Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry sparred within the first five minutes of Wednesday’s debate, attacking each other’s records and experience and even making a few personal jabs.
After Romney challenged Texas Gov. Perry’s lack of experience in the private sector, Perry battered Romney’s record of job creation when he was governor of Massachusetts.
“While [Romney] had a good private sector record, his public sector record did not match that,” Perry said.
When the debate moderators tried to move on to other candidates, Romney held up his hand and demanded a chance to respond.
“Wait a second… states are different,” Romney said. “Texas is a great state. Texas has zero income tax. Texas has a right to work state, a Republican legislature, a Republican Supreme Court. Texas has a lot of oil and gas in the ground. Those are wonderful things, but Governor Perry doesn’t believe he created those things — if he tried to say that, that would be like Al Gore trying to say he invented the Internet.”
The audience erupted in laughter and Romney continued, defending his record as governor of Massachusetts by arguing that his state was worse off than Texas when he became took office.
Perry interjected, saying, “[former Massachusetts Gov.] Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt.”
Romney responded, “Well, as a matter of fact, [former Texas Gov.] George Bush and his predeccesor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, governor.”
