In N.H. debate, a focus on labels

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, battling for second place, tangled over the meaning of conservatism Saturday in the first debate of a weekend doubleheader ahead of the New Hampshire Republican primary.

Mitt Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts with a commanding lead in state polls, mostly escaped serious attack during the two-hour debate as rivals scrapped with each other.

Paul accused Santorum of being a "big spender, a big-government conservative" who used earmarks and voted five times to raise the federal debt ceiling, increase the federal role in education, and to expand Medicare to cover prescription drugs.

"He is a big-government person," Paul said. "And he became a high-powered lobbyist in Washington D.C., and has done quite well."

Santorum said he would not apologize for trying to make sure Pennsylvania got its share of federal spending under the rules.

"I am not a libertarian, Ron," he said. "You vote against everything. . . . I do think government has a role to play, particularly in defense." He said he "got involved in causes I believe in" after his time in the Senate, including the danger from radical Islamists, and was on the boards of a health-care and coal-mining company.

The 14th debate of the Republican race offered Romney a chance to solidify support in a state he lost in his first presidential run four years ago and an opportunity for the other candidates to slow his progress toward the GOP nomination.

Romney leads here even as Santorum, a social conservative popular with evangelical voters, has enjoyed a bump in momentum since fighting Romney to a virtual tie in the Iowa GOP caucuses, where the first ballots were cast last week in the campaign to find a challenger to President Obama.

Held at St. Anselm College, broadcast live from 9 to 11 p.m. on ABC, the debate was the first such clash since the race was reshaped by Santorum's surprise success in Iowa.

The six candidates were scheduled to meet for yet another debate at 10:30 a.m. Sunday on NBC News' Meet the Press. Besides Romney, Paul, and Santorum, the major contenders still in the race are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

To some extent, Romney's rivals concede that he is likely to win New Hampshire, where the electorate tends to be more moderate, with fewer religious conservative voters than in Iowa or in South Carolina, which holds its primary Jan 21. His opponents see that contest as perhaps the last best chance to stop Romney.

For all his formidable fund-raising advantage and his organized campaign apparatus, Romney has thus far had trouble uniting the factions of the modern Republican coalition. He has attracted support from the party establishment and fiscal conservatives, but wins fewer fans among tea party activists and social conservatives who question his having crafted Massachusetts' universal health-care law, his past support of abortion rights and gay rights, and his seeming ideological flexibility.

On Friday, a new NBC News/Marist poll found 42 percent of likely voters in Tuesday's primary favored Romney, compared with 22 percent for Paul and 13 for Santorum. Huntsman and Gingrich were tied at 9 percent; Perry had just 1 percent in the survey of 711 voters, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Since his Iowa showing, Santorum has been drawing big crowds - but also increased scrutiny over fees he earned in his post-Senate years from energy and health-care interests. New Hampshire voters, famous for a live-and-let-live political tradition, have also sparred with Santorum - and heckled him - over his opposition to same-sex marriage, which is permitted in their state.

But he has had the buzz. On Saturday, he filled a barn with voters in Hollis, and spoke to another crowd outside. And late Friday afternoon, hundreds of voters and journalists overwhelmed a Santorum event at the Belmont Hall restaurant. Fire marshals were ready to shut it down, so the town-hall meeting was moved to the restaurant parking lot.

"A lot of people are taking another look at Santorum because of what happened in Iowa Wednesday morning," said Mimi LeDoux, 65, of Manchester, who was waiting to hear him at the restaurant. She said she had been leaning toward Romney, but was also considering Gingrich and Santorum.

"I've always liked him," she said of Santorum. "I prefer a more conservative approach myself, but he was just so hidden before, so far back in the pack."

Paul, the avowed libertarian who finished a strong third in Iowa, has trained his fire on Santorum, including in a sharp attack TV ad in South Carolina. It calls Santorum "corrupt," citing a left-leaning watchdog group that hit his ties to lobbyists, and blames him in part for the huge federal debt, Paul said.

Romney jetted off to South Carolina Friday, focusing on a continuing critique of President Obama as he campaigned with Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), the GOP nominee in 2008. Santorum was scheduled to make a quick visit to the Greenville, S.C., region, home to a large concentration of evangelical voters, on Sunday for a pair of events before returning to New Hampshire.

One candidate who has placed all his chips on New Hampshire is Huntsman, whose comparatively moderate positions made him a bad fit for GOP voters in Iowa, where he did not campaign.

Huntsman, who was also ambassador to China in the Obama administration, has portrayed himself as the only sensible centrist in the Republican field.

Santorum and Gingrich did try to draw some contrasts with Romney early in the debate, but he brushed off the attacks.

Santorum said Romney's experience as an investment banker in the private sector did not "match up" with the requirements of the presidency. Santorum went first, dismissing him as a mere manager. "Being a president is not a CEO. You've got to lead and inspire," he said.

Gingrich quoted published accounts that described how some workers were laid off after Bain Capital, the firm Romney once led, invested in their companies and sought to turn them around.

He said Romney should be judged on the basis of whether "on balance, were people better off or worse off by this style of management."

Unperturbed, Romney said that Bain had created 100,000 jobs on balance, and that a businessman's experience was far more useful in fixing the economy than a lifetime spent in Washington. "I'm very proud of the fact that the two enterprises I led were successful," he said, referring to Bain and another firm.

Yet, for much of the debate, Romney was able to repeat his standard campaign speech attacking Obama. At one point, while his rivals stood by silently, he accused the president of trying to turn the United States into a "European-style welfare state."

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