Manchester, N.H. – President Bush drew sporadic, startling criticism Tuesday night from Republican White House hopefuls unhappy with his handling of the Iraq war, his diplomatic style and his approach to immigration.
“I would certainly not send him to the United Nations” to represent the United States, said Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor and one-time member of Bush’s Cabinet, midway through a spirited campaign debate.
Arizona Sen. John McCain criticized the administration for its handling of the Iraq war, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said, “I think we were underprepared and underplanned for what came after we knocked down Saddam Hussein.”
Rep. Duncan Hunter of California said the current administration “has the slows” when it comes to building a security fence along the border with Mexico.
Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado recalled that White House aide Karl Rove had once told him “never darken the door of the White House.” The congressman said he’d tell George W. Bush the same thing.
The criticism of Bush was more in keeping with the type of rhetoric that could be expected when Democratic presidential contenders debate.
Its prominence at the GOP event was a reflection of his poor poll ratings and the need of even members of his own party to campaign on platforms of change.
The Republicans sprinkled the criticism of Bush throughout a two-hour debate that ranged over topics from war to immigration legislation pending in Congress to religion. The debate was the third of the accelerated primary campaign.
Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Hunter both said they would pardon Vice President Dick Cheney’s former aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby, sentenced to 30 months in prison earlier in the day for lying and obstructing a CIA leak investigation.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a former prosecutor, said the sentence was excessive, which “argues in favor of a pardon.”
Giuliani had the central role in an unscripted moment of humor.
Asked about a Rhode Island Catholic bishop who criticized him for supporting abortion rights, Giuliani began to respond when a lightning strike briefly interfered with the debate hall sound system.
“Look, for someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a very frightening thing that’s happening right now,” he said to laughter.
The debate drew the announced Republican presidential contenders – but not former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, an actor apparently poised to join the race in a month’s time.
“My name is Thompson. I’m the candidate, not the actor,” said Tommy Thompson in a jab at the man who wasn’t there.
Fred Thompson, appearing on Fox News, said he had watched part of the give-and-take among his potential rivals.
“They did all right from what I saw,” he said.
McCain drew loud applause from the partisan debate audience when he turned a question about the war in Iraq into criticism of the leading Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
“When Senator Clinton says this is Mr. Bush’s war, President Bush’s war,” she is wrong, he said. “When President Clinton was in power, I didn’t say Bosnia was President Clinton’s war,” the Arizona senator said.
“Presidents don’t lose wars. Political parties don’t lose wars. Nations lose wars.”
Univision hopes to host debates in Spanish
Washington – Univision, the highest-rated U.S. Spanish-language television network and a leading draw for young adult viewers, has invited the White House hopefuls from both parties to participate in the first presidential candidate debates to be conducted entirely in Spanish.
The network has proposed two debates, one for each party, to be held on back-to-back Sundays in September – giving the candidates unprecedented exposure to a mass audience of increasingly important Latino voters.
The debates, to be held in immigrant-rich Miami, likely would focus heavily on the battle over legalizing millions of undocumented workers.
The Democratic candidates tend to back legalization. But the Univision debate could further exacerbate a split over the issue among the Republican contenders, further highlighting a divide that party strategists fear might alienate Latino voters even as that electorate grows fast.
It was not clear Tuesday whether the campaigns on either side would accept Univision’s proposal. Officials from several campaigns, deluged with debate proposals from interest groups and media, said they would consider the invitation.
Network officials said they believed the size and importance of the audience would make it difficult for candidates to decline. Univision is the fifth-most-viewed network in the country.
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