AMES, IOWA — Minnesota rivals Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann sparred bitterly in a Republican presidential debate, trying to stand out ahead of an Iowa test vote with huge consequences.
Each seeks to become the main challenger to Republican front-runner Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination. In the two-hour, eight-candidate debate Thursday night, the squabbling by Pawlenty and Bachmann allowed Romney to remain above the fray and emerge relatively unscathed by his rivals.
Their efforts to earn the right to face President Barack Obama were newly complicated by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who stole some of the spotlight from afar by making it known hours before the debate that he was running for the Republican nomination.
Romney, a multi-millionaire businessman who casts himself as a jobs creator, made his own stir earlier in the day when, at the Iowa State Fair, he declared that “corporations are people,” drawing ridicule from Democrats.
Those were just the latest twists in the most consequential week yet in the 2012 Republican presidential nomination fight.
Seven candidates — Pawlenty, Bachmann, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and businessman Herman Cain — sought to separate themselves from the packed field and emerge as the chief alternative to Romney.
More.... Republican Presidential Debate
Part 1......more on you tube....
