By Conn Carroll
Each of the individual candidates may have had their strong & weak moments in last nights 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 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 governments 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 Perrys executive order requiring girls to get a cancer vaccine.
Bachmann went first:
Im a mom. And Im 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. Its 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 Obamas policies and record also made candidates look good. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich got off some of the best lines in this area including:
Im not particularly worried about Governor Perry and Governor Romney frightening the American people when President Obama scares them every single day. … President Obama twice said recently he couldnt guarantee delivering the checks to Social Security recipients.
Now why should young people who are 16 to 25 years old have politicians have the power for the rest of their life to threaten to take away their Social Security?
And you know I was astonished the other night to have the president there in the joint session with the head of G.E. sitting up there and the president talking about taking care of loopholes. And I thought to myself doesnt he realize that every green tax credit is a loophole.
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 Examiners Phil Klein: If tonights 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 Examiners 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 Bachmanns charge packed an emotional and intellectual punch."
The Washington Examiners Byron York: Perry had become a candidate the voters did not see in last weeks 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. Its likely hell do a little more studying for the next debate presented by Fox News on September 22."
National Reviews Rich Lowry: Last week I thought Perrys affectconfident and loosetrumped 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. Its amazing that hes still defending the idea that Bernanke could be guilty of near-treason. Bachmann and Santorum tag-teamed him on Gardasil … its a vulnerability for Perry and Bachmann bringing up the donation connection is a sign of cronyism attacks to come."
National Reviews 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 Standards 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 Romneys candidacy. Seldom has there been as clear a winner."
Future of Capitalisms 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."
