[left]But the debate did have one moment that may loom large when the voters cast ballots a year from now. It was a question to Carly Fiorina from Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo. Here's the critical part:
..in seven years under President Obama, the U.S. has added an average of 107,000 jobs a month. Under President Clinton, the economy added about 240,000 jobs a month. Under George W. Bush, it was only 13,000 a month. If you win the nomination, you'll probably be facing a Democrat named Clinton. How are you going to respond to the claim that Democratic presidents are better at creating jobs than Republicans?
The question was arguably harsher than anything from the infamous CNBC debate that Republicans and their supporters found so offensive. And that’s because it called into question not just a single Republican argument, but a basic premise of the party's case for taking over the White House.
After sharing an anecdote about a voter she had met, Fiorina responded with a generic pitch for smaller government, lower taxes and fewer regulations -- a strategy, she promised, that would boost growth, create jobs and raise wages. It was the same argument that other Republicans made, in different forms, throughout the evening. And it was consistent with their economic policy proposals, which consist primarily of massive tax cuts that would mainly benefit the wealthiest Americans.
But neither Fiorina nor her counterparts could explain away the premise of Bartiromo's question. After all, George W. Bush reduced taxes on the wealthy, while Clinton and Obama raised them. Bush did his best to roll back Clinton-era regulations; Obama introduced the Affordable Care Act and moved aggressively to reduce carbon emissions. In short, Bush tried the preferred Republican strategy while Clinton and Obama tried the opposite -- yet job growth under Bush was the worst and the numbers aren't even close.[/left]
