GOP Debate: Rough Night in South Carolina

Torture was mentioned in a scenario involving three U.S. shopping centers near major U.S. cities attacked by suicide bombers, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. The candidates were asked "how aggressively" they would interrogate someone at Guantanamo Bay to get information about a pending fourth attack.

McCain said he would in that "million-to-one scenario" allow torture, as authorized by him, but in general torture was the wrong policy. Giuliani said he "would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they could think of. It shouldn't be torture, but every method they can think of."

But for the most part, the GOPers on the stage seemed to agree with Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, who said "the standard must be protection of U.S. lives." Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said his conversation with the Secretary of Defense would consist of one sentence: "Get the information." Tancredo, in a nod to the Fox network and its popular 'ticking-time-bomb" TV show "24," said, "I'm looking for 'Jack Bauer' at that time, let me tell you."

On immigration reform, Hunter scored some well-needed attention by taking credit for having "built the border fence in San Diego. When I built that fence, we had massive illegal immigration across the border. We built the border fence; we reduced illegal immigration and smuggling of narcotics by more than 90 percent. And the crime rate in the city of San Diego fell by 50 percent." Hunter suggested that the border fence being constructed across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas is an 854-mile extension of the "San Diego fence." Though, he noted with some disdain, only two miles of the San Diego fence has been constructed.

"This administration has a case of the 'Slows' on border enforcement," Hunter noted to applause.

As happened in the last debate, the president was not only not praised by his would-be successors and fellow Republicans, he was only mentioned by name by the candidates once – and in this instance it was by Paul, observing that "George Bush won the election in the year 2000 campaigning on a humble foreign policy --