The Debate Last Night

The Republican debate last night proved the adage that all politics is personal. And you can tell that Mitt Romney and John McCain hold each other in personally low regard.

The other candidates share McCain’s view of Romney. Mike Huckabee clearly can’t stand him. Giuliani couldn’t endorse McCain fast enough. Thompson seemed to relish taking votes away from him in South Carolina.

Romney has been the attack dog in this pack. He launched tough ads against each one of the opponents when they were the leaders. He slashed at Giuliani when he looked like he was going to run away with it. He lunged at Huckabee in Iowa. He tried to destroy McCain in New Hampshire and Michigan. He smacked Thompson in South Carolina. But his instinct to go first for the jugular has enraged his fellow competitors. And now they want payback.

The most uncomfortable moment in the debate was when McCain kept quoting Romney as saying “we don’t want them to wait in the weeds,” a comment that seemed to confirm Romney’s opposition to timetables in Iraq. Anderson Cooper bailed McCain out by quoting Romney’s statement that actually used the word “timetables.” And then Romney complained about McCain’s tactic of making this charge right before the Florida primary, making Romney look like a whiner, especially after all the negative commercials he has run against all of his opponents.

The whole exchange reminded me of two drunk guys in a bar who get into a heated debate on a stupid topic, like who is the best quarterback in the NFL. It made both of them look silly.

Mike Huckabee did the best of the bunch, when given the opportunity. He didn’t immediately claim that Ronald Reagan would endorse him, making him look both humble and, well, right, unlike Romney, who, when asked the same question, looked like the brown-nosing kid who always raises his hand first. Huckabee is clever with language, and he can keep driving the same message without saying exactly the same thing, a useful trait in a politician.

McCain has got to stop using the line that he is someone who led out of patriotism, not out of profit. As a small-business owner, I actually like profits, and think that people who create jobs and businesses are every bit as patriotic as anybody else in this country.

I am not sure whom Ronald Reagan would support in this election. I think he would like Huckabee’s humor, McCain’s steadfastness, Romney’s business sense and even Ron Paul’s distrust of our monetary system. But the question today is not whom Ronald Reagan would support. The better question is which one of these candidates will beat Hillary Clinton.