Towards the end of the Republican debate tonight, we got a nice preview of how the Republicans will go after Barack Obama if he's the nominee. Mitt Romney attacked Obama as a hopeless liberal, because -- among other things -- he would spend billions of dollars on a new health care program. (For why that's a good idea, see my item below.)
The rest -- save one -- went after Obama as dangerously inexperienced, particularly on issues of foreign policy. I thought it interesting that when Giuliani made his version of the argument, he read off a list of candidates who did have the requisite experience. And in addition to naming Republicans like McCain, he mentioned Hillary Clinton. (He may have mentioned John Edwards, too; my eight year old was talking at the moment so I missed the whole thing.)
The one other view came, naturally, from Mike Huckabee, who noted that people wanted change and that Obama represented change. Like everybody's answer, it was self-serving. But that doesn't make it wrong. (Or right.)
Jonathan Cohn