Electable Pawlenty Eclipsed by Libertarian Candidates in First GOP Presidential Debate

COMMENTARY | Five potential GOP presidential candidates met for a debate in South Carolina, despite big names like Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich being absent, as reported by Reuters. At this early stage in the game, it's difficult to predict which issues will dominate the primary season and how candidates will differentiate themselves. Despite the early timeframe and the lack of big-name candidates, a few things stood out in the first GOP debate.

Foreign Policy

Much of the debate was dominated by discussion of America's foreign policy. The focus on foreign affairs was certainly a result of the recent death of Osama Bin Laden, but the candidates had little issue criticizing President Obama on the topic. For example, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty criticized Obama's handling of Libya and Sen. Rick Santorum argued that Obama has done nothing but follow President Bush's policies.

Eventually, the candidates will have to take a position on economic issues, especially with unemployment still near 9 percent, the deficit continuing to grow, and gas prices over $4 per gallon.

Libertarian Issues

It remains to be seen how the Tea Party movement will influence the presidential election cycle. Based on the crowd reaction, the small-government, libertarian-leaning ideals of the Tea Party will be quite popular. Texas Rep. Ron Paul and New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, two libertarian hopefuls, earned the most applause by bringing up issues including ending the Federal Reserve and legalizing some street drugs.

By pushing these and other libertarian viewpoints, GOP candidates will do their best to earn support from voters who identify with the Tea Party, a group that has been an energetic and active political ally.

Tim Pawlenty

According to numbers accumulated by Real Clear Politics, many consider Pawlenty to be the most electable candidate of the five who participated in the debate. However, he failed to capitalize and seemed to be more focused on avoiding mistakes. For example, Pawlenty had an opportunity to criticize the health care plan that Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts, an issue that will prove to be Romney's biggest weakness. Instead of taking a swing at Romney, Pawlenty backed off, indicating that Romney was not there to defend himself.

If Pawlenty has any chance of taking out the bigger names in the primary, he'll have to do a better job of making a name for himself. The strategy of taking no risks to avoid making mistakes will not catapult him past the likes of Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, or the other more well-known GOP hopefuls.