Republicans test the waters in tepid debate

Seven Republican Party candidates for the 2012 presidential election engaged in a tepid debate in New Hampshire on Monday night, with all of them in broad agreement on conservative values on gay marriage, abortion rights, shrinking the size of government and repealing President Barack Obama's healthcare reform.

Frontrunners such as Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, and nationally recognised figures Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum were understandably reluctant to launch any attacks against their rivals this early in the contest, with more than six months to go before the primaries and caucuses kick off.

However what was remarkable was that even the candidates who were relatively less well-known or new to the national platform, including Tea Party-backed Michele Bachmann and former Pizza company CEO Herman Cain, focused their criticism on the shortcomings of Mr. Obama rather than seeking to distinguish their policy stance from those of the others on stage.

The closest that any of them came to trading barbs was when Mr. Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota, was questioned on his use of the term “Obamneycare,” an insinuation that the universal healthcare plan that Mr. Romney introduced in Massachusetts in 2006 was highly similar to the seminal Affordable Care Act passed by the Obama administration last year.

Yet even there Mr. Pawlenty passed up the opportunity to press Mr. Romney to spell out how his policy was any different to Mr. Obama's healthcare reform. Instead he said that his decision to use “the term ‘Obamneycare' was a reflection of the President's comments that he designed Obamacare on the Massachusetts health care plan.”

The elephant in the room, however, was the absence of several Republican heavyweights who were yet to throw their hats in the ring, most notably former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and former Ambassador to China, John Huntsman. Both of them are widely expected to announce their candidacies soon.

To an extent the debate also reflected the conservative, economy-focused mood in the country, with the arguments predominantly revolving around domestic issues. Foreign policy found scarce mention throughout, with the candidates only offering a few critical words on the Obama administration's costly military engagement in Libya and Afghanistan.

At certain points the debate was also indicative of what some view as a deeper malaise within the Republican ranks — that there is a growing disconnect between the fiscally and socially conservative Tea Party on the one hand and the mainstream Republican view on the other.

Exemplifying this tension, when Ms. Bachmann was asked about whether she would enact laws to define marriage as being between a man and woman only, she initially said that she was not in favour of interfering with state laws on this subject.

Yet contrary to the Tea Party principle that states ought to be free of federal government diktat, Ms. Bachmann conceded that she would favour enacting a common marriage law.

The primaries and caucuses, which will throw up the final candidate to run against Mr. Obama in the 2012 elections, will be held early next year. However there will be at least two more debates before then, in August and September.