Debate Watch: Romney v. Perry

Meet the Debaters

Michele Bachmann

The Minnesota congresswoman stumbled again last week when she suggested that vaccines, such as the one Rick Perry mandated administering in Texas, can cause mental retardation. With her poll numbers slipping, the tea party favorite will need to assert herself tonight to prove she’s still a viable candidate.

Herman Cain

The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza and former host of a conservative radio talk show is a long shot, but his fiery stage presence has won him points among evangelicals and tea party adherents. Of late, he's touted a plan to levy 9 percent corporate, personal, and sales taxes. 

Newt Gingrich

After a rocky start, including an en masse departure by his senior staffers, the former House speaker is struggling to stay relevant. Look for more attacks on the media, Gingrich’s favorite – and usually only – punching bag during these debates.

Jon Huntsman

The former Utah governor, who served most recently as President Obama’s ambassador to China, is still struggling to break out of the pack, and a series of strange comments during last week's debate didn't help his cause. Still, a poll released this week shows him finally gaining ground in the key state of New Hampshire.

Gary Johnson

The ex-New Mexico governor and libertarian favorite returns to the debate stage after crossing the minimum threshold for support in national polls. His biggest challenge might be fighting his eight opponents for air time, a problem he encountered the last time he debated in May. 

Ron Paul

The Texas congressman and repeat presidential contender has an ardent base of supporters, and his outspoken libertarianism suddenly seems more mainstream. Even if he remains a long shot, many national polls show him trailing only Romney and Perry. 

Rick Perry

The Texas governor rode a wave of momentum to the top of the polls, but his honeymoon is definitely over. He's become the top target of his Republican rivals on hot button issues ranging from Social Security to immigration to the vaccine mandate. After two subpar debates, he'll need to improve on Thursday.

Mitt Romney

The former Massachusetts governor has become Perry's chief critic during the last two debates, challenging the Texas governor to defend his controversial statements about Social Security. Romney's no longer the front-runner, but he's proven during the last two debates that he's more than Perry's match on stage.  

Rick Santorum

The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania has tried hard to gain traction with voters, emphasizing his foreign-policy, fiscal, and -- above all -- social-conservative credentials. Even if he lags well behind in polls, his fiery personality and 16 years in Congress serves him well in debates.

Debating in Florida, where one in five residents is a Social Security recipient, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney clashed over their visions of the retirement program, continuing a lively debate between the two front-runners that threatens to overshadow the rest of the field.

The two sparred on Social Security, health care, immigration, and education, with Perry pressing to define Romney as outside the party's conservative mainstream -- "Obama-lite," as he termed Romney in an interview earlier this week -- and Romney describing Perry as a candidate prepared to cut his views to fit campaign fashions.

Perry, whose criticism of Social Security has fed his populist, anti-Washington image, sought to assuage concerns that he will do away with the retirement program. "Let me say first, for those that are on Social Security today, for those people that are approaching Social Security: They don't have anything in world to worry about. We have made a solemn oath to the people of this country that the Social Security program in place today will be there for them," he said. Then, even though the question came from Fox News panelist Megyn Kelly, Perry quickly pivoted to attack Romney, who has been making an issue of Perry's use of the term "Ponzi scheme" to describe Social Security.

"It is not the first time that Mitt has been wrong on some issues before,” he said.

Romney countered that Perry's debate-night views on Social Security are "different than what the governor put in his book.”

From National Journal:
PHOTOS: Orlando GOP Presidential Candidate Debate

Romney, Perry Grapple on Social Security

Micro-Analyses: GOP Presidential Debate

What the GOP Debaters Said on the Economy

Googling for a Nominee

“There's a Rick Perry out there that is saying … the federal government shouldn't be in the pension business," Romney said. "That it is unconstitutional. Unconstitutional and it should be returned to the states. You better find that Rick Perry and get him to stop saying that,” Romney said.

Exchanges like those prompted former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to quip at the end of the debate, “I'm tempted to say when all is said and done, the two standing in the middle, Romney and Perry, aren't going to be around because they are going to bludgeon each other to death.”

Though Herman Cain and Ron Paul got some of the loudest ovations of the night, the riveting confrontations between Romney and Perry seemed on the verge of turning the other seven candidates on the stage into spectators. The only real competition to the front-runners, in terms of providing talker moments, was the audience in the Orange County Convention Center, which at one point booed a soldier stationed in Iraq who revealed in his videotaped question that he is gay and questioned whether the candidates would retreat on what he called the “progress” made recently on military gay rights. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on openly gay military service expired this week.

Perry and Romney tangled again and again. Challenged on the consistency of his Social Security views, Perry tried to turn the tables by arguing that Romney had changed his tune about the exportability of the Massachusetts universal health care plan, featuring an individual mandate, between the hardcover and paperback versions of his own campaign biography. Countered Romney: “I actually wrote my book.”

The Texas governor used a discussion on education policy to link Romney to the president. He criticized Romney for praising the administration’s Race to the Top program, which gives states grants in exchange for making changes to their educational systems, saying it showed he’s not conservative. 

“I think is an important difference between the rest of the people on this stage and one person that wants to run for the presidency,” he said. “Being in favor of the Obama Race to the Top … that is not conservative.”

Romney retorted, “Nice try,” drawing laughs from the audience. But he did praise Education Secretary Arne Duncan, saying he supported policies that encouraged teacher evaluations.