MIAMI (AFP) — Republican presidential candidates fought Sunday for the mantle of most conservative politician in the White House race, battling in another debate for the key support of the party's right wing.
Support of social conservatives is critical to winning a Republican presidential nomination and energizing the party's political base before the November 2008 general election, political experts say.
Speaking during the debate held in Orlando, Florida, Rudolph Giuliani showcased his record as New York mayor, saying he has been able to reduce taxes and government spending while at the head of a fairly liberal city.
"I drove pornography out of Times Square," Giuliani said during the discussion organized by Fox News Channel. "I had a heck of a lot of conservative results ... I had the most legal city in the country."
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney emphasized his ability to cut spending and maintain budget discipline while heaving to deal with a Democratic-controlled state legislature.
"We faced a three-billion-dollar budget gap," Romney said. "We solved it without raising taxes, without adding debt."
US Senator John McCain, who is trailing in opinion polls and facing fundraising problems, stressed his experience as a Navy pilot in Vietnam.
"I have the qualifications to lead," the senator remarked testily. "I led, I did not manage for profit."
Quickly switching to attack mode, McCain also insisted that Romney tried to "fool" US voters about his conservative record.
Former US senator Fred Thompson blasted both Giuliani and Romney for being, in his view, insufficiently socially conservative.
Giuliani immediately fired back, arguing that Thompson lacked qualifications to be at the White House because he never managed large government or private organizations.
"The senator never had executive responsibility," the former mayor insisted.
Meanwhile, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee stressed his anti-abortion credentials believed essential to winning support of Christian conservatives.
Most of the eight Republicans, who took part in the debate, also fired broadsides at leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who leads in the poll not only in the Democratic field, but also hypothetical match-ups with each of her Republican opponents.
"She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city. She has never run anything," Romney said of the former first lady and now a US senator from New York. "And the idea that she could learn to be president, you know, as an internship just doesn't make any sense."
Others charged Clinton planned to "socialize" health care and raise taxes on most Americans.
The debate, on the heels of a "Values Voter" conference in Washington, offered the first indication of the political preferences held by the conservative wing of the party.
In a presidential candidate straw poll of 5,775 evangelical voters at the meeting and online, Romney came out on top, narrowly ahead of Huckabee.
Giuliani, meanwhile, was eighth, with just 1.85 percent of the vote.
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