Roundup of GOP Debate in Iowa

The GOP contenders faced off in the final debate before the Iowa Caucus on Jan. 3^rd. The nine Republican candidates who took the stage in Des Moines were Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee, Thompson, McCain, Hunter, Tancredo, Paul, and a surprise appearance by Alan Keyes. The other eight candidates were expected and all had participated in other previous debates. However, it is rare for Keyes to be invited to participate in debates. He was in the Values Voters Debate a few months ago which Giuliani, Romney, Thompson, and McCain skipped. It is unclear why Keyes' was invited to this debate considering the two requirements to participate were that the candidates needed to have a campaign office in Iowa and be polling at a minimum of 1% in the Iowa polls. Keyes satisfied neither of these requisites however, when he ran for President in 2000, he did finish third in the Iowa Caucus to he is a familiar face to Iowan voters.

Substantively, the debate was rather lackluster. The moderator, Carolyn Washburn, was rather stringent with time allowed for answers and did not allow for much back and forth between the candidates. Thus, most issues were only touched on and the candidates' positions were not examined very deeply. It also allowed for little comparison between candidates which was to the benefit of Iowa front-runner, Mike Huckabee. While this was not the best debate performance by the former Arkansas Governor, he was able to stay above the fray and was not seriously challenged or questioned by either his opponents or the moderator. In this sense, Huckabee won the debate. He is in the lead and all he needs to do is hold that lead until Jan. 3^rd to win the state. All the other candidates need to try to make up ground by explaining why Huckabee is not the best candidate and why they are. They were unable to do that in this debate.