Mitt Romney and 9-9-9 Shared the Spotlight in the GOP Economy Debate

COMMENTARY | In the Oct. 11 Republican debate on the economy, Mitt Romney further solidified his position as the leader in the race to the GOP nomination. His head honcho status led to Romney sending out several great sound bites. The other potential nominees attempted to lock antlers with Romney, but many of their quips fell flat against his sound arguments.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Plan and Bachmann's 6-6-6 Quip

I realize Herman Cain has a lot of business experience and that marketing techniques are a hard thing to shake. However, repeating 9-9-9 approximately 999 times was a bit unnecessary. The fact that the other candidates egged this situation on by repeatedly dropping the term and allowing Cain a rebuttal was downright annoying. I get the fun factor, but at some point you have to admit the horse is dead and stop beating it. Michele Bachmann's quip, "And one thing I would say is, when you take the 999 plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil is in the details," was really the proverbial straw.

Taking on China

It was refreshing to hear several different candidates frankly discuss that one of the reasons for U.S. economic stagnation is the transfer of U.S. industry to China and China's currency manipulation practices. Mitt Romney summed it up nicely with this: "I mean, this is a time when we are being hollowed out by China that is artificially holding down their prices, as you just said a moment ago, and that's having a massive impact on jobs here."

Rick Perry is Not a Debater

Conversely, Rick Perry wanted to ignore the obvious and tout job creation through in-country energy production without policies and with or without regulations.

"What we need to be focused on in this country today is not whether or not we are going to have this policy or that policy … We need to get a president of the United States that is committed to passing the types of regulations, pulling the regulations back, freeing this country to go develop the energy industry that we have in this country."

The passing and pulling of regulations sounds a bit too much like the same tug-of-war we have watched played out on Capitol Hill over the past few years. Perry loses focus quite easily in a debate and falls into Bush-esque half-speak that does him a real disservice. Are there any openings at Palin's debating boot camp?

As the Republican GOP race tightens, it is important for candidates to stay on-message and clear. Romney did that at the economy debate. Everyone else fell a bit short, though "9-9-9" may emerge as a standalone candidate based on name recognition alone.