Less than four years ago, Rick Perry led in national polls of Republican presidential primary voters. Now the former Texas governor can’t qualify for Thursday’s debate featuring the top ten.
It was a near miss for Perry, who seemed poised to take the final spot in the debate until Ohio Gov. John Kasich outperformed in the late polls. Perry’s consolation prize will be the “happy hour” debate, an earlier forum with seven candidates who didn’t make the cut.
The spot is a new one for the longest-serving governor in Texas history. Perry took the center spot on the debate stage at the Reagan Library last time around and likened himself to a piñata after Mitt Romney and others took aim at the new front-runner.
Reacting to the news Tuesday, Perry kept his head held high, saying on Twitter that he looks forward to a “serious exchange of ideas” during the undercard event.
“I look forward to being @FoxNews 5pm debate for what will be a serious exchange of ideas & positive solutions to get America back on track,” Perry tweeted.
Can Perry get his presidential aspirations back on track? Some old Perry hands are skeptical the early Thursday evening event will give him the opportunity to do so.
“I think it’s a huge difference — night and day,” said Dave Carney, a former top strategist for Perry. “People are thinking optimistically that there will be more substance at the first debate and, therefore, they may be able to shine more than they would at a ten person debate later in the evening. But I think that’s a little idealistic.”
“The first debate will get written up and the first stories will be so-and-so did really good, they talked about serious things and there were no fireworks,” Carney explained. “And then you have the [second] debate, which has potential to be volcanic, and that will dominate the coverage.”
Perry will be surrounded by candidates like 2012 GOP runner-up Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (who endorsed Perry in 2012) and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, all of whom will be looking to break out and launch themselves into the next debate with the top tier candidates in the race.
Liz Mair, a Republican strategist who worked for Perry’s previous presidential campaign, says that the main event will hurt by the absence of the former Texas governor and Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“It’s unfortunate that Gov. Perry won’t be participating in the debate,” Mair said. “A) I suspect it would show him much-improved since 2012 and B) neither of the veterans in this race will be onstage at a time when national security topics loom large.”
The Perry campaign remains confident that the former governor will prove to be an effective candidate going forward.
“History is proof that nothing is over this early in the campaign,” campaign manager Jeff Miller told Breitbart Wednesday, adding that they are looking forward to “a thoughtful discussion on the future of America with no sideshows.”
Though Perry is looking to score points Thursday, it’s going to be hard, according to Carney, who compared the undercard event to the NFL Pro Bowl.
“I just don’t know how anybody will get much out of the first debate unless something dramatic happens, which generally is bad news for somebody, not good,” Carney said. “It’s a consolation prize, and other than hand grenades and horse shoes, coming close is no prize at all. It’s not good.”
“Who won the Pro Bowl last year? Everybody knows Tom Brady won the Super Bowl. That’s exactly what this is,” Carney said. “This is the Pro Bowl consolation prize for those who aren’t at the Super Bowl.”
