Republican debate strangely silent on Federal Reserve

In the period leading up to last night's Republican presidential debate, the actions of the Federal Reserve had been a hot topic among the party's leaders.

Rick Perry, the Texas governor, said it would be "almost treasonous" for Fed chairman Ben Bernanke to increase the money supply in order to kickstart the economy. His chief rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, said in the last debate, to strong applause, that if elected president he would replace Bernanke. On Tuesday, the party's congressional leaders sent a letter to the Fed warning against any efforts to use monetary policy to create growth.

And Wednesday, Bernanke and company ignored the Republicans' advice by announcing a new program to buy $400 billion worth of long-term Treasury bills, aimed at lowering interest rates and encouraging borrowing.

So you'd have expected that night's debate would have featured some full-blooded Fed bashing. But you'd have been wrong. The only candidate to mention the Federal Reserve last night was the reliable Fed basher, Ron Paul, who offered his usual broad critique of monetary policy, but nothing specific to this week's events. The name Bernanke wasn't mentioned once.

What might the silence mean? Perhaps nothing more than that the moderators didn't ask about the issue. But candidates are adept at veering away from the questions they're asked, in order to hit their predetermined talking points. So could the fact that no one took on the Fed, despite the week's news, suggest they no longer see political upside in such attacks? Or that they're worried about alienating potential deep-pocketed backers in the financial industry, who don't tend to appreciate anti-Fed talk? Perry's earlier comments on Bernanke drew criticism from many of his fellow Republicans, and are said to have rankled some on Wall Street.

There was one other interesting omission last night: As Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review noted, neither the candidates nor the moderators mentioned Europe's debt crisis, which is currently dragging down both the American and the global economy, could help trigger a crisis in the European Union, and which anyone who aspires to the presidency ought to have thoughts on.

Still, we did learn that Perry wants to breed Herman Cain with Newt Gingrich, so it's not as if all the big issues were ducked.