Each of the individual candidates may have had their strong and weak moments in last night’s debate, but a dominant strategy clearly emerged: If you are going to attack someone, attack them from the right.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got off to an awful start when he again parroted DNC talking points on entitlement spending. When Texas Gov. Rick Perry shot back, telling Romney to stop “trying to scare seniors,” the debate audience erupted in approval. The exchange made Romney looked weak and completely out of touch with Americans growing intolerance for the federal government’s addiction to overspending.
But Perry had his weak moments too. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., both won applause for their criticism of Perry’s executive order requiring girls to get a cancer vaccine. Bachmann went first: “I’m a mom. And I’m a mom of three children. And to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong. That should never be done. It’s a violation of a liberty interest.” Santorum added: “There is no government purpose served for having little girls inoculated at the force and compulsion of the government. This is big government run amok. It is bad policy, and it should not have been done.”
Attacking other candidates was not the only way to win applause last night. Making conservative critiques of Obama’s policies and record also made candidates look good. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich got off some of the best lines in this area including:
and
Those candidates not named Rick Perry have every reason to try and knock the frontrunner down. Last night should show them that the way to do that is to hit him from the right, not the left.
GOP Debate
The Washington Examiner‘s Phil Klein: “If tonight’s Republican debate did one thing, it exposed the weaknesses of the entire Republican field. Texas Gov. Rick Perry received the brunt of the attacks tonight, and had an uneven performance overall. No huge gaffes, but he continued to raise questions about his command of details, and faced his toughest criticism yet from the right on immigration and the HPV vaccine.”
The Washington Examiner‘s Michael Barone: “The toughest attack on Rick Perry came not from Mitt Romney on Social Security, but from Michele Bachmann on his executive order requiring girls to be inoculated against the HPV virus. Bachmann got specific in charging Perry with “crony capitalism” because his former chief of staff was a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical company that made the vaccine. Perry manfully explained that parents could opt out of the immunizations, but Bachmann’s charge packed an emotional and intellectual punch.”
The Washington Examiner‘s Byron York: “Perry had become a candidate the voters did not see in last week’s debate at the Reagan Library. He was at times hesitant, forced off his game by Romney, Bachmann, Paul, and Santorum, and perhaps in need of more preparation. It’s likely he’ll do a little more studying for the next debate, presented by Fox News, on September 22.”
National Review‘s Rich Lowry: “Last week I thought Perry’s affect–confident and loose–trumped his weakness on a couple of answers. Tonight, I thought it was the other way around. He was good sparring with Romney on Social Security and jobs in Texas … But it was downhill after that. It’s amazing that he’s still defending the idea that Bernanke could be guilty of near-treason. Bachmann and Santorum tag-teamed him on Gardasil … it’s a vulnerability for Perry, and Bachmann bringing up the donation connection is a sign of cronyism attacks to come.”
National Review‘s Shannen Coffin: “Romney lost badly in his exchange with Perry on Social Security. He sounds a lot like a Democrat, and Perry rightly called him out on “scaring” seniors. It is not clear why Romney thinks this is a winning approach for him.”
The Weekly Standard‘s Fred Barnes: “If a debate more than four months before the first vote is cast can influence the outcome of a presidential nomination race, the debate last night among eight Republicans should aid Mitt Romney’s candidacy. Seldom has there been as clear a winner.”
Future of Capitalism‘s Ira Stoll: “Governor Perry took some tough hits, both on the vaccine issue and on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, but both issues were previously known, if not to the broader electorate then at least to those who have been paying close attention.”
Around the Bigs
The Washington Examiner, Obama would raise taxes to pay for jobs plan: President Obama proposed $467 billion in tax hikes to pay for his second $450 billion economic stimulus plan yesterday. The specific tax hikes proposed are mostly the same ones Obama pushed in the debt limit debate: higher taxes on charitable giving, higher taxes on energy production, higher taxes on investment, and higher taxes on corporate jets.
The Wall Street Journal, BofA Readies the Knife: Bank of America Corp. announced yesterday that they are cutting 30,000 jobs by the end of 2013 as part of an effort to cut $5 billion in annual costs.
The New York Times, U.S. Spending Billions on Rural Jobs, but Impact Is Uncertain: After spending billions on broadband services on subsidized loans in rural areas, the Obma administration has little evidence to show they are creating any jobs. “The truth is we don’t know how much worse it would have been if not for this funding,” Mississippi State University professor lionel Beaulieu tells The Times.
The Washington Post, Revolving door of employment between Congress, lobbying firms, study shows: According to data published by the online disclosure site LegiStorm, almost 5,400 former congressional staffers have left Capitol Hill to become federal lobbyists in the past 10 years.
The Los Angeles Times, Pentagon to drastically cut spending on Afghan forces: Under pressure from the White House, the Pentagon will cut spending on Afghanistan by half by 2014.
Campaign 2012
NY 09: Despite a 3-to-1 registration advantage, Democrats are poised to lose the special election race to replace Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., today. “This is about demographics that are different than people anticipated and it is about an electorate that is not happy with the president,” New York City Democratic political strategist Hank Sheinkopf told The Examiner‘s Susan Ferrechio.
Romney: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty endorsed Mitt Romney on Fox and Friends yesterday morning. Hours later, Politico reported that Romney will pay off Pawlenty’s campaign debts.
Perry: Gov. Bobby Jindal announced he is endorsing Rick Perry yesterday: “The 1 million jobs he’s helped create as governor is a stark contrast to the 2.4 million jobs lost on President Obama’s watch. Rick Perry will bring our country more than hope – he’ll get America working again,” Jindal said.
Obama: According to a new poll by the centrist Democratic group Third Way, only 16% of voters who voters who backed Obama in 2008 but voted for a Republican in the midterm elections say they will vote for Obama in 2012.
Righty Playbook
Under the header Doubts About Perry Echo Those Faced by Reagan, The Wall Street Journal‘s Gerald Seib writes: “The question that nags Republicans about Mr. Perry is a simple one: Is he too ideological, too conservative or too extreme to win a general election? As it happens, that is the same question that dogged Ronald Reagan in 1980, right up until he won a smashing general-election victory over President Jimmy Carter.”
RedState‘s Leon Wolf is not happy about a anti-Perry flier the Romney campaign is circulating in Florida: “This level of Mediscare hackery (featuring a citation to the Huffington Post!) is shameful and unbecoming of a GOP candidate for President. In the first place, it dishonestly misrepresents Perry’s position, and hilariously leans (without any appreciable sense of irony) on the logical equivalent of the fact that Rick Perry has never denied beating his wife.”
At Philosophical Fragments, Timothy Dalrymple wants to see Ronald Reagan’s famous “Morning in America” campaign commercial again.
Lefty Playbook
Talking Points Memo‘s Josh Marshall on the GOP debate: “I thought it was another weak performance by Perry. Yes, he got off a number of lines that got applause from this crowd. … But I don’t think Perry’s got the same touch. He just doesn’t look ready. Over time I suspect these iffy performances will hurt him even in the GOP primary electorate.”
The Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein review the “populist pay-fors” of Obama’s second stimulus: “These aren’t new policy ideas. The Obama administration has been looking to cap itemized deductions since the 2009 budget. Nor are they bipartisan policy ideas: a Republican who voted for any of them would be breaking Grover Norquist’s pledge.”
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