Although eight Republican presidential candidates gathered in St. Petersburg, Fla. for the CNN/YouTube Republican Presidential Primary Debate on Wednesday, two candidates stole the show — and stole it early.
Republican presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney provided sparks with the first question of the night, bickering for several minutes about personal histories with illegal immigrants.
Despite moderator Anderson Cooper’s pleas to stop, the two continued to fight.
After the heated start, Romney and Giuliani received the most criticism from other candidates, but also collected the most speaking time.
While Giuliani has been criticized for basing his campaign around the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he focused on terrorism and his success against crime as New York City’s mayor.
Post-debate analysts said Romney showed strength by engaging in personal debates with other candidates, as he got into prolonged tiffs with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) about torture tactics and Giuliani about immigration.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee established himself as a likable dark horse candidate by approaching the debate with a sense of humor about his chances of earning the party nomination, analysts said.
McCain, who recently returned from Iraq, championed continued military presence in Iraq and attacked Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s plans for withdrawal.
Paul, who has succeeded in attracting campaign contributions but has struggled in the Republican polls, said desired tax decreases must be coupled with spending reductions.
Although the debate was held in Florida, the event was given a national twist when CNN and YouTube.com were brought into the picture.
The Republican debate was the second CNN/YouTube Presidential Primary Debate this year, following the Democrats debate in Charleston, S.C. on July 23.
Traditionally, presidential primary debates have catered to the debate site with area residents comprising most of the audience.
With YouTube’s addition to the equation, the debate has been opened to the entire country. Nearly 5,000 videos were submitted for the two-hour debate.
While some candidates were skeptical about the debate format, Ben Morlock, president of the MSU College Republicans, was pleased the Republicans agreed to the debate.
“I think that it’s always to the advantage of the voter whenever you can get a broad spectrum of people to participate in an event like this because different regions of the country have different issues that are important,” Morlock said.
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