancredo, who made the issue the center of his aborted campaign. "Even when he says I want to secure the border, he will still go on to this next point, 'But, we have to let them stay, we have to deal with 12-20 million here, we can't throw them out,' all the rest of that stuff. No one's talking about simply throwing people out, but you cannot let people violate the law, come into this country illegally, not penalize them with the thing that's in the law, and expect that you're going to have secure borders. You can't do it."

Mark Salter, a longtime associate of John McCain's, said Romney got what was coming to him in the debate.

"You run a campaign that's essentially a campaign of tearing down other candidates and distorting their positions eventually all those other candidates – at one time or another I'm sure Gov. Romney's distorted every other candidates' positions – so today, people are going to respond to that," he said. "You're not going to take that lightly, tens and tens of millions of dollars on ads distorting our positions on this and Giuliani's position on that and Huckabee's position on that – you're bound to get a little pushback from time to time if you run a campaign like that. It's really been, I think, one of them most overwhelmingly negative campaigns I've seen."

But Rudy Giuliani's campaign, represented by Manchester, N.H., Mayor Frank Guinta, said his candidate stood out for not joining in the Romney pile-on.

"Mitt Romney's been criticized for attacking other Republicans," he said. "That was certainly a center theme in the debate this evening, so I think some of the candidates had to respond, or felt compelled to respond, to Mitt Romney's attacks. But if you look at what Rudy Giuliani did, he said, 'Ladies and gentleman, this is about being positive, this is about something more than being negative,' and I think he demonstrated that kind of value and leadership, that again, that people are looking for in New Hampshire and in the country."

Guinta defended Giuliani's campaign strategy, even though it has seen the candidate sometimes ignore New Hampshire in hopes of running off a string of victories in later primary states, starting with Florida on Jan. 29.

"New Hampshire is still in my opinion one of the most important states in the country when it comes to electing presidents. This compressed primary status has not only elevated it but ensured other states are going to play a part in this process," he said. "I think tonight his strong performance is going to improve his opportunities here in New Hampshire, he's gonna finish strong and he's going to go on to these other primary states where he has campaigned, where he has talked to people eye to eye like you do in New Hampshire."

After the Democratic debate, the spin room was full of questions concerning John Edwards' alliance with Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton – particularly an exchange that saw Edwards accusing Clinton of representing the status quo and trying to prevent change.

But campaign manager David Bonior said the night wasn't about going against Clinton.

"He was nice to Hillary Clinton at the end of the debate as well – I mean he has a nice way about him and I think he's got a confident way of speaking about issues that are important like foreign policy. I thought he had an extraordinary night tonight. I think this was John's best debate."

And while Edwards and Obama seemed like allies on stage, Bonior made a point of discussing the differences between the two when it came to bringing about change.

"Sen. Obama, with all due respect, he's for change too, we all know that and I think the Iowa voter indicated that," he said. "John has fought these multinational corps for years, for 20 years he's fought them in the court and he's been successful at it. You can't just sit at a table with the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies and expect them to agree on your policies. If that was the case, Sen. Obama would have gotten that done with the health care bill in Illinois for years ago. The fact of the matter is he cut a deal in Illinois with some of the folks in some of those industries and he got a weaker bill."

But Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick defended Obama's interpretation of "change" as being based on bringing people together.

"It has become kind of a universal theme among Democrats that we need change," he said. "In fact you're hearing it from Republicans as well. The point is we are not looking – and I say this as a regular citizen – we're not looking for just a change in policy, we're looking for a change in approach, we're looking for unity, purpose and common cause and that's what Sen. Obama brings."

Clinton's top strategist, Mark Penn, may have drawn the largest media throng of the night – 10 people deep at times. He signaled that, in the coming days, the theme emerging from the Clinton campaign might be the effectiveness of actions over words.

"We've got some very positive advertisements on, talking about the kind of change we'd bring to the country and the big stakes that there are," he said. "There's a lot of time before this nomination is decided. I think we've now opened up a serious debate about talk versus action, about how you bring change in this country. I think this debate is going to roll right on throughout all these primaries."