Republicans debate in South Carolina

Republican presidential rivals backed tax and spending cuts Thursday night to head off an election-year recession they generally agreed is avoidable.

"We should reduce taxes on middle-income Americans immediately," former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in a debate in the run-up to presidential primaries in Michigan and South Carolina, two states where unemployment exceeds the national average.

"The first thing is not to raise taxes," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. "Cut the marginal tax rate, if anything, and eventually go to a fair tax," he added, referring to his plan for a national sales tax to replace the income tax.

Arizona Sen. John McCain stressed spending cuts to get the budget deficit under control, although he also said it was important not to let Bush administration-era tax cuts expire. He pledged to "wield the veto pen" and block all pork barrel spending bills that Congress sends him.

While the debate was held in South Carolina, the Michigan primary is next on the campaign calendar, a contest in which Romney, Huckabee and McCain are the principal antagonists. It's unlikely all of them can survive a defeat there, particularly a third-place finish.

South Carolina's primary is Jan. 19 and has drawn a different group of competitors. Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee has made it clear he needs a victory or something close to it while McCain and Huckabee also are counting on strong showings. Romney abruptly canceled TV advertising in the state this week and is concentrating on Michigan.

Thompson underscored the urgency of a strong South Carolina showing when he launched an attack on Huckabee, standing a few feet away on the debate stage.

Huckabee seemed unruffled. "The Air Force has a saying that if you're not catching flak, you're not over the target. I'm catching the flak. I must be over the target," he said.

Sen. John Kerry embraced the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday, praising him as the only Democrat in the race who could inspire a movement to dislodge Washington partisanship and burnish a new image around the world. "Who better than Barack Obama to bring new credibility to America's role in the world and help restore our moral authority?" Kerry said in Charleston.

Also Thursday, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico dropped out of the race.

Millionaire New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's dalliance with the idea of running for president has stretched on and on, with his enthusiastic approval despite the public denials. But even before entering the contest, Bloomberg may have already risked losing something: people's patience. A recent poll by Quinnipiac University found that 61 percent of New Yorkers thought Bloomberg had a "moral obligation" to serve out his full term.