The debate double-header

I’m sitting in the press filing centre at Saint Anselm College where the leading Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are about to hold back to back debates. The stakes are huge—this is Hillary Clinton’s last best chance to halt the Obama bandwagon before the primary on Tuesday. While on the Republican side, Mitt Romney can’t afford a bad showing. Worryingly for Romney, Ed Rollins, a key Huckabee aide, told the New York Times this morning: “We’re going to see if we can’t take Romney out,” Mr. Rollins said. “We like John. Nobody likes Romney.”

The first question is on the Bush foreign policy legacy. Mike Huckabee, who has criticised the “arrogant bunker mentality” of the Bush team, is first up and gives a carefully calibrated answer designed to distance himself from the missteps in Iraq but not the Bush doctrine per se. Rudy Giuliani calls for a bigger military and praises Bush for the decision to go on the offence against “Islamic terror.”