With one pugnacious debate performance—and chink in Romney’s armor—the
Texas governor’s all-but-inevitable campaign comeback has commenced. Matt
Latimer on five ways Perry can stay in the game, from money to Herman Cain
Undoubtedly a team of scientists already has been dispatched to Las Vegas
to study the phenomenon that tens of thousands of startled
CNN viewers saw firsthand Tuesday night. For the first time in the five
years since he launched his methodical, by-the-numbers, always placid,
PowerPoint–inspired campaign for the presidency of the United States, an emoticon
crossed Mitt Rombot’s faceplate. In layman’s terms, the former governor short-circuited. Even more surprising, the
first person ever to dent that metallic exterior was the same one politicos had
confidently written off only a few weeks ago.
Yes, Rick
Perry—who in two months was transformed by the punditry from political sage
to political sap—pulled off the feat that John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Rudy
Giuliani, and Fred Thompson could never muster: getting under Romney’s skin.
Despite glowing reviews, Perry’s was not an award-winning debate performance,
to be sure; one hopes someone will tell him to quit calling Herman Cain
“brother.” Yet his all-but-inevitable campaign comeback has commenced. One pundit went so far as to call the 2012 election
“Perry’s to lose.”
That may be
a stretch, but Tuesday’s televised encounter demonstrated that the Texas
governor has the tools to put himself back at the forefront.
What
follows are the top five ways his team still plans to make the 2012 Republican
nominating contest a real race:
1.) Rake
in the moolah. Lost in the headlines about Perry’s earlier debate
performances, Gov. Chris Christie’s flirtation with a bid, and the Romney
coronation by Republican elites is a simple, unalterable fact: in the most
recent fundraising quarter, Perry outraised every candidate in the
race—including the GOP’s frontrunner. A $17 million fundraising haul has a way
of altering the dynamic of a race, and the Perry folks intend to use that money
to do just that. The campaign ads are already being made (and if I were a
member of the Romney family, I wouldn’t want to rush to a TV set).
2.) Force
policy specifics. Perry’s advisers seek to take advantage of Romney’s image
as a hypercautious technocrat and position Perry as the agent of bold ideas.
The strategy is to force Romney to offer some policy specifics or risk the
label of the substance-free, “cotton candy” candidate. Already the Texas
governor has outlined a sweeping plan on energy, which has won praise from
conservatives. In Tuesday’s debate he even mused about cutting off funding to the United Nations. Up next: proposals on the economy,
including a national
flat tax. Specifics on health care, immigration, and foreign policy seem
certain to follow. Read More
