Thursday night’s GOP debate may be a turning point in the 2012 Republican presidential selection process. In front of a huge Fox News Channel and Foxnews.com audience – which is basically the GOP primary voter universe – Rick Perry had a golden opportunity to solidify his front-runner position.
But, instead, Perry fumbled the ball and came un-prepared, lazy and lackadaisical – while his main rival, one-time-front-runner Mitt Romney, has gotten his game in order and won this debate going away.
Perry had no jobs plan – even though he and his staff knew it would be the first question asked!
All night, Perry looked befuddled and repeatedly stumbled on his pre-cooked lines. His attacks on Romney fell flat – while Romney exploited the debate rule where, if your name was mentioned, you automatically got a 30-second rebuttal. So Romney cleverly did not mention Perry as he attacked him – and simultaneously explained his own suddenly-conservative positions.
The most dynamic moment of the debate came when Formed Senator Rick Santorum hit Perry on Perry’s policy of giving a cheaper tuition rate to illegal alien kids than to American kids. Whew! That is not popular among Republicans! And Perry sank like a stone from that point on.
The latest Rasmussen Reports poll of likely GOP primary voters – taken before last night’s debate - shows Perry’s one-time eleven-point lead over Mitt Romney has almost disappeared. He now leads Romney 28%-24%. The fact that his lead is dissipating may very well mean that Perry, like other out-of-nowhere candidates i.e. Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann, is also beginning to deteriorate.
Last night’s performance will only accelerate Perry’s decline.
Former US Rep. John LeBoutillier is co-host of CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL, along with co-hosts Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, airing live every Monday at 2 PM ET on Foxnews.com.
