MANCHESTER, N.H. – In the nearly three weeks since his weak performance at the Republican presidential debate in Orlando, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been traveling around the country telling audiences he’s not a very good debater. On Tuesday night, when the GOP field gathers to debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Perry will have a chance to prove himself wrong. And if ever a candidate needed to prove himself wrong, it is Rick Perry.
The showdown at Dartmouth will be different from earlier debates. The discussion will be restricted “exclusively [to] issues related to the economy, debt, deficits, taxes, trade and jobs, the topic most on the minds of American voters,” says a spokesman for Bloomberg News, one of the media co-hosts along with the Washington Post.
It’s not clear whether that will help or hurt Perry, the struggling former front-runner.
Perry presumably won’t have to face questions about Pakistan and mandatory vaccinations — two topics that tripped him up in earlier debates. As far as immigration is concerned — Perry’s toughest issue so far — organizers have not said whether it will or will not be on the agenda.
If it is, Perry will surely face more criticism of his stand on in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants. Perry has recently refined his answers on the topic — he stresses the requirements students must meet to qualify for subsidies — but in recent town hall appearances in Iowa, he has faced a lot of skeptical questions on the topic. His team won’t be disappointed if debate moderators steer away from it.
But it is in the area thought to be Perry’s strongest suit — the economy and jobs — that the Texas governor might increasingly have a problem. In two months on the campaign trail, Perry’s economic program has been essentially one sentence: Look what I did in Texas. Now, voters want more specifics.
In the Orlando debate, Fox News moderator Bret Baier pointed out that most of the candidates have produced detailed plans for economic recovery. Perry hasn’t. “Where is your jobs plan?” Baier asked.
“Well, you will see a more extensive jobs plan,” Perry said. But it’s been almost three weeks since the debate, and Perry still hasn’t released a specific economic strategy. It’s still Texas, Texas, Texas. “People understand that the state of Texas, during the last decade, something special happened there,” Perry says.
Meanwhile, front-runner Mitt Romney is quoting at length from his 59-point economic plan, and the surging Herman Cain is almost chanting “9-9-9.” Perry needs a plan; a debate specifically devoted to the economy seems a reasonable place to unveil it.
Whatever the plan, Perry will certainly launch new attacks on Romney. On the eve of the debate, Perry released a new web ad, “Romney’s Remedy,” targeting — again — Romney’s universal health care plan in Massachusetts. “Romneycare has cost $8 billion and killed 18,000 Massachusetts jobs, yet Mitt Romney wrote in his book that his plan was a model for the nation,” said Perry spokesman Mark Miner.
A few days earlier, Perry released another ad, this one charging that Romney’s environmental policies in Massachusetts are a “carbon copy” of President Obama’s. At the debate, Perry is likely to bring up Romney’s efforts to limit carbon emissions and his work with left-leaning environmentalists while governor of Massachusetts.
There’s no doubt Perry needs a boost in New Hampshire. Several polls have him about 25 points behind Romney here, and in the most recent survey he was 33 points back — tied for fifth in the GOP field. Even if Perry is not counting on doing well in New Hampshire, finishing that far back in the pack might hurt him elsewhere.
Why is Perry doing so badly here? Obviously he started late, while Romney is well-known here and owns a summer house in the state. In talks with voters, some said they oppose Perry on immigration, but more cite personal impressions. Several mentioned cultural differences; Perry seems cocky, they say, in a Texas way that doesn’t play well in New Hampshire. Perry could possibly overcome that, but it would probably take an investment in time and money that he is not prepared to make.
Of course, the debate, while it’s the first in New Hampshire since June, is also directed toward a national audience. And judging by recent talks with voters in Florida, South Carolina, and here, Republicans just want to see Rick Perry do better. They know debates aren’t everything, but they’d like Perry more if he were talking about his victory, and not his excuses.
Byron York, The Examiner’s chief political correspondent, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blogposts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.
