It is rare for a presidential debate to produce such a clear winner and loser, but there was no doubting the result after the ten Republican candidates met on stage for the first time on Thursday night: Ronald Reagan trounced George W. Bush.

During a 90-minute encounter in which Rudy Giuliani, the early front-runner, failed to shine amid signs that his campaign is losing ground to John McCain, the candidates left America in no doubt that the future of the Republican Party lies in embracing the legacy of Mr Reagan, while rejecting the perceived incompetence and runaway spending of the past six years.

Faced with a deeply unpopular war, a Democrat-controlled Congress, and a party struggling to define its ideological soul, the ten hopefuls rushed to embrace the man who rode to its rescue in the 1980s, invoking him no fewer than 19 times while not once uttering Mr Bush’s name.

Meeting at Mr Reagan’s presidential library overlooking Simi Valley, southern California, none of the three leading contenders – Mr McCain, Mr Giuliani, the former New York Mayor, and Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor – made any big blunders. But Mr McCain and Mr Romney, who was slick, confident and funny, were far more impressive than Mr Giuliani. Indeed, Mr McCain now leads Mr Giuliani and Mr Romney in the key early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Mr Giuliani struggled particularly on the subject of abortion, a crucial issue for conservative voters, who hold the key to choosing the party’s presidential nominee.

Alone among the ten candidates, he appeared to waffle on the question of whether he would like to see a repeal of Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court legalising of abortion. He was later forced to admit that he backed abortion rights.

All the leading Republicans opposed a troop withdrawal from Iraq and backed Mr Bush’s “surge” plan. But it was Mr McCain – the candidate most strongly identified with the troop increase – who was the most aggressive in defending the new strategy, and the most sharply critical of Mr Bush’s handling of the war.

“We must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos, there will be genocide and they will follow us home,” he said. He then lambasted the Bush Administration for its gross mismanagement of the war.

The candidates must execute an awkward political dance on Iraq. Although two thirds of Americans oppose the war, a large majority of Republican primary voters still support it and Mr Bush. But there is no argument who is their ideological hero. Standing before an audience that included his widow, Nancy Reagan, each candidate vied to paint himself as the heir to the 40th President, a clear demonstration of how many within the party believe that it has lost its way under Mr Bush.

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