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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Friday, August 07, 2015

Second-Tier GOP Contenders Take Aim at Immigration, ISIS, Clintons

Wall Street Journal
By Reid Epstein and Rebecca Ballhaus
August 6, 2015

Republican presidential contenders who weren’t invited to a prime-time debate took muscular positions against illegal immigration, Islamic State, the Iran nuclear deal, abortion and the Clintons in the first debate of the 2016 White House race.

Former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Carly Fiorina, who delivered polished answers, likely did the most good for her long-shot campaign. In a season when GOP activists want a brawler, she took swipes at Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, and her Republican rivals as she laid out the general election fight.

“I am a conservative because I believe no one of us is any better than any other one of us,” she said. “Progressives don’t believe that. They believe some are smarter than others, some are better than others, so some are going to need to take care of others.”

For the seven Republican candidates participating in the early evening forum on Fox News—and the 10 others in a later prime-time showdown—Thursday marked the first opportunity for many of them to introduce themselves to a national audience.

It also signaled a turning point in the nascent primary race, moving policy discussions to the forefront before some campaigns have even had a chance to roll out their platforms.

The bifurcated structure of the first debate of the 2016 primary race also put greatest pressure on the seven relegated to the not-for-prime-time event to show donors, activists and voters that their candidacies are worthy of support. Fox News limited participation in the prime-time session to the top 10 candidates in national polls.

The back-of-the-pack candidates had a powerful incentive to make a splash or break out in some other way in order to move up in the ranks and qualify for one of the eight other official debates. The prime-time participants, including Donald Trump, needed to make a good enough impression to remain in the top tier.

Mrs. Fiorina delivered the sharpest blow against Mr. Trump, the GOP leader in national polls. Taking note that he had consulted with former President Bill Clinton before launching his campaign, she asked her rivals: “Did any of you get a call from Bill Clinton? I didn’t.”

She went on to accuse Mr. Trump of multiple flip-flopping on issues key to GOP voters. “Since he has changed his mind on amnesty, on health care and on abortion, I would just ask what are the principles by which he would govern?” Mrs. Fiorina said.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was the last candidate bumped from Thursday’s prime-time stage, called the New York developer a “celebrity” with a history of backing liberal policies. “How can you run for the Republican nomination and be for single-payer health care? I ask that with all due respect,” Mr. Perry said.

The Fox News moderators, Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum, pressed each of the candidates on why they are campaigning given their low status in polls. Asked directly “has your moment passed,” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum argued that at this point in the 2012 campaign he was even farther behind the leaders. He eventually placed second to nominee Mitt Romney.

“You know, we didn’t start out four years ago at the top of the heap. We were behind where we were today,” Mr. Santorum said.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, for his part, attacked former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of the prime-time debaters, for taking a more centrist path to the nomination.

“Jeb Bush says we’ve got to be willing to lose the primary in order to win the general,” Mr. Jindal said. “Let me translate that for you: That’s the establishment telling us to hide our conservative principles to get the left and the media to like us. That never works.”

On national security, the candidates vied for the most hawkish position.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he would send American ground forces back to Iraq to fight Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

“If you’re running for president of the United States and you don’t understand that we need more American ground forces in Iraq and that America has to be part of a regional ground force that will go into Syria and destroy ISIL in Syria, then you’re not ready to be commander in chief and you’re not serious about destroying ISIL,” Mr. Graham said.

All of the candidates said they opposed President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Mrs. Fiorina said she would tell Iran’s supreme leader that “until you open every nuclear and every military facility to full, open, anytime, anywhere, for real, inspections, we are going to make it as difficult as possible for you to move money around the global financial system.”

Messrs. Perry, Jindal, Graham, Santorum and Mrs. Fiorina were joined by former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.

With so many former politicians in the race, the moderators asked if some should step aside for a new generation. The candidates dodged the query, but some of their language dated them.


Mr. Pataki spoke of defeating Mario Cuomo, which was in 1994. Mr. Santorum noted that he “came to Washington, D.C., in 1990.” And Mr. Perry said he would use Wite-Out correction fluid to eliminate President Obama’s executive orders.

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