Huckabee leads as debate in Iowa fails to ignite

United States: Republican presidential candidates have met in their final debate before Iowa's caucus on January 3rd, promising…

United States:Republican presidential candidates have met in their final debate before Iowa's caucus on January 3rd, promising to strengthen the American economy and maintain high levels of military spending.

Hosted by the Des Moines Register newspaper, the debate failed to produce the fireworks between leading candidates that many commentators predicted.

National frontrunner Rudy Giuliani has all but ignored Iowa, along with other early-voting states, banking on a big victory in Florida at the end of January and victory in many of the big states that vote on February 5th. However, Iowa is crucial for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has invested millions of dollars, much of it from his own pocket, in preparing for a string of early victories.

He looked set to win Iowa until the abrupt rise in recent weeks of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister who is winning support among evangelical Christians.

READ MORE

Huckabee and Romney each claimed to have the best record as governors in improving educational standards, but the tone of the debate was more cordial than many had expected in view of recent friction between the campaigns.

The debate avoided questions on Iraq and immigration, focusing instead on policy areas that Des Moines Register polling found that Iowans wanted to hear about. The first part of the debate, which dealt with economic and trade issues, exposed few differences between the candidates, most of whom promised to cut taxes, slash government spending and promote free trade.

A number of candidates, including Huckabee and Senator John McCain agreed that rising debt and the weakness of the US economy represented a threat to national security.

"Who feeds us, who fuels us and who helps us to fight, that's to whom we are enslaved. If we can't do those three things, our national security is very much at risk," Huckabee said.

Yesterday's debate came as a new poll showed Huckabee surging into second place nationally with 19 per cent, just six points behind Giuliani, who has fallen nine points in a month.

Huckabee is leading in Iowa, where an average of polls puts him more than 13 points ahead of Romney, but six out of 10 Republicans likely to participate in next month's caucus say they could still be persuaded to change their allegiance.

Giuliani and Romney were challenged about their views on abortion, with the former holding firm to his support for abortion rights while Romney acknowledged that he had changed his mind to become anti-abortion in recent years.

Huckabee, who has characterised himself as a "Christian leader" said that his religious faith informed his public policy. "The first basic principle is that you treat others as you wish to be treated," he said.

Huckabee was not questioned, however, about the controversy that has dominated much of the coverage of his campaign in recent days, his remarks about Aids 15 years ago.

In 1992, when he ran unsuccessfully for the senate, Huckabee said that people with Aids should be "isolated" as carriers of a plague. "It is the first time in the history of civilisation in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease, for which there is no cure, is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crises it represents." This week, Huckabee declined to recant his statement, but he claimed that it reflected the state of scientific knowledge at the time and that he would take a different approach today.

In fact, the US government had stated as early as 1986 that Aids could not be transmitted through casual contact and a year before Huckabee's comments, President George Bush snr urged businesses not to sack people with Aids because they represented no danger to other employees.

Democrats debate in Iowa today as national frontrunner Hillary Clinton struggles to fight off a growing challenge from Barack Obama, who is ahead in Iowa and is closing the gap with her in other early-voting states.