Romney has been doing his best to make it a two man fight between him and Rudy, this being his best weapon against more worthy candidates such as Huckabee or Hunter. Talking about Hillary as if she was there at last night's debate, Romney made sure everyone knew she was a Democrat, evil and that she would surely lose. The others on stage jumped in line, Rudy making sure people knew he was more conservative then Hillary, dodging the fact that they seem to agree on a lot. The fear towards Hillary is astonishing, these candidates are ready to give up and concede the battle to the unstoppable Hillary.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani used humor to hit Clinton, exclaiming, "You gotta be kidding!" when asked if he differs with her on abortion and gay rights.
Yeah who are you kidding, she loves abortion, he only likes it as a good close friend.
"There are two things I agree with Hillary Clinton on. First of all, we're both Yankee fans," he said to laughter.
"Well, wait a second - I became a Yankee fan growing up in New York. She became a Yankee fan growing up in Chicago," he said of the former first lady, who moved to New York to run for the Senate in 2000.
Rudy, making sure people know he likes baseball more than Hillary.
Then Giuliani quoted her as saying, "I have a million ideas; America cannot afford them all."
"I'm not making it up," he said to more laughter. "No kidding, Hillary - America can't afford you."
No satirical comment needed here, he couldn't be more on target with this one.
Relaxed, smiling and conversational, Giuliani reinforced his image as a front-runner much as he does on the campaign trail, by disparaging the former first lady as much as he criticizes other Republicans.
"He's got that riff down well, and it was really funny and very effective," Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. "Don't underestimate the value of experience in these forums - he's obviously a bright man and has gotten very comfortable."
The New York senator makes an easy target among Republicans, despite, or perhaps because of, her lead in polls against GOP contenders. The audience of more than 3,300 party faithful cheered at every Clinton line in the debate, which was sponsored by Fox News Channel and the Florida Republican Party.
"Scoring points on Hillary in this group - hell, that's like a 5-foot basket. You're just dropping the ball in," said David Johnson, a Tallahassee political strategist and former head of the Florida GOP.
Mitt Romney, dominant in polling in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, challenged Clinton's experience.
"She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city. She has never run anything," the former Massachusetts governor said.
The biggest applause line of the night, delivered by Arizona Sen. John McCain, also came at Clinton's expense. McCain, a foe of congressional spending, mentioned Clinton's effort to spend $1 million on a Woodstock Museum to commemorate perhaps the most famous counterculture event of the 1960s.
"Now, my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event," McCain said.
"I was tied up at the time," he deadpanned, and the audience rose, applauding the reference to McCain's years as a Vietnam prisoner of war.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist known for his folksy one-liners, said: "Look, I like to be funny. There's nothing funny about Hillary Clinton being president."
When they weren't focused on Clinton, the candidates were emphasizing their conservative credentials, putting Giuliani and Romney on the spot.
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said: "Mayor Giuliani believes in federal funding for abortion. He believes in sanctuary cities. He's for gun control. He supported Mario Cuomo, a liberal Democrat, against a Republican who was running for governor, then opposed the governor's tax cuts when he was there."
Thompson also mentioned Romney's 1994 campaign against Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, when Romney cast himself as a defender of a woman's right to abortion, an issue on which Romney says he has changed his mind.
"Actually, Mitt, I didn't know there was any room to the left of Ted Kennedy," Thompson quipped.
Thompson appeared confident and easygoing, and quick to defend himself when Giuliani questioned his own conservative credentials. Giuliani called Thompson the "single biggest obstacle" in the Senate to curbing frivolous lawsuits.
Thompson responded by saying it's a matter of federalism, the concept of power divided between national and state government. "Local issues belong at the state level. Most states have passed tort reform," he said.
Thompson even managed a graceful response to a question about whether, as some critics have suggested, he is lazy. He described his trajectory from teenage father to factory worker to federal prosecutor and Watergate counsel and finally to the Senate, and he mentioned his help since then shepherding Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' nomination through Congress.
"If a man can do all that and be lazy, I recommend it to everybody," he said to laughter and applause, adding that he is a father of five children, two of them under age 4. -myway news.
Why not just concede the Republican nomination now, we'll just have all of our candidates go against Hillary. While I understand the fact that Hillary is most likely to get the node for the nomination, I would like to see those on stage, namely Romney and Giuliani, show respect to the other candidate by not using Hillary as their "get out of a question free card." Attack Hillary by all means, but it's obvious they aren't nearly as afraid of Obama but we're still working on the nominees; let's work on that first.