A heated GOP debate

The race for the Republican presidential nomination turned nasty this week, as seven nominees took turns attacking each other at the latest GOP debate. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney bore the brunt of the assaults, a reflection of his status as the front-runner. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has slumped badly in the polls, took a much more aggressive stance, reviving a 2008 charge that Romney lied about employing illegal immigrants to work at his home. “You stood here in front of the American people and did not tell the truth,” Perry said. The accusation provoked an exchange of angry words and finger-pointing, with Perry interrupting Romney several times. “If you want to become president of the United States, you gotta let both people speak,” said Romney.

Former pizza executive Herman Cain, who has surged in the polls, was forced to play defense, as rival candidates repeatedly criticized his 9-9-9 tax plan. (See Talking points for more on 9-9-9.)

Move over, Jerry Springer, said Chris Stirewalt in FoxNews.com. This debate had all the “anger, betrayals, [and] savage attacks” of a trashy daytime talk show. Even Romney lost the “cool, attractive countenance” that has won him every debate so far. His claim that the main reason he couldn’t have “illegals��� working for him was because he was “running for office, for Pete’s sake” will not impress conservatives one bit.

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Rick Perry’s belligerence was excessive at times, but will help him, said Jonathan Tobin in CommentaryMagazine.com. He seemed “dead in the water” after the last debate, but has “snarled his way back into the conversation.” But even naked aggression couldn’t make up for the “old confusion and inability to articulate” that have plagued Perry throughout the debates.

Romney and Perry’s bitter bickering set the tone for the race ahead, said Michael D. Shear in The New York Times. Their palpable animosity matches that of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in 2008, when the two candidates—fueled by “prodigious fund-raising”—battled to the end of the primaries. Perry and Romney each can raise cash, so we could be in for another “nasty, brutish, and potentially long fight for the nomination.”