Thompson is on stage, but Giuliani and Romney star

Fred Thompson emerged Tuesday from weeks of preparation for his first presidential debate, but largely watched from the sidelines as rivals Mitt Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani clashed over who can return the party to its fiscally conservative roots.

Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee best known as a TV and movie actor, did not officially enter the race until last month. On the stage of a theater in Dearborn, Mich., he sought to allay concerns that he lacked the drive and preparation to run for president.

Thompson appeared nervous in the debate’s opening moments. But he displayed flashes of humor as the two-hour forum on economic policy, sponsored by CNBC, MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal, drew to a close.

By and large, the nine men seeking the GOP nomination echoed one another in calling for restraint in taxes, spending and government regulation.

But Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, took on Giuliani over his fiscal record as New York mayor. That, in turn, led Giuliani to criticize Romney more harshly than before.

“I led, he lagged,” Giuliani said, insisting that he was more vigorous than Romney in cutting both taxes and spending.

The competition to establish their bona fides as champions of fiscal discipline comes as Republicans are struggling to regain the edge they once held on economic issues. Recent polls have found that Americans favor Democrats for dealing with the deficit, federal spending, taxes and the economy.

Michigan, hit hard by foreign trade and a beleaguered auto industry, is emblematic of an awkward reality for the GOP: Even though the economy is strong by many measures, including the booming stock market, many voters remain uneasy about the future, and large parts of the manufacturing sector are struggling.

All the Democratic candidates have made sure to address voters’ economic concerns. On Tuesday, the Republicans split over whether to view the state of the economy as a glass half full or half empty.

Brimming with optimism, Thompson said, “Not enough has been done to tell what some call the greatest story never told, and that is that we are enjoying a period of growth right now.”

But other candidates warned that a Pollyanna outlook risked seeming out of touch.

“A lot of people are going to be watching this debate. They’re going to hear Republicans on this stage talk about how great the economy is,” said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. “And frankly, when they hear that, they’re going to probably reach for the dial.”

The dispute between Romney and Giuliani over their credentials as fiscal disciplinarians reflects in part the pressure on them to restore the confidence of economic conservatives, who have been disillusioned by the growth in federal spending since President Bush took office.

Romney also faulted Giuliani for filing a lawsuit to overturn the line-item veto that Congress passed under President Clinton. Ultimately, the Supreme Court agreed with Giuliani, who on Tuesday called the measure unconstitutional and said it would have deprived New York of badly needed funds.

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have a Republican presidential candidate who actually has beat President Clinton at something,” Giuliani said.

Tensions between Romney and Giuliani escalated as Thompson was seeking to establish his position in the crowded and highly unsettled Republican contest.

For the most part, Thompson did not stray from party orthodoxy, hailing the virtues of small government and free trade. He also called attention to long-term problems with Social Security and Medicare, both of which face insolvency with the forthcoming retirement of the baby-boom generation.

He suggested that one option for preserving Social Security would be to slow the growth of benefits by pegging annual benefit increases to the inflation rate.

All in all, Thompson “gave solid answers, though he said nothing to stir the Republican soul,” said political scientist John J. Pitney Jr. of Claremont McKenna College. “He beat low expectations and fell short of high ones.”

On foreign policy, the candidates disagreed over whether a president would need the approval of Congress to take military action against nuclear facilities in Iran.

“You sit down with your attorneys, and [they] tell you what you have to do,” Romney said. “But obviously the president of the United States has to do what’s in the best interest of the United States to protect us against a potential threat.”

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the only Republican candidate who opposes the Iraq war, mocked Romney’s response, saying a president must get congressional approval.

“This idea of going and talking to attorneys totally baffles me,” Paul said. “Why don’t we just open up the Constitution and read it? You’re not allowed to go to war without a declaration of war.”

As in previous debates, the candidates trod gingerly around the current occupant of the Oval Office. Republican primary voters have viewed President Bush favorably, even as his poll ratings among all Americans have sunk to record lows. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for one, avoided mentioning Bush’s name as he castigated the administration.

“The American people no longer have trust or confidence in our government -- our failure [with] Katrina, our failures in Iraq, our failures to get spending under control -- and we’ve got to restore that trust and confidence,” McCain said.

Thompson voiced support for Bush’s Iraq policy, but added: “Clearly, to me, we didn’t go in with enough troops and we didn’t know what to expect when we got there.”

Still, Thompson said the initial U.S. invasion was justified because Saddam Hussein eventually would have built nuclear weapons, leading neighboring countries to do the same.

“You’d have an entirely nuclearized part of the world that we don’t have now,” Thompson said. “That would be extremely problematic for us from an oil standpoint, as well as a global stability standpoint.”

On the environment, Giuliani took a position on oil drilling off the California shoreline that could pose complications for him in a state where coastal energy exploration has long been unpopular.

One of the moderators, CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, asked whether he would “draw the line” at drilling off the California and Florida coasts.

“You don’t draw the line anywhere,” Giuliani said.

Toward the end of the debate, Thompson took a lighter tone as he discussed his late entrance into the race.

“I’ve enjoyed watching these fellas,” he said. “I’ve got to admit, it was getting a little boring without me, but I’m glad to be here now.”

Earlier, Romney compared the contest for the nomination to the television drama “Law & Order,” in which Thompson portrayed a district attorney: “It has a huge cast, the series seems to go on forever, and Fred Thompson shows up at the end.”

“And to think I thought I was going to be the best actor on the stage,” Thompson responded with a smile.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

janet.hook@latimes.com