MANCHESTER, NH — Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney Monday sought to differentiate his Massachusetts health care plan from President Obama’s federal overhaul, even though fellow contenders for the White House gave Romney a pass on his biggest political liability during the GOP’s second debate of the 2012 presidential season. “I will repeal Obamacare,” Romney vowed during the GOP forum at Saint Anselm College. “I will grant a waiver to all 50 states from Obamacare. There’s some similarities and some big differences [between Obama’s plan and Romney’s]. It’s terrible. And, finally, ours was a state plan, a state solution, and if people don’t like it in our state, they can change it.”
Romney has the most to lose in must-win New Hampshire, where he would like to keep the focus on a stagnant economy and away from similarities between his Bay State health care blueprint and Obama-backed legislation that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance.
But rather than attack Romney nearly eight months ahead of the first nominating contest in Iowa, the other six Republican candidates saved their blistering criticism for Obama’s handling of the economy.
It was a somewhat surprising twist, given that just a day earlier, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty coined the term “Obamneycare” to describe the Romney plan.
When given a chance during the debate, however, Pawlenty backed away from a confrontation with Romney, saying that he was merely repeating the president’s endorsement of the Massachusetts design.
The Republicans repeatedly hammered Obama for a soaring national debt, saying that big-government policies and refusal to deal with entitlement reforms were hamstringing future generations and stifling job growth.
The unemployment rate now stands at 9.1 percent, easily the issue most threatening to the president’s re-election bid.
“When 14 million Americans are out of work, we need a new president to end the Obama depression,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was spared any questions about the mass exodus of senior aides from his campaign last week.
Pawlenty, like other Republican candidates, challenged Obama’s record on jobs and his push to raise income tax rates for wealthier Americans. He argued that the president had downgraded U.S. standing on the global stage.
“This President is a declinist,” Pawlenty said. “He views America as one of equals around the world. We’re not the same as Portugal; we’re not the same as Argentina. This idea that we can’t have 5% growth in America is hogwash.”
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite, took some of the focus away from the Granite State debate by formally announcing her candidacy. She filed the paperwork Monday.
She also drew perhaps the largest applause of the night when she labeled Obama a “one-term president.”
Reflective of Romney’s position in the GOP field, though, Obama’s political team has devoted most of its attacks on the former Massachusetts governor, who argues that as a former businessman he knows how to turn around a down economy. Still, Romney is polling at just 25 percent among Republicans in the friendliest of surveys.
Despite their hands-off approach during the debate, other contenders – including businessman Herman Cain, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania – are jockeying to become the anti-Romney option for those yet to warm to the centrist governor from liberal Massachusetts.
