Las Vegas, USA - Mitt Romney found himself under fire from the rest of the GOP primary field at the Las Vegas CNN debate on Tuesday night, and struggled to shrug it off with the ease he displayed in earlier debates. As Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza reported :
It was Fight Night in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and for arguably the first time this year, Mitt Romney took some body blows.
Romney generally acquitted himself well and even got in some jabs of his own at Tuesday’s CNN debate in Nevada, but the totality of the attacks left their mark on a candidate who has been more the Teflon candidate than a punching bag early in the 2012 campaign.
Perhaps most notably, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) actually made some headway Tuesday night. After some troubled performances in the last few debates, Perry launched a new attack (new to this campaign, at least; it had been used in the 2008 campaign) on Romney for hiring a landscaping service that employed illegal immigrants.
In addition, former senator Rick Santorum (R) said Romney has no credibility on repealing President Obama’s health care bill because of a similar bill Romney spearheaded as Massachusetts governor, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) joined in the attack on Romneycare.
The Perry exchange seemed to get under Romney’s skin more than the others. And as Perry kept pressing the point and interrupting Romney, Romney became visibly angry and actually put his hand on Perry’s shoulder for a moment. Then, he got a little personal.
“It’s been a tough couple of debates for Rick, so I understand it,” Romney said in response to that attacks, adding: “You have a problem with allowing people to finish speaking.”
The attack has yet to play out completely, but it was arguably the first time that Romney was out of his element on the debate stage. (Of course, it wasn’t the first time he has awkwardly pleaded with someone to let him speak.)
Romney did have a chance to discuss comments made by pastor Robert Jeffress referring to Mormonism as ‘a cult’ and whether religion should factor into voters’ decisions on who the nominee should be. As Elizabeth Tenety explained:
It was only a few seconds, but at Tuesday night’s debate, Republican presidential hopeful (and Mormon) Mitt Romney gave some of his most extensive religious comments yet of the 2012 presidential campaign, saying, “That idea that we should choose people based on their religion is the one that I find to be most troubling.”
After Gov. Rick Perry said that he did not agree with comments by his fellow Texan, pastor Robert Jeffress, that Mormonism is a cult, Romney responded with a case for a secular approach to the nation’s highest office.
But despite the unconstitutionality of the government applying a religious test for public office, many Americans are clearly wrestling with their understanding of Romney and his Mormon faith.
A new Washington Post/ Pew poll asked for “single-word descriptions” of a number of GOP candidates, and for Romney, the word that dominated was “Mormon.” The poll was conducted from Oct 13-16, in the wake of widely covered comments by Jeffress, who declared that Mormons are not Christians at the Values Voter Summit.
Will the close association between Romney and his faith help or hurt him with voters? The answer may lie in two factors --how Americans perceive Mormons, and whether or not prominent Christian leaders convince their congregations that it is not acceptable for them to vote for a Mormon candidate.
So what do Americans think about Mormons? During Romney’s previous presidential bid, the Pew Forum conducted nuanced research into American attitudes on the Latter-day Saints and found that 53 percent reported having a favorable impression of the faith — the same percentage that said they had a favorable opinion of Muslim Americans. When that same survey asked for one-word impressions of Mormonism, ”polygamy or bigamy” were the most popular mentions, followed by “family or family values,” “cult,” “different” and “dedicated,” a mixed bag of positive and negative associations for any candidate.
Romney still emerged as one of the winners from the GOP debate even though he took several body blows from his rivals, according to Chris Cillizza:
WINNERS
* Mitt Romney: It wasn’t his best debate but, as usual, the former Massachusetts governor found ways to come across as forceful and presidential. Romney was clearly put on defense on health care — by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum of all people! — and was on the verge of the sort of “gang up” moment that he had successfully avoided in the debates to date. But Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann threw him a lifeline by changing the focus from Romney’s health care plan to President Obama’s health care law. (She wants to repeal it, in case you were wondering.) Romney’s answer on his Mormon faith — and religion’s broader role in the political space — was an absolute masterpiece. Romney didn’t coast in this debate as he had in the few that had preceded it. But he managed to navigate most of the rough patches with minimal damage done.
* Rick Perry’s aggression: The Texas governor made up his mind that after several dull and uninspired debate performances he was going to come out with both barrels blazing tonight. And, boy did he. At times, that change in style worked in his favor — particularly in the first 30 minutes or so of the debate when Perry delivered a cogent, energetic answer on energy and jobs. But, aggression giveth and aggression taketh away. (See below).
* Anderson Cooper: Moderating any event where two or more politicians are gathered on stage is difficult. Moderating a presidential debate with seven candidates is next to impossible. Cooper deserves tons of credit for keeping the debate lively, asking open-ended questions that invited interesting responses from the candidates and knowing when to step back and let the likes of Perry and Romney simply go at it. Job well done.