Heated GOP Debate May Hurt Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney was picked on constantly for his “flip flopping” and attack ads tonight. Romney was a bit aggressive and came off as arrogant and angry at times. Despite the frustrating dialog between the candidates, Romney was able to remain composed as light-hearted jabs were delivered by his political rivals.

Rudy Giuliani to Mitt Romney re: Immigration

Romney was first prodded by Rudy Giuliani for being so hard on immigrants that are already here. He said Ronald Reagan’s –who they all invoked at some point– policy was to give amnesty to immigrants. He further argued that it was wrong for Mitt to attack other Republicans vigorously for following in the footsteps of the great Ronald Reagan. Granted, the new “amnesty” approach is not exactly amnesty in that it fines immigrants and makes them get in line for full citizenship, the issue didn’t end well with the candidates.

John McCain also targeted Mitt Romney, re: Flip Flopping on Issues

A question was asked on whether Mitt Romney would be able to take on Barack Obama should he defeat Hillary Clinton for the nomination. Barack Obama is the self-declared “agent of change” for Democrats and the question to Romney was whether he could tout himself as the agent of change if he met head-to-head with Obama in the general election.

Mitt Romney recently tried to paint himself as the “agent of change” in the media and he used the Republican debate to explain why he is that candidate that can bring about change in Washington. Romney explained that Americans believe government is broken. He then discussed his his record as Governor, his experience making the Olympics a success and his positive results while managing various corporations over the year.

Below is a paraphrase of the quote, sorry I don’t have Tivo or video clip to share.. it was a great and tense moment during the debate.

Senator John McCain to Mitt Romney:

“Senator Mitt Romney, we disagree on a lot of things, but tonight we agree on one thing: You are the candidate of change.”

Mitt Romney was visibly upset with John McCain and his rebuttal was to ask McCain if they could keep it clean during the debate. If the eyes of the nation weren’t watching, I’d swear the two would get pretty nasty with the rhetoric. Oh and it didn’t stop there, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee had zingers along similar lines. God, I love the 2008 elections… I just can’t get enough.

This is MY favorite kind of reality TV and I’m hooked! Please subscribe to the White House Intel Report if you haven’t already done so. It’s a regularly updated column and costs ya nothing.

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
Email this author | All posts by Fred Soto