“I’ve never been on Air Force One”

Call me irresponsible: I say Romney won
By: Roger Simon
May 4, 2007 06:41 AM EST

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- It would be terribly irresponsible to pick a winner of Thursday night’s Republican debate. So I will.

I think Mitt Romney won. And I think John McCain came in second and Rudy Giuliani came in third.

(There were seven other men on the stage, but I don’t think any of them are in danger of becoming president, so I am going to skip them for the time being.)

Let’s take my top three in reverse order:

Rudy Giuliani often gives his speeches off the cuff, because he speaks a lot and he doesn’t really need to prepare much.

But debates are different. It is hard to do a debate off the cuff. Debates are more complex and more demanding performances than speeches and Giuliani seemed to lack a plan of attack and a plan of defense.

Debates are not just about answering the questions you are asked. Debates are about giving your answers no matter what questions you are asked and Giuliani sometimes missed chances to make his points.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked all the Republican contenders, “Would the day that Roe v. Wade is repealed be a good day for America?”

Giuliani, who is pro-choice, replied: “It would be OK.”

“OK to repeal?” Matthews said.

“It would be OK to repeal,” Giuliani said. “It would be also [OK] if a strict constructionist judge viewed it as precedent and I think a judge has to make that decision.”

If you are asking “huh?” at this point, so was Chris Matthews.

“Would it be OK if they didn't repeal it?” Matthews asked.

“I think the court has to make that decision and then the country can deal with it,” Giuliani said.

Maybe Giuliani’s answer was designed to win over both sides of the issue, but abortion is probably not an issue where you can win over both sides.

As to Giuliani’s strength -- his strong position on fighting terrorism -- he didn’t really establish himself on the issue during the debate.

John McCain needed to project optimism and enthusiasm and he often did. He was also forceful when it came to wanting to follow Osama bin Laden “to the gates of hell.”

But McCain had a nervous start, and didn’t really answer a question he should have been prepared for.

“What would you need,” he was asked, “as commander in chief, to win the war in Iraq?”

McCain could have answered “more troops” since that is what he believes and has stated so in the past. Instead, he went for an answer he apparently thought was safer.

“I would need the support of the American people,” McCain replied. “I would need to be able to show them some success in Iraq, both on the battlefield as well as with the Maliki government.”

Which was a little less than specific.

Almost all the candidates seemed nervous and they had reason to be: Their party lost both houses of Congress last year, their president has low approval ratings and rarely do voters give the same party three presidential terms in a row.

But Mitt Romney achieved almost everything he wanted to achieve.

He looked and sounded presidential. He hit his talking points. And voters who knew nothing about him before the debate except that he was a Mormon, came away knowing a lot more.

Romney cannot alter the way he has changed his stance on things like abortion.

All he can do is face up to that and say he has changed his mind. Which he did. And he gave some red meat answers that primary voters often like:

Asked if he wanted to see Bill Clinton back living in the White House, he said: “The only thing I can think of that’d be as bad as that would be to have the Gang of Three running the war on terror: Pelosi, Reid and Hillary Clinton.”

Romney’s best answer may have come at the end, when he was asked: “How will you be different, in any way, from President George W. Bush?”

“I think we're each our own person; we have our own values,” Romney said. “I respect the president's character, his passion, his love for this country. I believe everything he does in this war against terror flows from a desire to protect the American people and to make our future secure.”

But then Romney went on to talk about the need for “at least 100,000 more troops, more military spending” and to “strengthen our economy” and “protect American jobs.”

And, finally, he said, hitting his last talking point: “Strengthen the American family. That's what we've got to do.”

Romney was a man with a plan. He knew what points he wanted to make and he made them.

Will it be enough to skyrocket him to the top of the polls? No. Debates almost never do that. But Romney did manage to introduce himself to voters in the way he wanted.

In the hours before the debate began, I watched the candidates separately walk through the debate hall in the Ronald Reagan Library, where one of Reagan’s presidential jets, one of his Air Force Ones, loomed hugely over the stage.

“You know,” Romney said, looking up. “I’ve never been on Air Force One.”

Then he smiled and looked very much like a man who intended to have one of his own some day.