No Knockouts but Many Jabs at GOP Debate

Texas Gov. George W. Bush was hit Monday night--with kid gloves--for his lack of national political experience and for the buoyant assumptions behind his tax cut plan, as Republicans staged a mostly amicable and genteel presidential debate.

In an evening filled with courtly exchanges, one of the few aggressors was Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, who turned a friendly question from Bush into a good-humored shot against the GOP front-runner.

With just five years under a “weak governorship” system, Hatch said, “I really believe that you need more experience before you become president of the United States.”

As Bush smiled thinly, Hatch quipped, “I should be president. . . . You’d make a heck of a president” after eight years as vice president.

Bush, who was elected to public office for the first time as governor in 1994, has been plagued throughout his presidential run by questions about his political preparedness as well as his intellectual depth. Those questions--delivered indirectly and less so--were a major focal point of the evening, only the second time that Bush has shared a stage with his GOP rivals.

In one of the evening’s more pointed jabs, chief rival John McCain questioned the economic forecasts that underpin the governor’s tax cut plan. “The big difference,” said the senator from Arizona, “is I do not envision surpluses forever. That’s why I take the money for tax breaks out of wasteful spending and corporate welfare.”

The session at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix featured a format that, for the first time in the race, allowed the six candidates to directly question one another. In the main, however, the rivals were polite to a fault, producing few sparks and no major gaffes--though Bush’s curt and seemingly well-rehearsed answers sometimes gave the appearance of evading questions.

Asked, for instance, how he would react if anticipated budget surpluses fail to materialize, thus jeopardizing his five-year tax cut plan, he replied: “I refuse to accept the premise that surpluses are going to decline. If I’m the president, I think they’re going to increase.”

A question about the application of his current reading material--a biography of Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson--to international affairs led to a recitation of stock lines from his standard stump speech, which extols the virtues of free trade and a strong defense.

When publisher Steve Forbes pressed Bush, a former oilman, about what he would do to keep fuel prices low during New Hampshire’s cold winters, Bush said he would encourage exploration and use of alternative fuels. Then Bush added, “Governments don’t control the price of oil, at least not in America.”

Questioned by conservative activist Gary Bauer, Bush reiterated his support for economic engagement with China. “I think if we turn our backs on China and isolate China, things will get worse,” the governor said. “I think if we trade with China . . . you will be amazed by how soon democracy will come.”

Mostly, however, the front-runner seemed to survive the 75-minute session little worse for the wear. If anything--given the increasingly testy tone of the campaign in recent days--Bush might have expected much harsher treatment.

The evening stuck to a familiar script, for Bush in particular, who time and again returned to a recitation of his Texas record, touting everything from deregulation of his home-state electrical industry to the end of so-called social promotion in Texas classrooms.

Forbes and McCain reprised their attacks on special interests and the Washington establishment, and Bauer and former ambassador Alan L. Keyes renewed their calls for more religion and faith in public life. “As we took prayer out” of public schools, Keyes said, “we seemed to let decline and violence in.”

Oddly, home-state Sen. McCain was the only candidate absent from the hall. He participated via satellite from Boston after a day of campaigning in New Hampshire, where polls show McCain and Bush in a tight race.

The Arizona forum was scheduled by the state GOP to accommodate Bush, who has shunned most joint appearances. Once the front-runner committed, McCain opted to participate rather than skip a debate on his home turf.

The state party’s actions served to underscore McCain’s tenuous political standing in Arizona, where he has thrice been elected to the U.S. Senate--the last time in 1998 with 69% of the vote. But Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull and other leading Republicans have endorsed Bush, in the process raising questions about McCain’s admittedly potent temper.

The issue--the focus of several questions in the candidate’s debate Thursday night--came up only indirectly, when McCain jokingly referred to himself as “Miss Congeniality” of the U.S. Senate.

The candidates tended to agree on most issues, from the need for greater local control over education to extending a helping hand to the working poor--and, in the process, seeking to improve the Republican Party’s image among women and minorities.

Often the debate seemed less a confrontation than a convocation of a mutual admiration society, as the candidates often used their chance to challenge one another to instead lavish praise. (Hatch to Keyes: “You’re great!”; McCain to Forbes: “I want to thank you for your efforts on behalf of the flat tax.”)

The differences that emerged were few and hardly enough to unsettle the race. Keyes and Hatch defended the notion of scrapping the federal income tax in favor of a national sales tax, which Forbes and others suggested would unfairly hurt low- and middle-income Americans.

The candidates also differed on foreign policy, with McCain and Bush advocating a more internationalist approach, whereas Bauer, Forbes and Keyes all advocated a pullback from global engagement.

Arizona Republicans vote Feb. 22, three weeks after New Hampshire holds the first primary.

Although the Phoenix forum seemingly did little to shake Bush’s front-runner status, Democrats came away convinced he may be more vulnerable than his strong poll ratings suggest.

Scoffed Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist, “If the governor of Texas doesn’t know anything about energy policy, what the hell does he know about?”

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Times staff writer Janet Wilson contributed to this story.