Perry, Gingrich stand out in GOP debate

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry turned in is strongest debate performance of the campaign Saturday, though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stole the show by schooling debate moderators on terrorist assassinations and refusing their efforts to get him to criticize frontrunner Mitt Romney.

With the nation’s economy resisting recovery and joblessness stubbornly high, foreign policy issues have played only a minor role in the GOP debates this election cycle. But those issues took center stage in Saturday’s meeting in South Carolina, a crucial early-primary state.