Snow does not chill Iowans’ enthusiasm for Republican Family Leader forum

DES MOINES — Iowa's first major fall snow storm could not cool the political fire of some of the Republican Party's most-fervent followers.

If Friday night was a test run for the meteorological challenges that could beset participants in the first-in-the-nation Iowa precinct caucuses next Feb. 1, then the roughly 1,100 Iowans who showed up for the Family Leader's presidential family forum passed with flying colors, said organizers who had sold 1,800 tickets for the event.

'I think it's something that the candidates need to be aware of because if something like this happens on Feb. 1, now it's really an organization game,' said Family Leader CEO Bob Vander Plaats. 'Who is going to crawl over broken glass? Who is going to drive on icy roads and plow their way to a caucus site?'

Seven Republican presidential candidates — retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson of Michigan, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former business executive Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum — participated in a Thanksgiving table discussion of 2016 political issues and their personal beliefs during an event spanning more than three hours.

Vander Plaats said it's still too early in the caucus process to start counting anybody out right now but he noted that Huckabee won in 2008 and Santorum won in 2012 with the late-breaking help of evangelical, pro-life and family value Christian conservatives. He expected that would happen again and he expressed confidence next year's caucus winner and 2016 GOP nominee was among Friday night's participants.

'I really believe that person who is going to win will be at that table tonight,' he said.

In response to a question from forum moderator Frank Lutz, Fiorina said it was inappropriate when Democrat Hillary Clinton indicated in a debate that Republicans are enemies.

'We need to have a civil discussion about our differences,' she said. 'There is a real difference between Republicans and Democrats and those differences matter.'

Carson said America has become a less mature society. He said he sometimes looks at critics and thinks 'that used to be a cute little baby, I wonder what happened.'

Asked what is the greatest moral issue facing the nation, Huckabee said the 'loss of God consciousness;' Santorum said the breakdown of marriage and the family; Paul said losing track of where rights come from; Rubio said the erosion of values, which relates to the erosion of the family; Carson said the willingness to adopt political correctness; Fiorina said 'a loss of clarity;' and Cruz said an assault on Judeo-Christian values by Washington, the media and Hollywood.

On the issue of religious freedom, Rubio said the role of government is to protect individual rights, not to decide what the rights are.

Cruz, pressed by Lutz on a statement that he loved everybody, said 'Do I love the human being? Yes. I don't love the evil they commit.'

On the issue of terrorism, Santorum said the United States is caught up in 'a holy war' and he and Paul emphasized there has to be a recognition that the threat is from radical Islamic Jihadists. Paul said there has to be a screening process for anyone who wants to visit America, insisting that 'we have to make sure we know who people are before they come here.'

The Republicans were critical of Obama's handling of the threat from ISIS, with Carson calling him 'an armchair quarterback who is interfering significantly' with efforts to defeat terrorism rather than fighting them swiftly 'with everything we've got' militarily. Cruz accused Obama as 'serving as an apologist for radical Islamic terrorism' and others joined his call for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to resign. Rubio said Obama is 'a bad president' who has failed to define what victory is and what the defined objective is in the Middle East.

The GOP candidates said they were upset that, according to them, Obama spent more time lashing out at Republicans who oppose allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. than he did talking about ISIS.

Cruz said America is a leader in providing aid and assistance to people displaced due to war, political unrest and other disruptions. He said the Syrian refugee situation is a humanitarian crisis that should be addressed by settling them in the Mideast in predominantly Muslim countries.

The evening's proceedings were interrupted for a brief time by protesters who held up a read banner saying 'Deportation, a family value?' Protesters chanted 'Deportation, anti-family' before police officers were summoned to remove the demonstrators. Forum participants chanted 'USA' in a response to the disruption.

After the sixth disruption, Lutz said 'I feel like this is being conducted in Berkeley, Calif.,' while Huckabee noted that liberals are want to interrupt GOP events 'and yell at us,' while conservatives do not reciprocate at Democratic gatherings.

Vander Plaats said Friday night's event was intended to provide clarity to Family Leader Foundation members. He said the discussion will help him decide which 2016 candidate he will endorse and, if board members are in agreement with that choice, they will issue an organization-wide endorsement.

'We're really looking for not only what a candidate believes and what the vision is, but why do they believe that,' he said. 'What makes up them and how is their leadership DNA threaded into them. So we're trying to find out who the person is more than anything else right now.'

Vander Plaats told those assembled to go back to their families and networks and 'pray for insight, wisdom and discernment' as well as to 'think bigger' than just the 2016 election in terms of moving the nation on the path to revival.

James Lynch of The Gazette and Erin Murphy of Lee Newspapers contributed to this story

l Comments: (515) 243-7220; rod.boshart@thegazette.com