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Posted on 09/23/2011 11:36:05 AM PDT by iowamark
ORLANDO – The first line of Rick Perry’s campaign obituary may have been drafted Thursday night: He got in too late.
It’s not quite time for his camp to panic but in his third debate in a month – nearly as many as he’s done in the entire decade he’s served as Texas governor – Perry demonstrated why so few presidential candidates who parachute into the race mid-campaign win the nomination.
Perry gave a foreign policy answer that offered no indication he’s thought about how to respond to threats against America, twice bobbled attacks on Mitt Romney’s well-documented departures from conservative orthodoxy, called immigration hard-liners heartless and, in what was otherwise his best answer of the evening, stretched the truth in the course of delivering a well-rehearsed line about why he mandated pre-teen girls to be vaccinated against HPV.
A more seasoned candidate would be better informed on national security policy, fluent to the point of knowing by heart his chief opponent’s core vulnerabilities, and would never offend his party’s base with such a pointed attack. And a more sure-footed one would have recognized that he couldn’t get away with the claim that he issued an executive order on HPV after being “lobbied” by a cancer victim—because it has been publicly established that he met the victim only after he made the decision.
Instead, after a roaring August start, Perry’s second consecutive lackluster debate performance will reinforce the growing view among some Republicans that he’s not ready for the big leagues.
As conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News following the debate: “He’s still the rookie in the field.”
Equally threatening to the Texas governor, his stumbling appearances on national television have come as his on-the-fly campaign attempts to quickly build an organization and raise money ahead of the third-quarter deadline at the end of the month.
Grumbling has already begun about Perry’s operation and how they’ve not been prepared to handle the zero-to-frontrunner demands on the campaign.
One leading Republican said he’s given names of individuals – donors, former state party chairs — who want to be helpful to the campaign and that they’ve never gotten a phone call.
Recognizing the frustration, the National Committeewoman from Texas, Borah Van Dormolen, sent a blast email to fellow RNC members this week.
“I have received numerous calls requesting information on how to contact the Perry for President campaign team,” Van Dormolen wrote, including the email address for where to send the governor an invitation to appear at an event and the address of his finance director for those who want to help him raise money.
The upside of these growing pains, of course, is they reflect a campaign besieged with supporters. And, as Perry officials correctly note, it’s still early in the campaign—a contest that the governor only joined six weeks ago.
But it’s in part because he rocketed to the top of the field so quickly after getting in, creating such high expectations, that he’s now being damaged by sub-par debate showings.
In short, Perry’s command of the stage hasn’t matched his exalted status.
When he’s pitted alongside Romney, as he was Thursday, the discrepancy between Perry’s promise and his actual performance is glaring.
“Romney has the advantage of having run before and learned from it,” noted former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. “Perry got in late, and it will take him some time to get up to national speed. He has time to get up to speed, but he doesn’t have much margin for error.”
What may hurt Perry the most, though, is if the ongoing series of debates create the impression that he simply doesn’t have the capacity to get up to speed. If, after the four additional forums scheduled between now and the Iowa caucuses, Perry shows no ability to give a cogent answer on a foreign policy question or discuss the country’s domestic challenges in a way that veers from his top-line talking points, Romney’s slow and steady approach will have the former governor of Massachusetts positioned to take advantage.
“The bottom line is he’s failed to meet expectations in the last two debates,” said a veteran GOP operative who is neutral in the race but didn’t want to offend Perry. “He often starts off strong in replies but tends to wander, displaying a lack of intellectual discipline that doesn’t inspire confidence.”
Recognizing this vulnerability — call it a stature gap — Romney backers were ferocious in their assault on Perry following the debate here, suggesting that their rival was out of his depth.
“It really calls into question when he’s up for this,” said former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent, a Romney adviser. “When you’re consistently having difficulty articulating yourself in a forum like that, it’s a problem.”
Romney officials were particularly tough in their critique of Perry’s vague answer on what he would do if he got a 3AM call alerting him that Pakistan had lost nuclear weapons to the Taliban.
“It was clear he had no idea what he was talking about,” said Romney adviser Ron Kaufman.
“I think a lot of being president, of getting ready to be president, is understanding the complexity of the world that you have to deal in, and I think you either naturally have that countenance and that demeanor, or you don’t,” added Romney donor and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, adding that at such difficult moments, “I think you want to have the mental faculties, the experience and be able to surround yourself with good people and get the job done, and don’t make too many mistakes.”
Perry campaign manager Rob Johnson lashed back at the criticism on the foreign policy question and touched on Romney’s core weakness.
“For anyone in the Romney camp to accuse someone of not being prepared, when they have different answers to questions every 24 hours, is ridiculous,” Johnson said.
But the Perry campaign plainly recognizes they’ve got to make the best of back-to-back poor outings. They came to the post-debate spin room prepared with a trio of talking points that conceded the underlying point about his debate weakness: that he’s only been in the race for a short while, that his uneasy stage performance demonstrates that he’s more genuine than Romney and that there was another successful Republican who purportedly wasn’t so good at debates.
“He’s been in the debate for six weeks,” said Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. “Some other people have been in the debate for six years.”
Pressed about some of Perry’s bumbling responses, Brownback invoked Republican royalty.
“People said that about Ronald Reagan in debates,” Brownback claimed. “They’d say, ‘You know he’s not as strong as he needs to be. He doesn’t seem to quite have the factual control the way I would like to see it.’ But you knew what was in Reagan’s heart, and that’s the thing about Rick Perry.”
“Perry’s plain spoken,” added Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon. “He’s not a slick politician. Romney’s run for president before so he likes to have these polished answers, but he’s also flip-flopped on everything from Race to the Top to Romneycare to taxes to abortion to guns. So I’d rather take a guy who’s not a slick, made-for-TV guy but who’s an authentic, real human being.”
Cannon added that the difference between Perry and Reagan, however, is that the Gipper had a knack for delivering memorable lines that more than made up for his meandering moments. In three debates, Perry hasn’t yet found a winning riposte to Romney along the lines of “I’m paying for this microphone” or “There you go again.”
And there is another distinction between the two: By the time he won the presidency, Reagan was on his third try.
I agree that line had me rolling last night. I loved it!
Reagan came up with his own lines though.
I remember when people pinned their hopes on Fred Thompson and we know how well that worked out. Perry may improve. Otherwise it will be Romney and I will do all I can to help him defeat Obama, a very dangerous man.
Probably the best real communicators on that stage were Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Cain is an excellent motivator, but Newt and Rick are the best at articulating key concepts.
Rick Perry thinks I’m too heartless for him.
Herman Cain is a very dynamic personality. I am not sure if he could beat Obama with his lack of experience in a public office, but is sure would be fun watching him debate the Teleprompter in chief.
He hasn't had to work very hard in his previous elections for Governor as he had weak candidates and it is now showing big time. Ricardo Perry just isn't ready for big prime time politics. He needs to stop before he totally embarrasses the state of Texas. He has already embarrassed himself and I'm embarrassed for him.
I love Cain
72% of republicans polled don’t want Palin to run. Whether you agree with the poll or not, that’s a strong message.
quote “It is looking like Romney will be the nominee after all. Sigh.”
yeah... right...
like the Republican party is going to nominate a:
Because the only alternative is Romney who is
Gun grabbing
Abortion loving
Gay marriage implementing
Big Government loving
Romneycare inventing
Tax raising
slimy
Mormon
slick talking used car salesman like
liberal Massachusetts RINO.
Make no mistake, these things WILL come out, maybe not in a debate but they will come out and when they do they will make all this talk about TTC and Gardacil look like a joke.
Romney even makes Mclame look conservative by comparison, he wont win a single southern state.
I don’t think he should quit yet, but he sure isn’t shining like his supporters would like him to.
ANY of the candidates would be a breath of fresh air over Obama. I say that knowing that I am a “heartless” conservative.
If that is true, Perry is making a huge mistake.
If that is so, Perry is acting like the first string NFL quarterback that believes that he can show up at training camp overweight, out of shape and without having studied the new offensive coordinators new playbook during the off-season who expects to start in the first game of the regular season. Such hubris gets you benched or cut.
As I have posted before, I have no particular "brand loyalty" to any particular candidate. My candidate is a "What" and not a "Who" and is defined as "The most candidate that is more conservative than Romney that can actually beat Obama in November".
I still believe that Perry is the only one up on that debate stage that fits that definition but Perry needs to get his butt in gear, engage in serious debate preparation and serious debate study and show up for the game at his plating weight, in shape and with the playbook memorized.
If not, the New England Romneys, not the Texas Perrys will be the team playing the Chicago Obamas in the 2012 Presidential Super Bowl.
If you want 4 more yrs of Obama then you put Romney up for the offer,and play like H@ll getting the southern and the heartland vote.Facts are facts. :/
I really do not care what a “Republican” wants. I care what a conservative wants.
Perry is a slow-motion train-wreck, and Myth is more of the same RINO go-along to get-along crappola.
We need an outsider that can move and shake it up.
GOP’er will vote for her if nominated and now the indies are swingin her way....
U know what that means(well beside the repubs are behind the curve)?
Palin has a new address in Washington DC!
Rick “I’ll tell you what to medically do with your child” Perry.
or
Rick “Expressway From Mexico into the United States” Perry.
or
Rick “Illegal aliens deserve your tax money” Perry.
No matter, every Perry sucks.
I agree - Palin’s opportunity to jump in is when Perry or Romney falters. Very smart strategy that makes a lot of sense.
He’s not shining for me but I see rock-solid and I like what I see.
I don’t think you are a “heartless” conservative. ;)
I'm thinking the same thing.
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Dude that whole lady with cancer interaction happened after he signed the order....if that’s not a lie...well I went to the wrong catholic grade school...lol
Given that He damn well has no principals....lol
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