WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidates voiced an isolationist bent in their Wednesday night debate, saying the United States should not intervene in the financial crisis roiling Europe.
They were equally disinclined to engage in the sexual harassment scandal surrounding businessman and novice politician Herman Cain and appeared to share the embarrassment of Texas Gov. Rick Perry when he was unable to recall the third federal agency he would shut down in his promised attack on government bloat.
By the end of the nearly two-hour give and take with none of the fireworks that characterized some previous debates former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had sailed through undiminished, fellow front-runner Cain had ducked the hugely damaging sexual harassment allegations and Perry may have taken himself out of contention to win the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama next year.
As the debate focused on Europe, all the candidates said they would not intervene in the continent's debt crisis -- one that economists forecast as a danger to the weak American economy.
The politicians warned, however, that Washington must cut it's own budget deficits to avoid the kind of crises afflicting Greece and Italy.
Romney said there will be an effort to draw in the U.S. but "Europe is able to take care of their own problems. We don't want to step in and bail out their banks and their economies."
Even so, he said the United States should continue contributing to organizations like the International Monetary Fund that are working to prevent a meltdown in troubled economies.
Cain said there wasn't much the United States could do to directly to help Italy because the economy there is in such difficult shape.
One area of disagreement was on U.S. economic relations with China. Romney accused China of unfair trade practices and said he would designate it as a currency manipulator. But Jon Huntsman, a former ambassador to China who is near the bottom of the presidential polls, warned this could set off a trade war.
Romney, who has been accused by both Republicans and Democrats for his frequent readiness to change positions to benefit from shifting political winds, still appeared the likeliest candidate to win the nomination.
The former venture capitalist used virtually every question as a launch pad to attack Obama's stewardship of government and handling of the economy -- an issue that has left the president deeply vulnerable.
As the nation stages a weak recovery from the Great Recession that began under former President George W. Bush, U.S. unemployment sits at 9 per cent, foreclosures on home mortgages are rampant and the nation is in one of the sourest moods in recent history.
While Romney has been unable to gain the backing of more than a quarter of Republican voters, he has held steady as a series of fellow candidates have quickly risen to challenge him and just as quickly faded from favour.
Cain is the latest of that group and his standing as a fellow front-runner had been not been damaged in the first week of the now 11-day-old sexual harassment scandal. But there have been signs his support may be weakening as more women have come forward with allegations about his behaviour toward them when he ran the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.
Cain has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and variously blamed fellow Republicans, Democrats and the news media for raising the allegations. All the accusers were employed by or had worked for the trade organization when Cain was in charge there.
Cain's troubles faded from view -- at least for the duration of the debate -- after only two questions about the sexual harassment allegations.
The audience booed when moderators asked Cain about whether the allegations should be a consideration in whether he is qualified to be president. Cain said the American people "deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations." When Romney, a fellow businessman, would hire a man like Cain, he refused to engage. The audience booed its disapproval of the issue even being raised.
While Cain sidestepped the sexual harassment scandal and his rivals approached his troubles cautiously, the controversy has made it difficult for the other Republicans to campaign as usual and keep the focus on beating Obama.
The Michigan venue for the debate was appropriate for discussing America's economic problems. The state, known for the automobile industry, has an 11.1 per cent unemployment rate.
Even so there was only scant mention of the Michigan auto industry, which benefited in 2008 and 2009 from a federal bailout that both President George W. Bush and Obama backed. All eight Republicans on the debate stage say they wouldn't have offered government assistance.
Obama stood outside a factory not far from the debate site recently and said government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler were a success that saved thousands of American jobs.
Obama is counting on the bailout to help him win Michigan, a state critical to his re-election hopes.
