Note: I'll be on FoxNews.Com Live at 11am Pacific / 2 pm Eastern to discuss the GOP debate.
Tonight FOX News broadcast the latest GOP presidential debate. Eight candidates - minus incoming candidate Rick Perry - took part and instead of using the opportunity to address issues important to the American people, such as creating jobs, used their time to fight among one another and to pledge allegiance to the Tea Party, the most unpopular political movement of our time. It was a missed opportunity to share a positive vision of our nation and while some of the candidates, particularly Michelle Bachman, may have scored points with far right voters that will be important in the Iowa caucus none of the candidates embraced a mainstream agenda that voters would support in a general election.
There was a lot of pandering to the religious right, as you might expect. Rick Santorum re-pledged his support for arresting doctors that provide even medically needed abortions (remember that he along with Bachmann were the only "candidates to sign a controversial pledge pushed by the Iowa Family Leader that disturbingly implied that African American children were better off in slavery in 1860 than they are in 2011, based on respective family structures"). Tim Pawlenty, who has recently been part of a "bus tour opposing same-sex marriage and abortion and advocating for 'religious liberty,'" seconded Santorum's radical call for criminal penalties for physicians who provide health care to women.
Mitt Romney, the frontrunner who was pro-choice and supportive of equality for gays and lesbians when he first ran for office in the 1990s, spent most of his time dodging questions about his record. Voters are still left wondering who the real Mitt Romney is: the moderate Massachusetts governor or the born-again conservative of his 2008 and 2012 campaigns?
Looming in the shadows of tonight's debate was the impending candidacy of Rick Perry. The Texas governor is expected to announce in South Carolina this weekend - just one week after his "prayer rally" hosted with collection of hard core religious right organizations - and a primary sponsor that is a noted hate group.
Again, religious right voters who make up a vital part of the Iowa caucus will find a lot to like in several of these candidates. Mainstream voters, including people of faith, will be turned off by the rhetoric heard tonight and the lack of substantive proposals from the GOP field on how to get the economy moving after the Tea Party downgrade.
FOX News channel contributor Doug Schoen summed it up right tonight: the winner of the debate was Barack Obama. The GOP field tonight embraced the religious right and the agenda put forth by Congressional republicans, at a time Congress is polling at a historic low of 14%. Americans might not agree with President Obama on every issue but they know he isn't an extremist and polls show that on most key issues the president's positions, such as increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans to help bring stability to our national finances, have broad popular support.
