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| May 4, 2007 3:15 AM
Overturning Roe, Remembering Reagan, and Cutting Taxes at the Gates of Hell
The Republican presidential field meets for its first debate.
By Byron York
Simi Valley, Calif. — If you needed any proof that politics can sometimes be a bit cutthroat, you could find it in the Spin Room after the Republican presidential debate here at the Reagan Library Thursday night. Not in the stuff people said for the cameras and the microphones, but in what they said in whispered tones.
“McCain looked like something out of The Shining, that part where Jack Nicholson goes GGGRRRRRR!” confided one adviser from a rival campaign.
“McCain looked like that guy down the street who yells at you to get off his lawn,” said one reporter.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Sen. John McCain’s surrogates in the Spin Room, preferred the word “passionate.” But the fact is, McCain did look a little overeager, or maybe overcaffeinated, at the beginning of the debate. But he was overeager and overcaffeinated in favor of tracking down Osama bin Laden, a position which, given that bin Laden is still at large more than five years after 9/11, seems unlikely to meet with much disapproval.
“He’s responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans,” McCain said of bin Laden. “He’s now orchestrating other attacks on the United States of America. We will do whatever is necessary. We will track him down. We will capture him. We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell.”
Reading the transcript of the debate, the answer seems both solid and catchy. But the transcript does not show the strange little smile McCain made after he said “gates of hell.” Maybe he was relishing the prospect of getting bin Laden. Maybe he just liked saying “gates of hell” in a nationally televised political debate. In any event, like much of McCain’s performance Thursday night, it looked better in print than on TV.
McCain’s answer was in reaction to a flip-flop by Mitt Romney on the bin Laden question. A few weeks ago, the former Massachusetts governor told the Associated Press, “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.” (That one person would be bin Laden.) Instead, Romney argued, the United States should have a broader policy targeting Islamic terrorists.
At the Reagan Library, Romney took a different approach. It’s obviously possible to go after bin Laden and have a broad-based policy against Islamic jihadists, and when he was asked about the AP quote Thursday night, Romney seemed to get it. “Of course we get Osama bin Laden and track him wherever he has to go, and make sure he pays for the outrage he exacted upon America,” Romney said.
“Can we move heaven and earth to do it?” asked moderator Chris Matthews.
“We’ll move everything to get him,” Romney answered. “But I don’t want to buy into the Democratic pitch that this is all about one person — Osama bin Laden — because after we get him, there’s going to be another and another…This is a global effort we’re going to have to lead to overcome this jihadist effort. It’s more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay, and he will die.”
If Romney had said that to the Associated Press, he wouldn’t have had to explain himself at the debate. Afterwards, his advocates argued that what Romney said onstage was no different from what he has been saying all along. “I think Gov. Romney’s answer on that bin Laden question was far more thoughtful and far more insightful about the true nature of the war on terror than the people who were simply cheerleaders for getting bin Laden,” said Romney policy chief Vin Weber. “He didn’t try to simply go for a cheap applause line on Osama bin Laden.”
“Are you saying that someone who pledged to, say, follow bin Laden to the gates of hell was going after a cheap applause line?”
“No, I’m not saying that,” Weber answered — with a smile.
Romney’s bin Laden backtrack was perhaps the only misstep in an otherwise strong performance. Romney sometimes turns off people by looking too polished and too perfect — the man who looks like the man for the job — but on Thursday night, he knew his stuff.
So two of the top three candidates — Romney and McCain — gave generally strong performances. The third — Rudy Giuliani — did not. The former New York mayor botched a question on abortion so badly that it’s unclear whether he will ever learn how to discuss the issue in the context of Republican presidential politics — a significant handicap for someone running for the Republican presidential nomination.
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