Republican Candidates Unite Over Iraq, Divide Over Values

A week after the Democrats staged their first full debate of the presidential primary season, 10 Republican candidates gathered on a stage at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles.

Under the watchful eyes of former first lady Nancy Reagan and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the candidates displayed unity when asked about the war in Iraq and the perceived threat posed by Iran, and diversity when questioned on social "values" issues.

The debate came as the latest polls show former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani pulling ahead in the crucial early primary states. Mr Giuliani was on 33% in the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, Arizona senator John McCain on 22%, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney on 12%. The actor and former senator Fred Thompson, who has not yet declared his candidacy, was on 17%.

In the opening exchanges of the debate, which was moderated by political talk show host Chris Matthews, the candidates lined up to profess their opposition to an early withdrawal from Iraq. "We should never retreat in the face of terrorism," Mr Giuliani said in the evening's first answer. "Terrible mistake."

Mr Romney opted for a more nuanced response, stating: "I want to get our troops home as soon as we possibly can, but at the same time we don't want to get them out in such a precipitous way that we have to go back."

Mr McCain, who has been hampered in the early stages of the campaign by his support for the administration's recent increase in troop deployment, stated that while he thought the war had been "terribly mismanaged ... now I believe it is on the right track."

All the candidates took the opportunity to shift the focus of the debate from Iraq to Iran. For Mr McCain, Iran was "one of the greatest threats to the security of the world", while Kansas senator Sam Brownback said, "We've got be very confrontational and very aggressive there".

The starkest differences between the candidates came when they were asked for their opinion on abortion, specifically whether they would support efforts to repeal Roe vs Wade. Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo declared that it would be "the greatest day in this country's history", while Senator Brownback said it would be "a glorious day of human liberty and freedom".

But the question posed some problems for two of the leading candidates. Mayor Giuliani, stressing that he "hated" abortion, noted that abortion law should be a matter for the states, not the federal government. He also argued that there should be respect for the individual. "Ultimately, since it is an issue of conscience, I would respect a woman's right to make a different choice."

Governor Romney, pressed on his apparent change of heart on abortion, invoked the record of President Reagan.

"I took the same course that Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush and Henry Hyde took," he said, "and I said I was wrong and changed my mind and said I'm pro-life. And I'm proud of that, and I won't apologise to anybody for becoming pro-life."

Divisions between the candidates also emerged when they were asked for their views on immigration and stem cell research. While Senator Brownback articulated the opinion of most of the candidates when he said, "It is not necessary to kill a human life in order to save one", Senator McCain was the lone voice in favour of federal funding for stem-cell research.

"I believe that we need to fund this," he said, as Nancy Reagan, a firm supporter of the research, watched from the front row. "This is a tough issue for those of us in the pro-life community."

Mr McCain, who has authored legislation to introduce a path to citizenship for undocumented migrants in the US, also found himself out of step with the other candidates on the issue of immigration. California congressman Duncan Hunter took credit for building a wall on the US-Mexico border in San Diego and urged its extension across the continent.

The debate took place in the shadow of the Air Force 1, the plane that flew Reagan to Berlin to declare, "tear down that wall, Mr Gorbachev". It is also the plane that took Jimmy Carter to Germany to meet the US hostages released from Iran.

That episode was brought up in the debate, in possibly the most artful attempt to harness some of Reagan's glory.

"His philosophy was a philosophy of strength," Mr Giuliani said, in answering a question about how best to restore America's pride. The Iranians, he continued, "looked in Ronald Reagan's eyes and in two minutes they released the hostages".