The final Republican presidential candidate debate before the Florida primary election featured a lot of back and forth “distracting” from the issues between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, according to Rick Santorum.
Mr. Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul did a lot of spectating throughout the debate, spectating of the two front runners sparring over their records.
Following a heated exchange between Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich over the former House speaker’s role as a “consultant” with mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, CNN debate moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Mr. Paul and Mr. Santorum to give their opinion on the matter.
The argument between Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich over who was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who has stock in the two mortgage giants lasted nearly ten minutes before either Mr. Paul or Mr. Santorum had a chance to speak.
After the crowd had seemingly become transfixed on the quarreling between the two front runners in Florida, Mr. Paul weighed in.
“That — that subject really doesn’t interest me a whole lot,” said Mr. Paul jokingly to a round of applause from the audience. “But the question does. The — the question is, what are we going to do about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It should have been auctioned off right after the crash came. It would have been cleansed by now.”
That segment of the debate really featured a snapshot of the Republican primary race thus far. Whereas Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney have seemingly focused on attacking each other, Mr. Paul and Mr. Santorum have focused more on expressing their views and the policies that they want to implement if either of them is elected president.
Mr. Santorum has focused on his conservative Christian values, while Mr. Paul has consistently expressed his policies of constitutional government and individual liberties.
The former Pennsylvania senator seemed to really shift the debate’s focus back to the issues with his response to the heated exchange regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“These two gentlemen, who are out distracting from the most important issues we have been playing petty personal politics,” said Mr. Santorum. “Can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress and used the skills that he developed as a member of Congress to go out and advise companies — and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy because he worked hard and he’s going out and working hard? And you guys should that alone and focus on the issues.”
The original question posed by Mr. Blitzer was regarding how each of the candidates would “phase out” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and whether or not the private mortgage industry needs more regulation.
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into conservatorship by the U.S. Treasury in late 2008 as a result of the sub prime mortgage crisis, that lead to a record breaking number of foreclosures across the nation.
Mr. Romney has accused Mr. Gingrich of acting as a lobbyist for each of the two mortgage giants during the period of risky lending that lead up to sub prime mortgage crisis. During the debate Thursday, Mr. Gingrich accused Mr. Romney of holding stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
That took the attention away from the original intent of the question, which asked how each of the candidates would prevent a future crisis from happening again.
The stance taken by both Mr. Paul and Mr. Santorum Thursday was really the first time that either of them had addressed the ongoing attacks by Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich that have often shifted the focus of debates and of the Republican primary overall from the issues to the candidate’s personal lives and career records.
The Rasmussen poll of likely Republican primary voters released Thursday shows Mr. Romney holding an 8 percentage point lead over Mr. Gingrich. Mr. Santorum finishes in a distant third place, followed by Mr. Paul.
Each of the candidates’ performances during the debate Thursday will likely have an impact on voters as they prepare to cast their votes on January 31st.
