Together, they were strident in their belief that Obama-era regulations are stunting growth. Yet although the White House aspirants largely agreed on their overall visions, the two candidates whose positions at the top of the field were expected to rise or fall in Tuesday’s Washington Post-Bloomberg News debate at Dartmouth College — Texas Gov. Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain — were short on policy specifics, even when pressed by the moderators.
Asked what his plan would be to jump-start the economy and reverse Washington’s paralysis, Perry said he would focus on domestic energy resources.
“You’ve got an administration that by and large — either by intimidation or overregulation — has put our energy industry and the rest of the economy in jeopardy,” he said. “We’ve got to have a president who’s willing to stand up and clearly pull back those regulations.”
Perry said he will announce a plan over the next three days, but would not discuss it in the debate.
“Mitt’s had six years to be working on a plan. I’ve been in this for about eight weeks,” Perry quipped, referencing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the front-runner in the GOP race who released a 59-point economic plan last month.
Meanwhile, Cain — who for the first time took the stage as a serious contender for the party’s nomination — talked about his “9-9-9” plan to gut the federal tax code and said he would reduce the federal debt.
“The only way we’re going to do that is the first year that I’m president and I oversee the fiscal-year budget, make sure that revenues equal spending,” Cain said. “We must grow this economy with a bold solution, which is why I proposed ‘9-9-9,’ and at the same time get serious about not creating annual deficits so that we could bring down the national debt.”
Romney cast himself as the most authoritative candidate on the economy, citing his business know-how and 25 years of experience in the private sector to say he will make the difficult decisions necessary to revive the economy.
“I’d be prepared to be a leader,” he said. “You can’t get the country to go in the right direction and get Washington to work if you don’t have a president who’s a leader.” Referring to Obama, he added: “He said he’d bring us hope and change. Instead, he’s divided the nation and tried to blame other people.”
The candidates uniformly criticized the role of the Federal Reserve — and Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke specifically — in regulating currency, interest rates and other aspects of the economy.
“If you want to understand why we have a problem, you have to understand the Fed,” said Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.). “When there are booms and they’re artificial, whether it’s the CRA [Community Reinvestment Act] or whether it’s the Fed, easy credit, when you have bubbles, whether it’s the Nasdaq or whether it’s the housing bubbles, they burst.”
The first debate devoted exclusively to the economy came as polling shows that Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the economy and torn about whether a Republican administration or a second term for Obama would improve the situation. Among Republican voters, there is no clear consensus about which GOP candidate would best handle the issue.
In a Washington Post-Bloomberg News poll released Monday, about 22 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents said Romney would do the most to improve the economy, followed by Cain at 20 percent and Perry at 12 percent, with none of the other candidates cracking double digits on the question.
Some second-tier hopefuls seeking to break out of the pack, namely Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), were the most critical of the government’s size and role.
“I think if you look at the problem with the economic meltdown, you can trace it right back to the federal government,” Bachmann said.
Gingrich, when asked who is to blame for the economic recession, said: “The fact is, in both the Bush and the Obama administrations — the fix has been in.
“And I think it’s perfectly reasonable for people to be angry. But let’s be clear who put the fix in: The fix was put in by the federal government. And if you want to put people in jail — I want to second what Michele said — you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and let’s look at the politicians who created the environment, the politicians who profited from the environment, and the politicians who put this country in trouble.”
Former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) said he would repeal “every regulation” the Obama administration has put into law.
“Repeal them all,” he said. “May have to replace a few. Let’s repeal them all, because they’re all antagonistic to businesses, particularly in the manufacturing sector.”
The debate’s opening hour was notable for the lack of sniping between the candidates, although former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. took a swipe at Cain, a former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza. Of his “9-9-9” plan, Huntsman said: “I thought it was a catchy phrase when I first heard it. I thought it was the price of a pizza.”
To which Cain shot back: “It didn’t come off a pizza box, no. It was well studied and well developed.”
Again and again, the campaign has been shaped by the debates, which have been filled with moments that have proved pivotal, whether by boosting the candidates’ fortunes or dashing them. A crucial mistake in June by former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty crippled his campaign, while Bachmann rode a pair of impressive performances to a victory in the Iowa straw poll. More recently, Perry’s poor performances in a trio of September debates soured voters on his candidacy.
With each debate, the expectations for the primary electorate have shifted, as they have turned their attention to the latest candidate to capture their fancy.
On Tuesday night, that was Cain, who after his own debate performances propelled him to the top of the polls this month. For him, this was a test of whether he could do what other candidates were unable to do, which is turn his center-stage moment into lasting appeal.
Meanwhile, no candidate has successfully prosecuted the conservative case against Romney, who on the strength of his political organization and strong debate performances has held steady even as he has been unable to build an insurmountable lead.
Perry, whose falling popularity enabled Cain’s rise, faced a different test. After three unsteady and unconvincing debate performances, Perry was under pressure to prove that he could stand his own through a debate and demonstrate command over the policy issues driving the race.
Romney, whom conservative voters view warily because of his history of moderate positions on social and fiscal issues, did not help his case Tuesday by defending the 2008 bailout of Wall Street banks, which has become a rallying point for the tea party movement and other fiscal conservatives who opposed the government intervention.
“Action had to be taken,” Romney said. “Was it perfect? No.”
He added: “You don’t want to bail out anybody to save a company. The idea of bailing out an institution to protect the shareholders. You do want to make sure that we don’t lose our country or the banking system or American jobs.”
But for all the candidates hoping to eclipse Romney, time seemed to be running out. The voters will begin having their say in just three months, and more and more donors and influential party figures are rallying around the front-runner.
Just hours before Tuesday’s debate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who announced last week he would not enter the race, traveled to New Hampshire to offer his official blessing to Romney.
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