GOP Hopefuls Attend NH Forum

The Hill reports:

Five rumored Republican presidential hopefuls made an early case for their eventual candidacies before a crowd of conservative activists Friday in New Hampshire. Each one slammed President Obama's economic policies and pledged to repeal of the healthcare law.

On hand for the first 2012 candidate "cattle call" to take place in the first-in-the-nation primary state were former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) and conservative talk-show host Herman Cain.

The potential candidates didn't engage one another Friday, with each taking turns at the dais for eight-minute speeches, followed by brief Q&As with Tim Phillips, the president of the conservative host group Americans for Prosperity.

For Pawlenty and Bachmann, it was the first time the two Minnesotans appeared at the same event in an early presidential state. For Romney, it marked his first major appearance since officially forming a presidential exploratory committee earlier this month.

Pawlenty led off the event, touting his fiscal credentials and highlighting his record as Minnesota governor. Pressed by Phillips on his one-time support for a cap-and-trade plan to control greenhouse gas emissions in his home state, Pawlenty said, "Everybody's got a couple of clunkers in their record."

"I said it was a mistake," Pawlenty said of his previous position on cap-and-trade. "It was stupid and I'm sorry."

Santorum, who called for an energy policy that prioritizes offshore drilling, made a similar mea culpa on the issue of earmarks.

Reminded by AFP's Phillips that during his time in the Senate he was a frequent earmarker, Santorum said his position has shifted and that the process has gotten "out of control."

"We owe the American people cold turkey on this," Santorum said of swearing off earmarks.

Bachmann, who has been a thorn in the side of her party's leadership in Congress in recent months, told the crowd there is no reason for a GOP-led House to permit funding for "ObamaCare," labeling the healthcare law Obama's "Frankenstein."

"Right now, what we should be doing is fully defunding it. If we can't repeal it, we shouldn't give one dime to put this Frankenstein into place," said Bachmann, who pledged she wouldn't rest until the law was repealed.