Thompson rebuffs 'hand shows' on climate change during GOP debate 
Former Tennessee Gov. Fred Thompson has an opinion on whether global climate changed is caused by humans -- but he's not going to participate in a show of hands about it.
When the candidates in Wednesday's GOP debate -- the final time the contenders will square off before January's Iowa caucus -- were asked for a show of hands as to how many believed that climate change was a serious threat caused by human activity, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson refused. "I'm not doing hand shows today," he said. Other candidates concurred, and an official "hand show" never materialized.
The debate's first segment focused on the US national debt, which Des Moines Register editor Carolyn Washburn, who moderated the event, called the "single biggest issue Iowans of both parties" wanted to be discussed.
Asked if the country's financial situation created a national security risk, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said he "wouldn't call it national security. I'd call it economic security...I think Islamic terrorism is the national security."
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), however, said American spending was "absolutely a threat to our national security. Because we've spent too much, we taxed too much, we've borrowed too much and we print too much." He went on to say that the US couldn't afford its current foreign policy.
Huckabee agreed a security threat was posed. "A country can only be free if it can do three things: First, it has to be able to to feed itself...its gotta be able to fuel itself, if it looks to somebody else for its energy needs, it's only as free as those are willing for it to be. And it also has to be able to fight for itself...if we can't do those three things, our national security is very much at risk."
Asked what sacrifices should be made to reduce US debt, Paul said it was "unnecessary" to sacrifice, suggesting that a change in foreign policy could help to fix the problem. "We maintain an empire which we can't afford...we cut there," he said.
Alan Keyes, a newcomer to this year's Republican field but a perennial contender in past races, said "we need to start sacrificing some of these incumbents who have funded their political ambitions using our money."
Later, after Thompson derailed the planned 'show of hands' question about the environment, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he believed climate change was real. "I've been involved in this issue since the year 2000. I have had hearings. I've traveled the world," he said. "It's real, we've got to address it...and I'm confident that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren a cleaner, better world." Giuliani also said he believed that climate change was occurring.
When the candidates were asked what that would realistically accomplish in their first year in their potential first year as president, Giuliani said he would ensure that the country was "on the road to winning the war against Islamic terrorists" and would work to reduce the size of the federal government.
Huckabee said the first order of business should be bringing the country together. "I think the first priority of the next president is to be a president of all the United States. We are right now a polarized country, and that polarized country has led to a paralyzed government."
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) continued to hammer home his campaign's focus on immigration, saying he would stress border security and target employers who hire undocumented workers.
Giuliani was later asked how, in the wake of news reports that his security expenses as New York mayor had been obscured to the public, he would make sure that a "Giuliani White house is open with information that might be inconvenient to explain to the public."
"The reality is that all that information was available and known to people," he said. "I would make sure that government was transparent...I would be extremely open, I'm used to it, I'm used to being analyzed. I haven't had a perfect life. I wish I had."
Asked if there were things he could have done to be more "open" as mayor, Giuliani said that his security expenses listed as part of bookkeeping practice that was actually "more available to Freedom of Information Act requests. Had it been done just in the police department, nobody would have ever found it."
Gov. Romney was asked whether he believed it was more important that next the next president a fiscal conservative or a social conservative.
"I think it's incredibly important that he be a conservative," he said. "And I'm going to build on the same foundation Ronald Reagan built. We're not going to get the White House, nor strengthen America, unless we can pull together the coalitions of conservatives and conservative thought that made us successful as a party."
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist pastor, has rocketed from obscurity in a matter of weeks to top the polls in Iowa, and is now making inroads in national polls as well.
His ascendancy in the polls is the latest twist in the Republican race, as polls show party voters still lukewarm on the field, less than a month before Iowa opens a flurry of contests that could produce nominees by early February.
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