KEY POINTS:
Well, it's been a busy last few hours.
The Republican debate was punctuated with tense, snipey exchanges between John McCain and Mitt Romney, the only two candidates from that party who still stand a chance of becoming President after November's final election.
Security was very tight around the venue for the debate and we had two dogs sniff our bags after we had passed through various checkpoints along the way before we could get inside the media centre. President Bush was in California for the day, so that may well have made things even stricter.
One of the interesting parts of the debate, from a New Zealand point of view, was an exchange about the environment and what the US should do to help combat global warming. It was ignored here, but I'll give you a bit of a rundown of what happened.
McCain favours the US adopting a cap and trade emissions trading system, which is what our government is starting up this year. Romney elected to use the fact that petrol prices will probably rise for consumers and businesses as a result of this trading system as a weapon against McCain. There was a touch of irony watching Romney make that case, it felt like the argument New Zealand went through years ago.
Even when Romney did talk about reducing the US's dependence on oil, it was all about why that would good for the US's position in the world, not how it should be done to help global warming. When the outsider in the Republican race, Ron Paul, tried to address the question he couldn't even say 'greenhouse gases' - it came out as 'gas house'. A slight faux pas.
McCain and Romney are fighting to say they are the best to lead the country. McCain refers to his leadership in the armed forces, Romney refers to his leadership in successful businesses. But neither want to sign a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unless China and India are involved too. I can see why they feel that way. Is that leadership? I'm sure there are a host of views on that question.
Romney's attacks on McCain's emissions trading plan backfired somewhat today when Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican California governor who has embraced environmental issues, opted to endorse McCain at a green-oriented facility in Los Angeles. With Super Tuesday looming, and California an important state to win because it has so many delegates, Schwarzenegger's nod just adds to McCain's momentum.
