Contenders at debate scrap for S.C. voter base

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- In their last televised debate before the nation's first Southern primary, the Republican presidential candidates stressed different approaches their party should take if it expects to keep the White House.

John McCain, seeking to maintain momentum from his New Hampshire win this week, said Republicans need to stop "out-of-control spending" and added: "I'm called the sheriff by my friends in the Senate who are the appropriators."

Mike Huckabee, winner of the Iowa caucuses, urged the GOP to be as interested in "single moms who are working two jobs, and still just barely paying the rent, as … the people at the top of the economy."

Mitt Romney, who won the Wyoming caucuses, said an injection of private-business experience would head off a possible recession. "I know how to bring change, and I will change Washington," he said.

Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani, who are looking for their first victories in the nominating contests, also promoted tax cuts at the debate Thursday night sponsored by Fox News Channel and the South Carolina Republican Party.

Ron Paul, who also participated, again criticized the GOP over too much spending and the Iraq war: "We actually have lost our way."

In the past, the South Carolina GOP primary has been something of a good-luck charm for the winner: Since 1980, each has gone on to win the party's presidential nomination. George W. Bush won a crucial and bitterly fought primary in 2000 over McCain. The results in this primary, set for Jan. 19, could prove different. Before the debate, two new polls showed McCain leading Huckabee in South Carolina. Romney was in third.

McCain, Romney and Huckabee are also skirmishing in Michigan, which holds its primary Tuesday.

Some of the South Carolina debate's sharpest exchanges came between the two Southerners, Thompson and Huckabee.

Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, said the former Arkansas governor backs "liberal" spending and foreign policies. Huckabee responded in part by invoking an Air Force saying: "If you're not catching flak, you're not over the target. … I must be over the target."