2008 GOP debate in Boca Raton Florida: on Principles & Values
John McCain:
FactCheck: Won NH & SC via independents, but lost GOP vote
McCain dubiously claimed that he won the GOP vote in both New Hampshire and South Carolina. But in New Hampshire, the National Election Pool Exit Poll showed Romney edging McCain 35% to 34% among Republican voters.
McCain wouldn’t have won if he hadn’t collected 40% of the independent vote, an overwhelming plurality.McCain can point to an exit poll done separately by Fox News, which shows him beating Romney among Republicans in
New Hampshire, 35% to 33%. The same poll, though, shows Romney received more of the self-identified “conservative” vote, 38% to McCain’s 31%.
But if McCain wants to use Fox’s exit polls as his standard, the one taken after the
South Carolina primary disproves his point: Huckabee edged him among Republican voters, 32% to 31%, and it was only through the votes of independents, who swung for him 42% to 25%, that McCain prevailed.
Source: FactCheck.org on 2008 GOP debate in Boca Raton Florida
Jan 24, 2008
Mike Huckabee:
Ought to be able to respect people who don’t have any faith
We ought to be able to respect people who don’t have any faith. I don’t feel like a person has to share my faith to share my love of this country. If a person hates me because of my faith, I’m not sure if they understand what it means to truly
be an American, where we can live with each other no matter how different our faith is. Faith has been an important part of who this country is. Most Americans believe in God. If you want a president that doesn’t, you’ll have to pick somebody else.
Source: 2008 GOP debate in Boca Raton Florida
Jan 24, 2008
Mike Huckabee:
People should deal with the use of faith in my campaign
Q: A Bush administration official said that, quote, your use of faith in your campaign gave him a “queasy feeling.” Your response?A: I would say that would be his problem, not mine. My faith does not give me a queasy feeling; it gives me a solid core
from which I’m able to live every day. I don’t wake up every day and have to look at a poll to decide what I believe. My faith grounds me. It gives me some sense of direction and purpose. I don’t try to impose it on other people, and
I certainly would never use the auspices of government to try to push my faith. But for me to run from it? Impossible. It’s who I am. If it gives some people a queasy feeling, then they’ll have to deal with it.
The fact is, this country has always been a country where people were able to respect people who had faith.
Source: 2008 GOP debate in Boca Raton Florida
Jan 24, 2008
Mitt Romney:
Don’t think religion figuring into this race
When the Constitution and the founders said no religious test shall ever be required for qualification for office or public trust in the US that the founders meant just that. And I don’t believe for a minute that Republicans, or Americans for that
matter, are going to impose a religious test when the founders said it’s as un-American as anything you can think of. I don’t think you’re going to see religion figuring into this race after people have had a chance to get to know all the candidates.
Source: 2008 GOP debate in Boca Raton Florida
Jan 24, 2008
Ron Paul:
The Republicans don’t act like Republicans anymore
My biggest concern is they won’t stick to the party principles that Republicans stood for so long: balanced budgets and limited government and individual freedom. The Republican Party has a problem because we don’t act like Republicans. We’re spending
money that we don’t have, we’ve run up these deficits. In the old days we used to be against the Department of Education; now we’ve doubled the size of it. No child Left behind. Even the Democrats are running against some of the things that we do.
They used to love that kind of stuff. It used to be that we stop the wars. We stopped the Korean War. We were supposed to stop the Vietnam War the Democrats started. Here we’re starting these wars. That’s why we’ve lost our way. So I don’t think it’s
a matter of me leaving the Republican Party. Yet they say: Oh, you’re too strict on the Constitution. Why should us who believe strictly in the Constitution, the rule of law, be excluded? That’s what the Republican Party used to stand for.
Source: 2008 GOP debate in Boca Raton Florida
Jan 24, 2008
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2018