CNN news 2011-10-23 加文本

cnn news 2011-10-23

Each Republican candidate is trying to convince voters that he or she should be the party`s presidential nominee.

On Tuesday, seven of them faced off during a debate in Las Vegas. You haven`t heard about debates among Democrats, because President Obama is expected to get his party`s nomination, and no other Democrats are running against him.

AZUZ (voice-over): But the Republican candidates, they want to stand out. They`re taking part in these debates and getting ready for primary season, which starts early next year. Nevada holds one of the nation`s first primaries, and it hosted this week`s debate.

AZUZ: Taxes, illegal immigration, the economy, health care, all of those came up. And things got tense between the candidates when they took aim at each other`s plans. Jim Acosta wraps up the event.

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I`m speaking. I`m speaking. I`m speaking.

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: . were you -- your newspaper -- the newspaper.

ROMNEY: You get 30 seconds.

PERRY: Time for you to.

ROMNEY: This is the way the rules work here, is that I get 60 seconds.

PERRY: Well, no, but the American people.

ROMNEY: . and then you get -- and then you get 30 seconds to respond. Right?

PERRY: And they.

JIM ACOSTA, cnn REPORTER (voice-over): It was a Wild West shootout on the Las Vegas Strip. And at time, it felt like Rick Perry`s last stand, with an urgent strategy to take down Mitt Romney.

PERRY: . because you hired illegals in your home, and you knew for it -- about it for a year. And the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you`re strong on immigration is, on its face, the height of hypocrisy.

ACOSTA (voice-over): But Romney wasn`t laughing for long.

PERRY: . working.

ROMNEY: Are you just going to keep talking?

This has been a tough couple of debates for Rick.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Civil discourse was out the window. This was the first GOP debate to get personal.

ROMNEY: . we hired a lawn -- a lawn company to mow our lawn, and they had illegal immigrants that were working there.

You have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking. And I suggest that if you want to become President of the United States, you got to let both people speak. So.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Unlike past debates, the night was also Romney`s first real test as a frontrunner, as the candidates took aim at his health care plan in Massachusetts. Rick Santorum pointed out some of Romney`s own advisers help draft President Obama`s health care law.

RICK SANTORUM (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: . you just don`t have credibility, Mitt, when it comes to repealing ObamaCare. You are -- you are -- your plan was the basis for ObamaCare. Your consultants helped Obama craft ObamaCare.

ACOSTA (voice-over): At issue, Newt Gingrich says, is the individual mandate in both RomneyCare and ObamaCare.

FORMER REP. NEWT GINGRICH (R-GA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: . there`s a lot of big government behind RomneyCare. Not as much as ObamaCare, but a heck of a lot more than your campaign is admitting.

ANDERSON COOPER, cnn ANCHOR AND DEBATE MODERATOR: Governor Romney.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Romney responded he got the idea from Gingrich.

ROMNEY: Actually, Newt, we got the idea of an individual mandate from you. You did support an individual mandate.

GINGRICH: Yes, sir.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Rising Republican star, Herman Cain, also found himself on the defensive over his 9-9-9 plan. Independent studies have found the plan`s individual, business and national sales taxes, all set at 9 percent, would raise taxes on millions of Americans.

PERRY: Herman, I love you, brother, but let me tell you something, you don`t have to have a big analysis to figure this thing out. It`s not going to fly.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Romney pointed out a new national sales tax would be combined with existing state sales taxes.

ROMNEY: Well, but will the people in Nevada not have to pay Nevada sales tax, and in addition pay the 9 percent tax?

CAIN: Governor Romney, you`re doing the same thing that they`re doing. You`re mixing apples and oranges.

ROMNEY: I`m going to be getting a bushel basket that has apples and oranges in it because I`ve got to pay both taxes.

ACOSTA (voice-over): For Perry, it was night to take a campaign full of lemons and make lemonade, giving Republicans a bitter taste of a more combative campaign to come.

PERRY: And you get to ask the questions, and I get to answer like I want to. But.