Romney, McCain heat up debate
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. --Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attempted to slow the momentum of rival John McCain Thursday in a high-stakes debate that focused on the faltering U.S. economy.
McCain got a boost in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination from his victory in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday. The Arizona senator hopes momentum from that win will propel him to victory Tuesday in Michigan and in South Carolina on Jan. 19. He leads the polls among Republicans in both states.
Many political experts believe Romney needs to win in his birth state of Michigan to remain viable as a candidate. He accused McCain of giving up on people who have lost jobs in the state, which is struggling economically.
The exchanges between Romney and McCain highlighted the debate that also included former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
"I know that there are some people who think, as Sen. McCain did, he said, you know, some jobs are leaving Michigan and they're not coming back. I disagree. I'm going to fight for every single job, Michigan, South Carolina, every state in this country," said Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts whose father served as governor of Michigan in the 1960s.
McCain hopes to score a knockout punch against Romney in Michigan, the home of the major American automakers, and refused to back down at the Fox News Channel debate. But he still faces strong competition from Huckabee in South Carolina and potentially from Giuliani in other states yet to vote.
"There are some jobs that aren't coming back to Michigan," McCain said.
"There are some jobs that won't come back to South Carolina, but we're going to take care of them," he added, referring to the people who lost their jobs. "That's our job, that's our obligation."
The debate was the latest in a series aimed at helping Republican decide who will be their candidate to face the Democratic choice in the November election to succeed President Bush. The party has not seen such an open race for decades and most experts believe it is still wide open.
The Republicans also sparred over the state of the U.S. economy, but stopped short of endorsing a fiscal stimulus package to give it a boost and avert a recession. Instead they urged the Bush administration's tax cuts be made permanent.
Iran was the subject of some red-meat rhetoric, days after a confrontation in the Straits of Hormuz between U.S. ships and Iranian gunboats.
Huckabee warned the Iranians were in danger of seeing "the gates of Hell" should they threaten U.S. ships again.
Romney vowed to bring "change" to the United States. His use of that word echoed a key theme of Democratic candidate Barack Obama, who won the endorsement on Thursday of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 nominee.
Kerry opted for Obama, a freshman Illinois senator, over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, the New York senator who would be the first woman U.S. president and whose win in New Hampshire helped her rebound from a loss to Obama in Iowa.
Romney suggested McCain was part of the problem in Washington. McCain, 71, would be the oldest person elected to a first U.S. presidential term.
"So I'm convinced that you're going to see the people say across this country that if you send the same people back to Washington to just sit in different chairs, nothing will happen. My whole life has been about bringing change to the things I've done," Romney said citing his work in the business world. McCain defended his service, saying he brought change to Iraq by supporting Bush's troop build-up there, a hotly debated move a year ago that is credited with reducing violence there.
"I've been involved in one of the most important changes we could have made and that was reverse a losing strategy in Iraq," he said.