South Carolina Debate: Attacks Continue In Republican Primary

Despite finishing first in both Iowa and New Hampshire – something that no other Republican Presidential candidate has ever accomplished – Mitt Romney’s quest of becoming the GOP nominee to battle Barack Obama has not gotten any easier. FOX News hosted the 2012 South Carolina Debate on Monday, and perhaps with their backs against the wall the remaining four candidates didn’t hold back from attacking front runner Mitt Romney on everything from his track record at Bain to his stance on immigration.

South Carolina Debate

While the first two debates of the new year went by rather comfortably for Romney, he struggled on questions regarding whether felons returning to society should have the right to vote, and also didn’t directly make it clear whether he would disclose his personal tax information as Rick Santorum and many in the Republican party have asked him to do.

New Gingrich was the debate winner if the crowd reaction was anything to go by, while Ron Paul was the clear winner in terms of reaction on Twitter.

Rick Perry and Rick Santorum failed to have spectacular nights, which at this point in their campaign they desperately needed to do to stay relevant.

Ron Paul on the other hand didn’t have his best night in front of a particularly tough crowd when it came to his libertarian roots. One particular interesting segment was when Ron Paul was being heavily scrutinized on his foreign policy and particularly his stance on how Osama Bin Laden was captured without approval from Pakistan. The Texas congressman tried to clarify his constitutional stance that the United States perhaps ought to apply the ‘golden rule’ to their foreign policy, and treat nations the way they would like to be treated – which surprisingly got the biggest boos of the night.

While many have already proclaimed Mitt Romney to have the GOP nomination in the bag, Newt Gingrich showed that there was still some fight in him. Ron Paul is already expected to make this a long worn out race through his pursuit of delegates so don’t call this 2012 Republican nomination process over quite yet.