Republicans Standing at Attention

Seven of the Republican presidential candidates for next year’s election introduced themselves to the American public on Monday night June 13, 2011 during the first televised debate, held in Manchester, New Hampshire. It is the state where primary season will open in February 2012. However, eight months away from the first major electoral event, the candidates were very careful not to go at each other.

They hardly clashed during the two-hour debate moderated by John King, CNN’s star reporter, preferring to concentrate their heavy fire on Barack Obama, whom they accused of doing nothing to improve the economy, sabotaging Americans’ health coverage and not having a foreign policy. Each candidate promised to do better if he or she was sent to the White House, even by contradicting or denying himself.

This was particularly true for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2008 Republican primaries (won by John McCain) and who is currently the favorite, according to the polls. If he did not hesitate to denounce Obama’s “betrayal” — his inability to consolidate public finances and boost employment — Mr. Romney chose not to emphasize the health insurance plan that he set up in Massachusetts and that closely resembles Mr. Obama’s plan that the Republicans want to dismantle …

This is an unfortunate resemblance that another candidate for the Republican nomination, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, has castigated by forging a new word — “Obamneycare” — that combines the names of Obama and Romney with the word “care.” Mr. Pawlenty, however, didn’t use the term in the televised debate.

The Republicans intend to show a united front, as Mitt Romney emphasized, assuring that “[e]veryone on this stage would be a better president than Obama.” It is important for them to dispel the impression of division coming from a multitude of candidates that are not very exciting, and are sometimes potentially distracting, to an electorate that remains predominantly white, protestant and conservative. In addition to Mr. Romney, who is Mormon (an undeniable handicap for him in 2008), other Republicans running for president are Herman Cain, an African-American and former head of the “Godfather’s Pizza” chain and Ronald Reagan’s former associate, Fred Karger, who is Jewish and gay (and did not participate in the debate). Other declared candidates are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Texas congressman Ron Paul and his colleague from Minnesota, Michele Bachmann — the only woman on stage.

Ms. Bachmann’s presence highlighted the absence of Sarah Palin, who still has not clarified her intentions, but who many would see competing against the other candidates, since her popularity is high in conservative circles. The former Alaska governor has traveled the country for weeks in a highly publicized tour that looks like a pre-election campaign.

The possible candidacy of Ms. Palin raises the question of support by the tea party, the ultra-conservative movement — of which she is the muse — which heavily influenced the November 2010 general election at the expense of Democrats and also of the Republican establishment. Many of the presidential candidates are competing for that crucial support from the tea party over which Michele Bachmann seems, for now, to wield influence.