California Republican debate transcript

Gilmore: You know, I think -- well, I think we do have to do everything that we can do to get this guy, and the reason is because he is a symbol to the people who believe, as a matter of faith, that they have a right and a duty to destroy Americans and Western civilization.

The bigger, however, issue, is this: The Americans have to lead against the sea of hostility that was referred to earlier.

This is a serious challenge.

We can't allow a situation where everyone, all the way from Morocco, all the way through the Middle East, all the way to the Philippines, believes that the United States does not have their best interests at heart.

During the Cold War -- and I served as...

Moderator: If I would, is President Bush partly responsible for that, in your view?

Gilmore: This is what I think we have to do: What I think we have to do is to use all of our abilities, diplomatic and economic and military, above all things, put ourselves on the moral high ground, and let people across the world know that we are in the same shoes that we were in during the Cold War.

During the Cold War, we represented the aspirations of people everywhere in the world in good faith. And that now must be our policy, so that we in fact do deny those kinds of people and resources to the people who we can't deal with diplomatically. And that, of course, is the Al Qaida type of fundamentalists.

Moderator: Governor Romney, respond to the mentioned reference to you...

Romney: Well, of course, we get...

(Laughter)

Moderator: ... by Senator McCain.

(Laughter)

Romney: Thank you. Of course we get Osama bin Laden and track him wherever he has to go, and make sure he pays for the outrage he exacted upon America.

Moderator: Can we move heaven and earth to do it?

Romney: We'll move everything to get him. But I don't want to buy into the Democratic pitch that this is all about one person -- Osama bin Laden -- because after we get him, there's going to be another and another.

This is about Shia and Sunni. This is about Hezbollah and Hamas and Al Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a worldwide jihadist effort to try and cause the collapse of all moderate Islamic governments and replace them with a caliphate.

They ultimately want to bring down the United States of America.

This is a global effort we're going to have to lead to overcome this jihadist effort. It's more than Osama bin Laden.

But he is going to pay, and he will die.

Moderator: OK. Thank you, Governor.

We now go to our interactive round of questions that were submitted and voted on by the users of Political.com.

Jim VandeHei will read these questions to the candidates now, who will have 30 seconds to respond. And if a rebuttal is necessary, that will also be 30 seconds.

Thanks, Chris.

Senator McCain, Sara from Arlington, Virginia, wants to know if you would be comfortable with Tom Tancredo, a stanch opponent of illegal immigration, as head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

(Laughter)

McCain: In a word, no.

(Laughter)

On the subject of Osama bin Laden, he's responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans. He's now orchestrating other attacks on the United States of America. We will do whatever is necessary. We will track him down. We will capture him. We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell.

Moderator: OK. Let me ask you a question regarding immigration. One of our prized guests here today, Governor Schwarzenegger -- looking this man in the eye, answer this question -- I'm going to go down the line, starting with Governor Romney.

Should we change our Constitution, which we believe is divinely inspired...

(Laughter)

... to allow men like Mel Martinez, the chairman of your party, born in Cuba, great patriot, the senator from Florida, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to stand here some night?

Governor Romney?

Romney: Never given that a lot of thought, but with Arnold sitting there, I'll give it some thought, but probably not.

Moderator: No?

Romney: No.

Moderator: Yes or no?

(Unknown): I love the Governator, but...

Moderator: We got two noes.

(Unknown): I think there are other ideas that we should...

Moderator: Governor Gilmore. Two noes. We're moving here.

Gilmore: No, I don't intend to want to amend this Constitution in a variety of different ways, and this would be not a good start to do it that way.

Moderator: So that's a no. Three noes in a row.

Huckabee: After I've served eight years as president, I'd be happy to change the Constitution for Governor Schwarzenegger.

(Laughter)

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