Whether it was more sleep, more red bull or more cowbell (just kidding), this was a far different Rick Perry than we’ve seen in the previous debates. He had a pre-canned attack line on Mitt Romney over some 2007-vintage campaign dirt about illegal immigrants cutting his lawn, he was ready to take on Herman Cain’s “999 Plan” and while he sometimes lost his train of thought, he got his awkward three second pauses down to one second pauses.
And Rick isn’t stopping there. He’s flying through Washington, D.C. this week to meet with politicos and lobbyists and solicit their ideas on his jobs plan and foreign policy. And, as Decoder wrote in our wrapup last night, this next month or so until the next debate swaps Perry’s weakest tool (his debate persona) for his strongest suits (retail politics and bombing the airwaves with his massive campaign warchest.)
Cain got a shellacking at the outset over his “999 Plan.” Perhaps you could have seen that coming. But by far his worst debate moment was after the debate, when he said he “misspoke” on something he said only three hours before - that he would be willing to negotiate with a terrorist group holding an American soldier, potentially exchanging an American for many or all the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
This is after some less-than-inspiring remarks on Meet the Press last Sunday, among other foreign policy mishaps.
Rick Santorum is re-defining what it means to be playing with house money. He got after Cain right off the bat about “999” not doing anything to help the American family, then he piled on Romney on healthcare:
The final point I would make to Governor Romney, you just don’t have credibility, Mitt, when it comes to repealing Obamacare. You are — you are — your plan was the basis for Obamacare. Your consultants helped Obama craft Obamacare. And to say that you’re going to repeal it, you just — you have no track record on that that — that we can trust you that you’re going to do that.
If there’s a good attack line unearthed by the media, you can bet Santorum is going to take it. Michelle Bachmann and Newt Gingrich criticize the frontrunners; Santorum scorches ‘em.
"Mr. Romney’s worst moment came when Rick Perry challenged him in a somewhat non-sequitur attack where he accused Mr. Romney of having employed illegal immigrants at his home. The problem was not with the substance of Mr. Romney’s response but with his demeanor. Demonstrative to the point of appearing angry and somewhat red-faced under the stage lights, Mr. Romney grabbed Mr. Perry on the shoulder and seemed on the verge of losing his temper.
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Controlled anger can sometimes work in a debate — Ronald Reagan’s “I am paying for this microphone” exchange with a reporter in New Hampshire perhaps being the best example of this. But it is a high-risk, high-reward strategy, something that Mr. Romney does not need, and Mr. Romney was responding to a fellow Republican rather than to a moderator."
We noted this in the prior debate when Romney admonished Rick Santorum (“I’m still speaking. I’m still speaking!”) in a way that left Decoder feeling like Romney’s next move was to tell Santorum to go to his room and think about what he’d done.
What does this mean, in practical terms? Perhaps nothing. But was by far Romney’s least “presidential” moment of the campaign so far. Voters might not, to borrow from The Hulk, like Mitt when he’s angry.
Part of the problem was that CNN opted to literally have a daytime talk show host moderate the debate. Anderson Cooper was most adept at playing up the clashes and milking out the drama while staying out of the fray. If you squinted, you could see Phil Donahue up there.
But the other part is that with so doggone many candidates, it’s hard for voters to see anything beyond the surface friction. The debate was helped by the fact that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman was boycotting. Not only did he keep his snarky cut downs in New Hampshire, but also freed up some time so the discussion could be 11 percent more free flowing.
There won’t be another debate for almost a month, so in many ways this was the closing argument for the Republican candidates of the first half of the nomination process. When they convene again, it will be about six weeks before votes start being cast. From there begins the long march to Super Tuesday and the nomination.
One doubts that the GOP will be happy about the taste left in voters’ mouths by the buffet on offer at the Venetian.
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