Two high-profile Republicans argued Wednesday that Mitt Romney's background in business might not directly apply to his work as a potential president.

The Republican presidential nominee often touts his time in the private sector as one of his top qualifications to be president. But conservative columnist Bill Kristol and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (a primary foe of Romney's) said that might not be enough to sustain Romney in the White House.

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Speaking at a Brookings Institution panel discussion, both men expressed doubt that treating government like a business – an idea on which Romney and other candidates have campaigned – might not be as effective as Romney thinks.

“I think his attitude will be efficiency – I’m going to come in and look at government like a business, which isn’t always the right answer because government isn’t a business,” Huntsman said.

Kristol added that Romney’s presidential resume is “thin,” given that he only governed for one term as Massachusetts and that his business experience “isn’t comparable.”

He also said that, as campaigns focus more on rhetoric than substance, they’ve grown.

The Weekly Standard editor said there is a wider chasm between politicking and policy compared to previous presidential election cycles.

“If you have a conversation with Stuart Stevens, who’s running the Romney campaign, and then have a conversation with Mike Leavitt who’s running the Romney transition, it’s just two different worlds. Obama’s a little more complicated and I don’t have that many private conversations with his top people, but I honestly think it would not be that dissimilar,” Kristol said.

Regardless of who wins next month, Kristol said either Obama or Romney will have a short but important window to act on their legislative priorities -- including tax reform -- given the need for Congress to come together over a deal to head off the looming “fiscal cliff,” a combination of spending cuts and tax increases scheduled for the end of the year.

“I think 2013 becomes a big entitlement reform, tax reform, budget reform moment,” Kristol said, suggesting whoever wins would quickly apply his post-election political capital (of which Kristol insisted there would be some, regardless of how close the vote is) to work on a “huge legislative agenda.”

John Makely / msnbc.com

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman makes a campaign stop in Concord New Hampshire on Monday, January 9, 2012, in Concord N.H.

NASHUA, N.H. – Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is hoping he experiences the Santorum effect here in New Hampshire. 

Huntsman has done the Granite State the "traditional" way, concentrating his campaign on winning Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary, and seeking votes one handshake and kissed baby at a time.

His efforts might finally be paying off. After failing for months to gain much momentum, there are signs voters are moving towards Huntsman, a shift driven by his strong weekend debate performances, a looming primary deadline and undecided voters who are breaking his way late.

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“I’ve done my due diligence on the GOP candidates, and his policies really resonate with me,” said Barbara Morris of Concord, N.H., who said she only settled on voting for Huntsman in the past few weeks.

Morris is just one of the voters in Tuesday’s primary who decided recently for Huntsman. His performance Sunday at the NBC News-Facebook debate on Meet the Press, during which Huntsman forcefully answered criticism of his service as President Obama’s ambassador to China, appears to have driven some undecided voters in his direction. That line of criticism came from Mitt Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, and the leader in polling of today’s primary.

“I listened to the Sunday debate – it was the first once I had listened to – and I was very impressed by his responses for most of the debate,” explained Erin Crowley, of Bedford, who attended Huntsman’s stop in Nashua late Monday afternoon.

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Huntsman supporters cite his temperament and somewhat centrist tone as a reason to vote for the former Utah governor. But they also point to his service as an ambassador – both for Obama and in both Bush administrations – as giving him the kind of foreign policy credentials no other candidate has.

“He’s an American first, because he participated in the Obama administration, and served over in China,” said Marian Towle of Henniker, N.H., where Huntsman stopped on Monday as part of a seven-stop barnstorm of the Granite State. “I like that he’s an American first, and a conservative Republican second.”

Adam Hunger / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman gestures during a town hall meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire January 9, 2012.

Huntsman also has a degree of crossover appeal – one of the reasons why Democrats had expressed initial misgivings about what a Huntsman candidacy would do for Obama’s re-election prospects.

“When I post on about Facebook about Jon Huntsman, my liberal friends are like, ‘Yeah, you know, Huntsman’s the only candidate who’s not completely crazy!’” said Sarah Neville, a New Hampshire native on break from Tufts University, and who’s spending part of her break volunteering for Huntsman. “And that’s basically why I support him, because the other ones are just so far out there.”

Other New Hampshireites cite Huntsman’s dedication to the state for his late surge here. While Huntsman had never been expected to compete for Iowa, he had an initial strategy that focused on New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida – a strategy that was scaled back eventually over the course of the summer to focus only on winning this first primary.

While his efforts have experienced some setbacks, Huntsman appears to have rebounded to a degree. The final Suffolk University tracking poll of the primary showed Huntsman up to third, at 16 percent, and just behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who ranks second, at 18 percent.

The campaign here is, in many ways, a race for second since Romney (at 37 percent in the Suffolk poll) seems to enjoy a healthy lead. Huntsman supporters don’t necessarily expect him to beat Romney, but said they’re hoping for a strong enough finish to catapult him out of the state.

“If he finishes second, he’ll be able to attract money and go to South Carolina,” said Bill Mauser, another late-decider for Huntsman, yesterday in Nashua. “If he gets more than 20 percent, that’s a big deal.”

There are also signs that Romney’s lead is weakening. A few voters made reference to Romney’s work at Bain Capital – the subject of tremendous scrutiny for the campaign’s frontrunner – over the last few days as a reason they were turned off to the former Massachusetts governor.

“I think people are starting to read things about Romney and his record – like that thing, the pink slip?” said Ann Willis of Amherst, N.H. “Those kind of comments? I said how far out of touch is he with people with real economic concerns?”

Nonetheless, expectations for Huntsman among his supporters seem pretty clear.

“I would say top three gives him momentum,” said Jim Waddel, a state representative who supports Huntsman, at Monday’s Concord rally. “I would say something in the 20 percent range is going to give him some momentum.”

But some supporters, like Nashua’s Larry Stubbs, have their misgivings.

“I do realize that people have the first vote have the advantage of identifying the key candidates,” speaking about the intense effort Huntsman’s put on New Hampshire. “Hopefully he’s got some strategy for picking up some other states really quick.”

But maybe best of all for Huntsman would be a surprise victory, an unlikely if not impossible scenario given the number of independent voters who could participate in today’s election.

“Most of the independents haven’t decided yet, and I think when it comes down to it, they will vote with their heart and their country in mind,” said Epsom’s John Grant, a supporter of Huntsman’s who thinks the former Utah governor can win today.

HAMPSTEAD NH—Over the past week, Jon Huntsman has said he needs a “market moving event” to perform well in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Today might have been his exactly what he was hoping for.
Throughout the day, the self-ascribed underdog Huntsman has turned an attack by Mitt Romney into an opportunities to hit back, expressing exactly how he feels about the front-runner.

At this morning’s Meet the Press/Facebook debate, Huntsman opened with a reference to an attack from Romney at another GOP debate last night, in which the former Massachusetts governor criticized Huntsman for
serving as Obama’s ambassador to China.

"I was criticized last night by Gov. Romney for putting my country first," Huntsman said this morning on the debate stage in Concord. "He criticized me, while he was out raising money, for serving my country in China, like my two sons who are in the United States Navy … I will always put my country first. I think that's important.”

Later this afternoon, at a coffee shop miles away from the stage, Huntsman was asked if he felt that he “found his voice.”

Clad in his signature bomber jacket emblazoned with “Governor Huntsman” and an American flag, Huntsman did not politely steer away from attacking his rival as he is wont to do. For once, he capitalized on the attack and fired back.

“Let's just be honest about it. I put my country first. Apparently, Mitt Romney doesn't believe in putting country first,” Huntsman told
reporters. “He's got this bumper sticker that says ‘believe in America.’ How can you believe in America when you're not willing to
serve America? That's just phony nonsense.”

Referring to Romney’s ubiquitous blue bumper stickers and signs that far outnumber his red counterparts along New Hampshire roads, Huntsman explained a position he and his wife Mary Kaye have articulated ad nauseam at more than 160 public events across the state.

“I say I served my country, I step up when my president asked and I always will, its part of my philosophy. I know it may be hard for Mitt Romney and some people to take, but most of America is with me because in the end they want this America to be working together.”

With just over 36 hours hours to go until voting begins in the first-in-nation primary, Huntsman declared he will continue to make his case to voters until the final hour. He has told reporters he doesn’t have to come in first, but only needs to “beat market expectations.” With polls ticking up for him in recent days, Huntsman is optimistic that his decision to focus his entire campaign in the Granite State will propel him to the next stop, South Carolina.

"We're going to barnstorm this state as we have been doing for months, more so than any other candidate," Huntsman said. "We're going to remind people that the underdog is out there, the underdog that can change this country. But in order for the underdog to perform at the top, we need the help of the people."

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- With just five days to go until the New Hampshire primary, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman's most threatening opponent may not be Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum, but Father Time.

"We've got the tyranny of the clock moving against us now. And we're moving as quickly as we can," he said in Portsmouth today, citing his late entry into the race this summer.

Huntsman, who finished serving as Barack Obama's ambassador to China in May, has campaigned aggressively in New Hampshire and skipped Iowa over the past six months. However, with less than a week to go, he remains stuck in high single digits in state polls.

Send in your questions for Sunday's NBC News-Facebook debate on Meet the Press

With time running out, Huntsman admits he needs a "market moving event" to keep his candidacy alive. Consequently, he has ratcheted up his attacks on front-runner Romney, after criticizing the former Massachusetts governor as an "establishment" and "status quo" candidate for the last week.

"The people of New Hampshire will not be told for whom to vote," Huntsman told an audience of about 300 tonight in Newport. "They want people to earn their vote, as opposed to sitting down in South Carolina, so certain of victory."

Huntsman was referring to Romney's Thursday trip to South Carolina, where he will campaign before returning to New Hampshire Friday afternoon.

The former ambassador to China added that Romney is resting on his laurels as he enjoys a wide lead in New Hampshire polls. By spending time outside of the first-in-the-nation state, Huntsman said, "That would pretty much suggest that you feel you've got it wrapped up and that would be taking the voters for granted."

Meanwhile, Huntsman is searching for every last vote he can find in a style that resembles Rick Santorum's town-by-town Iowa campaign.

 "I need your vote," he routinely bellows into the microphone at town hall meetings.

Huntsman hopes his handshake-by-handshake method will pay off. Santorum's near win in Iowa, he said, proved that "grassroots politicking still means something."

"You can't Twitter your way to prosperity. You can't Facebook your way to prosperity. You have to be in the state," Huntsman said today.

One voter in Portsmouth pointed out to Huntsman today that his long-shot campaign for the GOP nomination resembles a David versus Goliath effort, with Romney as Goliath. Huntsman agreed, then paused and tried to add a positive spin: "New Hampshire loves an underdog!" he said hopefully.

Elise Amendola / AP

Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman speaks during a town hall in Pelham, N.H., Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011.

PELHAM N.H. -- On his first day back on the trail since Christmas, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman stepped far beyond the boundaries of his usually polite stump speech to repeatedly slam Ron Paul as "unelectable" because of "out there" views on foreign policy. Huntsman is the latest candidate to join an intensifying Republican crescendo of criticism of the Texas Congressman as the Iowa caucuses approach.

"He is not electable at the end of the day. Let's be real about it," Huntsman told more than 150 voters at a town hall meeting in southern New Hampshire. "I'm not an isolationist. I don't share the Ron Paul world view. I am a realist."

Paul currently commands a strong second place position in the lead up to the January 3 Iowa contest.

Huntsman dubbed Paul's positions on Iran and American military presence overseas as "out there enough" to be harmful to U.S. national security. With issues like Iran "on the ascent," Huntsman warned Iran would become the "transcendent foreign policy challenge of the decade."

Huntsman didn't stop there. "Things like legalizing drugs -- I just don't think this is a position that is going to sell well," Huntsman told reporters on Wednesday night. "I just don't think he's going to get enough mainstream support to win."

'Make the math work'
When asked by NBC News, Huntsman declined to say whether he would support Paul if he does indeed become GOP nominee, bristling at a hypothetical scenario. Front-runner Mitt Romney has committed to voting for Paul if the latter becomes the Republican party's choice. Gingrich has declared he would not support Paul over disagreement on foreign and domestic policies.

"I'm just making a case for electability," Huntsman said. "You know at the end of the day we've just got to win back some people who actually voted for Barack Obama, just to make the math work. So who at the end of the day is the most electable? I believe I'm the most electable candidate in the race right now."

However, current polls indicate Huntsman has a long uphill battle to win in New Hampshire. He placed a distant fourth place here, the state in which he has centered his campaign efforts. According to a poll by CNN and Time magazine published Wednesday, the former ambassador to China sits at 9 percent of likely Republican support while Romney leads with 44 percent, followed by Paul at 17 percent and Gingrich with 16 percent in the Granite State.

Huntsman -- who until Wednesday night rarely disagreed with his GOP opponents by name -- added that the recently-discovered controversial newsletters published under Paul's name in the 1990s also undercut his legitimacy as a candidate.

"You gotta own up to that history and ultimately he is going to have to explain that to the American people if he wants to get enough support to be a legitimate player," said Huntsman.

Paul recently responded to the newsletters, saying that he was not aware of the content at the time and disavowed the remarks inside his namesake publication.

When asked if Paul's explanation was adequate, Huntsman replied, "Not so far."

Huntsman's long game was also questioned tonight as he kicked off a packed campaign schedule that leads up to January 10 primary. When a voter asked Huntsman about his failure to collect enough signatures to appear on the Virginia primary ballot, he brushed it off.

"I'm not too bothered about that," Huntsman said. "Our philosophy has always been, if we come out of New Hampshire with a head of steam, we're going to well in South Carolina, we're going to do well in Florida, in which case you're going to get the early delegate states who are going to want to be with the most electable candidate."

Updated: 11:24 p.m. ET

As seven Republican presidential contenders began their sprint toward the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, each of the top candidates ran through a gauntlet of challenges in their Thursday night debate.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came under fire from Rep. Michele Bachmann, R- Minn., for his consulting work for the government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac. Gingrich made more than $1.6 million for his Freddie Mac work.

As he has in previous debates Gingrich said that he had done no lobbying for the agency and that his consulting work was simply a private business endeavor.

But Gingrich won big applause from the crowd in Sioux City, Iowa when he accused President Obama of caving in to “left-wing environmental extremists in San Francisco” by refusing to approve the Keystone oil pipeline from Canada.

Bachmann sharply criticized Rep Ron Paul, R- Texas for saying that there was no evidence that Iran is close to building a nuclear weapon, dismissing it as “war propaganda.” Such thinking, said Paul, “is how we got into that useless war in Iraq.”

“I have never heard a more dangerous answer,” said Bachmann.

This prompted Paul to defend himself by saying, “I don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon” -- although earlier in the debate he’d said he could understand why the Tehran regime, surrounded by nuclear-armed powers, would want to acquire nuclear weapons.

For his part, Mitt Romney turned much of his fire on President Obama, assailing him for asking the government of Iran to return the CIA drone that crashed on Iranian territory. "A foreign policy based on 'pretty please?' You’ve gotta be kidding," Romney said.

He accused Obama of thinking that “if we appease or accommodate the tyrants of the world, that the world will be safer.”

Late in the debate, Romney came under repeated questioning from the moderator for supporting gay rights when he was governor of Massachusetts. Romney said he opposed same-sex marriages but also opposed discrimination against anyone based on their sexual orientation.

Earlier in the debate Gingrich warned against “judicial dictatorship” and defended his plan to subpoena federal judges to testify about some of their controversial rulings.

He compared himself to Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt as presidents who had tried to limit the power of federal judges. (Roosevelt’s plan to expand the size of the Supreme Court was defeated in 1937.)

Paul called Gingrich’s proposal “a real affront to the separation of powers.”

In an unexpected sign of détente between Gingrich and Romney, Gingrich praised Romney for helping to inspire the bipartisan Medicare redesign that was proposed Thursday by Housed Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Wyden, D- Ore.

Gingrich denied that he had specifically criticized Ryan by name when he said on Meet the Press in May that Ryan’s previous Medicare reform plan was “right-wing social engineering.”

 Although turnout at the caucuses is small relative to states such as Florida that have primaries, the outcome in Iowa will define the race and seems likely to winnow out some of the Republican hopefuls who fail to finish in top four.

In 2008, about 118,000 Iowa Republicans took part in the caucuses. Mike Huckabee, the ex-governor of Arkansas, defeated Romney in Iowa, hobbling Romney as headed into the New Hampshire primary the following week.

With the social conservatives’ votes split among Bachmann, Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former Sen. Rick Santorum, some Iowa Republican activists sense that Paul has a good chance to win the caucuses, due to the intensity of his supporters and the mobilization efforts they have made.

Striving to head off a win by Gingrich in Iowa, Romney on Wednesday played on the theme of the former House speaker’s penchant for exotic ideas.

“Zany is great in a campaign,” Romney told the New York Times. “It’s great on talk radio. It’s great in print, it makes for fun reading, but in terms of a president, we need a leader, and a leader needs to be someone who can bring Americans together.”

Gingrich got a good laugh from the crowd at Thursday night's debate when he said, in a humorous prelude to his Keystone pipeline comments, "I sometimes get accused of using language that is too strong, so I've been standing here editing -- and I am very concerned about not appearing to be zany."

By NBC's Jo Ling Kent

Merrimack NH--On Monday evening, a visibly energized Jon Huntsman zeroed in on New Hampshire front-runner Mitt Romney and attacked him sharply, in a state where the former Utah governor has staked his entire presidential campaign.

With just 43 days left until the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary, Huntsman questioned Romney's ability to shake up Washington and Wall Street as president.

"Anyone who is in the hip pocket of Wall Street because of all the donations they are picking up, like Mr. Romney, is in these days is not going to be the change agent who is going to fix the too big to fail banking system," Huntsman told about 80 voters at a town hall-style meeting. This was his 110th public campaign stop in New Hampshire.

Huntsman also attempted to downplay the recent string of New Hampshire congressional endorsements Romney has received. Last week, the former Massachusetts governor won the support of Senator Kelly Ayotte and Rep. Charlie Bass, two of the three Republicans in the Granite State congressional delegation.

"You should be wary of any candidate who carries the endorsements of every member of Congress, because it means they're going to be a status quo president," Huntsman said.

At the same time, Huntsman said over the weekend that he is courting newspaper editorial board endorsements across the state, north to south. Yesterday Newt Gingrich received the influential support of the New Hampshire Union Leader, an endorsement that was not expected to go to Huntsman.

The former ambassador to China, who is currently polling at 8 percent in New Hampshire, also presented his own plan to shake up Washington: impose a lifetime ban on lobbying for members of Congress, tie salaries to performance, and impose term limits.

Huntsman vowed to cut the salaries of members of Congress "until they balance the damn budget."

In the final stretch to the January 10 primary, Huntsman says he is "jubilant" about where he stands among the candidates despite his single digit support.

"I want a sustained rise that is not fickle," Huntsman said, accompanied by his wife Mary Kaye. "You have to lay a substantive ground work here in NH...I don't want 15 minutes of fame."

Huntsman wraps up this campaign swing Thursday and will travel to South Carolina on Friday for more town hall meetings this weekend.

The Associated Press
Calvin Woodward

Michele Bachmann did not intend to be taken literally when she told the Republican presidential debate Tuesday that civil-liberties activists have taken over the interrogation of terrorists from the CIA. But even as a rhetorical point, it didn't hold water.

Her hyperbole on the American Civil Liberties Union was one of the more notable stretches in the national security and foreign policy debate. A look at some of the claims and how they compare with the facts:

__

BACHMANN: "This is one thing we know about Barack Obama: He has essentially handed over our interrogation of terrorists to the ACLU. He's outsourced it to them. Our CIA has no ability to have any form of interrogation for terrorists."

THE FACTS: The CIA still has the ability to interrogate terrorists. President Obama formed the High Value Interrogation Group, which includes the FBI, the CIA and the Pentagon. It centralizes expertise so that when a terrorism suspect is caught, everyone with a stake in the issue is involved in the questioning. The CIA also can sit in on interrogations in other countries, asking questions directly or through officials of the host government.

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Whether the policy on interrogating suspects should be tougher is a matter of authentic debate. But the CIA is hardly emasculated. The agency has dramatically expanded its on-the-ground operations worldwide since 2001, and the U.S. killing of a succession of al-Qaida figures in Pakistan — Osama bin Laden chief among them — demonstrates the potency of the hunt for terrorists. Moreover, the U.S. killing of an American citizen abroad — the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki — is well outside the range of action that would be condoned by civil liberties advocates.

__

MITT ROMNEY: "What they're doing is cutting a trillion dollars out of the defense budget."

RON PAUL: "They're nibbling away at baseline budgeting. ... There's nothing cut against the military. And the people on the Hill are nearly hysterical because they're not going ... the budget isn't going up as rapidly as they want it to."

THE FACTS: Paul was more accurate than Romney in describing what is happening with defense spending. Constraints in the military budget are much more modest than Romney suggested.

Both Romney and rival Rick Perry have been criticizing Obama for looming defense cuts that are triggered by the failure of the deficit supercommittee to act. But the cuts would only slow the rate of growth of Pentagon spending, which has been vastly increased because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now winding down. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the planned Pentagon budget for 2021 would be some $700 billion, an increase over the current level of about $520 billion. The cuts agreed to last summer plus the automatic reductions would trim the projected 2021 budget by about $110 billion.

Moreover, the spending cuts set in motion by the supercommittee's failure to reach an agreement are not to begin until January 2013, which gives lawmakers time to try again to produce a debt plan. That's what Obama has in mind — using the threat of defense cuts to push lawmakers to make a deal.

Romney's figure encompasses two sets of Pentagon spending cuts, only one of which was proposed by Obama. The president's budget called for $450 billion in savings from the defense budget; the rest is fallout from the supercommittee, a creature of Congress.

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RICK PERRY: "When you sanction the Iranian central bank, that will shut down that economy. ... This president refuses to do that, and it's another show of lack of leadership from the president of the United States."

THE FACTS: Obama, like George W. Bush before him, hasn't issued a blanket ban on dealings with Iran's central bank. Perry could try as president, but he'd find himself with some angry allies and perhaps some economic damage for the United States.

U.S. sanctions already severely restrict what contact American and foreign companies can have with Iranian banks. That has made the central bank the primary conduit for purchasing Iranian oil exports.

Blacklisting the central bank entirely would put energy companies and banks from places such as Japan in a dilemma: either find new oil sources, or risk punishment in the United States. The same applies for China, Russia, Turkey and other countries with investments in Iran — and the rush for new fuel providers could lead to a spike in gasoline prices that hampers the American economic recovery.

In reality, however, it's unlikely the U.S. would be prepared to blacklist Japan's banks for financial transactions with Iran's central bank. So the power of the sanction would be unclear.

__

BACHMANN: "Almost every decision that the president has made since he came in has been one to put the United States in a position of unilateral disarmament, including the most recent decision he made to cancel the Keystone pipeline. That would have not only created jobs, but it would have helped us in energy independence."

THE FACTS: Obama didn't cancel the Canadian oil pipeline. Instead, his administration delayed the decision in order to explore an alternative route to avoid areas of Nebraska that include wetlands and an aquifer providing water crucial to huge swaths of U.S. cropland. Bachmann also overlooked that the delay came under pressure from Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican. When the pipeline was delayed, Heineman hailed the decision and called it "an exceptional moment for Nebraskans."

__

PERRY: "When you put the no-fly zone above Syria, it obviously gives those dissidents and gives the military the opportunity to maybe disband."

ROMNEY: "They have 5,000 tanks in Syria. A no-fly zone wouldn't be the right military action — maybe a no-drive zone. ... I mean, this is a nation which is not bombing its people at this point, and the right course is not military."

PERRY: "I think you need to leave it on the table to make sure, because this is not just about Syria. This is about Iran and those two as a partnership, and exporting terrorism around the world. And if we're going to be serious about saving Israel, we better get serious about Syria and Iran, and we better get serious right now."

THE FACTS: As Romney suggested, a no-fly zone by itself wouldn't do much to stop Syrian tanks and bullets from killing civilians. Unlike in Libya, where Moammar Gadhafi used his air force to fire on cities, President Bashar Assad's government has by and large stuck to ground forces. There have been a few cases of helicopters allegedly being used, but they are exceptions.

Perry's follow-up argument that a no-fly zone in Syria could help deter Iranian terrorism and save Israel wasn't clear. He seemed to be referring to Iranian and Syrian support for anti-Israel groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, neither of which has air power. Weapons smuggling also can occur by ground or sea.

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