Yesterday the current Republican candidates for president (minus Fred Thompson) squared off in a debate at Drake University in Iowa. On the whole there was really nothing new said by the candidates, the only reiterated positions that anyone who has thus far followed the campaign has already heard. Below is the text of an article posted on TownHall.com giving an overview of the candidates responses.

BROWNBACK
"We need to put a three-state solution in place, like was in Iraq prior to World War I, where you have a north that's Kurdish, which is right now; a west that's Sunni, which is right now; and a Shia south, with Baghdad as the federal city."
On abortion: "I think this is a core issue for our party. I think it's a big issue for our country. I'm pro-life and I'm whole life. I think that all life at all stages is sacred and it's beautiful. I think it's something we ought to fight for, it's what this party has stood for, it's what we should stand for."
___
GIULIANI
On a recent statement by Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois that he would consider sending troops into Pakistan to capture terrorists, even if that country's president did not agree: "Well, I would take that action if I thought there was no other way to crush al-Qaida, no other way to crush the Taliban, and no other way to be able to capture bin Laden. I think Pakistan has, unfortunately, not been making the efforts that they should be making. I think we should encourage them to do it, we should put the pressure on them to do it, and we should seek their permission if we ever had to take action there as we were able to get their permission ... to act in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 and 2002."
On the vice president's potential role in his administration: "I'm comfortable that you select somebody who can step in on a moment's notice with experience, background, knowing what's going on. We can't have a kind of situation like we had in, you know, the 1940s with Harry Truman, where Harry Truman, thank God, turned out to be the kind of president he was, but apparently he didn't even know about the Manhattan Project. You can't have that any longer."
___
HUCKABEE
"I don't think it's the job of the United States to export our form of government. It's the job of the United States to protect our citizens, to secure our own borders, which we have failed to do for over 20 years. It's the job of our government to make us free and us safe, and to create an enviable kind of government and system that everybody else will want, much in the same way I think we ended up seeing the fall of the Soviet Union."
On the tax system: "Today, our tax system doesn't need a tap of the hammer, a twist of the screwdriver, it needs a complete overhaul. And what the fair tax does, it ends the underground economy. ... No more illegals, no more gamblers, prostitutes, pimps and dope dealers will be able to escape the tax code."
___
HUNTER
"Barack Obama didn't understand, there are now 100,000 Pakistani troops who have been moved to the border. ... The last thing you do when you are trying to convince your allies all over the world to work with you is when you have one country which has taken 100,000 military personnel and moved them into that place. ... When you have a country which is cooperating, you don't tell them you are going to unilaterally move against them, or you are somehow going to undertake this by yourself."
On health care: "One thing you can't do right now, if you're an American who has a health insurance plan is you can't buy health insurance across state lines. Now, we've seen studies that have shown that the same coverage that costs 750 bucks a month in Massachusetts, you can buy in Missouri for 170 bucks a month."
___
MCCAIN
On Iraq: "We fail to appreciate that elections do not mean democracy, that it is rule of law. And rule of law, by the way, is beginning to take hold in Iraq, just as peaceful and more secure _ more secure, not totally secure _ neighborhoods in Baghdad and in Anbar and in other parts, in the Kurdish areas, is beginning to take place, which will then allow true democracy to take place."
"The vice president really only has two duties. One is to cast a tie-breaking vote in the case of a tied vote in the Senate. And the other is to inquire daily as to the health of the president. ... Look, I would be very careful that everybody understood that there's only one president."

PAUL
When asked how he would end the Iraq war, Paul said: "Just come home. We just marched in. We can just come back. We went in there illegally. We did not declare war. It's lasting way too long. We didn't declare war in Korea or Vietnam. The wars were never really ended. We lose those wars. We're losing this one. We shouldn't be there. We ought to just come home."

On what he would restore if sent to the White House: "I would restore openness to government. I do not think in this country we should have secrecy of government. The purpose of government is to provide privacy for the people. I would never use executive privilege to deny information to the Congress, with the full realization that you protect security information, but in the very general sense, we should be very, very open."
___
ROMNEY
On health care: "Let's rely on personal responsibility, help people buy their own private insurance, get our citizens insured, not with a government takeover, not with new taxes needed, but instead with a free-market based system that gets all of our citizens in the system. No more free rides."
"Recognize to win the war on jihad, we have to not only have a strong military of our own _ and we need a stronger military _ we also need to have strong friends around the world and help moderate Muslims reject the extreme. Because ultimately the only people who can finally defeat these radical Islamic jihadists are the Muslims themselves."
___
TANCREDO
"My task as president of the United States is primarily to do one thing _ by the way, not to make sure everybody has health care or everybody's child is educated _ my task is to do one thing: to protect and defend this country ... and that means to deter _ and I want to underline deter _ any kind of aggression, especially the type we are threatened with by al-Qaida, which is nuclear attack."
___
THOMPSON
"I believe that Vice President Cheney is criticized for a lot of things that he doesn't do. And I believe that Dick Cheney is an honorable individual. And I think the president of the United States depends a great deal upon him."
On mistakes in the past: "My mother-in-law died of breast cancer, my mother. My wife has breast cancer. My young daughter has breast cancer. I don't think I was supportive enough, and that's why I'm vowing right now to end breast cancer by the year 2015 for all the women in America."

So the things that I found most notable:
Ron Paul, despite beinging staunchly conservative on many other things, continues to propose a cut and run in Iraq, sounding a lot like all of the candidates on the Democrat side.

Brownback and Romney spared over who was more pro-life - Romney is sensetive to accusations that he is not pro-life, which tends to make him look guilty of Brownbacks claims.

ABSOLUTELY NONE of them were willing until pushed to say they were standing with the President opposed to the SCHIP legislation. They decided that they would rather talk about their own (mostly ridiculous) plans to "make sure everyone has healthcare". I was disappointed that not a single one of these candidates took the opportunity to explain right up front exactly what SCHIP would do. Eventually a few mentioned that it would include children of families making 60,000 plus a year, who already have private health insurance and make them wards of the state. That might have been Huckabee, I know it was not one of the top teir.

My Assessment: Winners - Huckabee, Guliani, Romney: All of them made strong points on some key issues (taxes, healthcare, Iraq)
Losers - Paul, Brownback, Thompson: Paul's position on the war is going to sink him sooner or later because it is a defeatist attitude. Brownback came across as catty and desperate going after Romney, Thompson did himself no favors in general
Same Place as Before: Tancredo, Hunter, McCain: These candidates did not seem to lose ground, but they did not say anything that I thought would really give them a boost in the polls. With the exception of Tancredo's acknowledgement of becoming a Christian which may well help him with the Evangelical base (however Huckabee will probably get a lot of that support - Southern Baptist Preacher kind of says it all).