In Iowa, a Republican Halloween takes jabs at Clinton and Obama

Reporting from Des Moines —  As most Americans dressed up in costumes and handed out candy to neighborhood children, more than 2,000 Iowans gathered at a presidential campaign event here Saturday for a GOP version of Halloween.

Zombies – the alleged result of Common Core education standards – dwelled at Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s haunted house booth.

A graveyard with headstones for Obamacare, historic debt and Planned Parenthood funding decorated New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s space.

And at South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s table, Iowans picked the “scariest Democrat” by casting candy-corn votes in mason jars. (Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton won by a wide margin).

Each of the 10 Republican candidates was given 15 minutes to speak in a hall decorated with hay bales, corn stalks and pumpkins. Most painted a chilling picture of the nation’s security under President Obama and of the future if Clinton were elected president.

“There’s a real doubt … whether this nation will be special any longer,” said Sen. Marco Rubio. The Florida senator said wages have stagnated, small businesses are struggling and students are graduating college with crushing debt.

In a dig at Clinton and his chief rival, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, he added, “If we can turn the page on outdated leaders of both parties and embrace the ideas of the 21st century …. then we won’t just save the American dream, we will expand its reach to more people and change more lives than ever before.”

The gathering, hosted by the Republican Party of Iowa, took place three months before the state holds its caucuses, the first presidential nominating contest in the 2016 race. Neither of the party’s two front-runners, developer Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, attended.

The others mostly gave their stump speeches, weaving personal backstory with calls for shrinking the federal government, strengthening the military and protecting religious freedom.

Graham declared that the greatest threats facing the nation are radical Islam and debt.

“I intend to destroy both of them,” he said.

NEWSLETTER: Get the best from our political teams delivered daily.

The event was the first time that most of the candidates appeared on the same stage since Wednesday’s raucous debate in Boulder, Colo. Several attacked the media, complaining of the questions they heard, not the answers.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee blamed the CNBC moderators for causing a “train wreck” and Cruz described them as “left-wing operatives” bent on battering the eventual GOP nominee.

“How about if we say, from now on, if you have never voted in a Republican primary in your life, you don’t get to moderate a Republican primary debate,” the Texas senator said, as the audience regularly interrupted his speech with applause.

Bush appeared to acknowledge that his debate performance was widely panned as lackluster.

“There are a lot of talkers in politics. Trust me. I was on that debate stage. I see it,” he said, after listing his anti-abortion accomplishments in Florida. “Talking is fine. Doing really matters more for our country.”

The applause for Bush was polite but not overwhelming compared with Cruz and Rubio, who were mobbed after their speeches. Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief, also was well received.

“I hope a lot of you have already made up your minds to support me, but if you haven’t yet – because I know you Iowans take your time – it is true in your heart of hearts, you cannot wait to see me debate Hillary Clinton,” she said, and the crowd roared in approval.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, who won the caucuses in 2012, and Huckabee who won them in 2008, also received modest applause.

Santorum argued that his electoral successes in Pennsylvania – he served two terms in the Senate until he lost his reelection bid in 2006 - showed he could win in states that have eluded Republicans in recent presidential races. The state hasn’t backed a GOP nominee since 1988.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky railed against both political parties as responsible for what he portrayed as the nation’s decline, saying Republicans were also to blame for policies that have jeopardized the nation’s security.

“We elected a Republican House, we elected a Republican Senate, and what do we have to show for it? Nothing!” he said. “The debt continues to rise, the spending continues to rise.”

Christie used his 15 minutes to take questions from the crowd. That went over well with voters who are accustomed to having frequent opportunities to query presidential candidates.

One woman asked him about his bear hug for Obama when the president visited the devastated New Jersey shore after Hurricane Sandy hit three years ago. Federal aid poured into the state, which suffered heavy losses, but some Republicans never forgave the hug.

Christie said he wouldn’t apologize. “I stood up for the people of New Jersey who were hurting and suffering, and made sure the federal government did their job.”

Democrats responded in kind to the Republican critique.

“While it was appropriate that Iowans heard the GOP field’s spooky plans on Halloween, there would be nothing scarier for our middle-class families than a Republican in the White House,” said Iowa Democratic Party spokesman Sam Lau.