Running at the front of the pack – expect a target on your back. Texas Governor Rick Perry had the experience during the Tea Part Express debate on Monday. Perry may have set the bulls-eye in place with the recent release of his book, and comments concerning Social Security.
The Republican candidates lined up and squared off largely against Rick Perry, who is perceived to be the current front-runner for the nomination in the 2012 presidential race.
As for his ability to withstand the verbal assaults, the consensus seems to be that the governor took the shots with aplomb and occasionally fired back.
The main issues targeting Perry were Social Security, job creation, and a controversial vaccination order. Regarding the Social Security program, which he earlier termed a “Ponzi scheme” and unconstitutional, Perry seemed to soften his stance. “A program that’s been there 70 or 80 years,” said Perry, “Obviously we’re not going to take that away.”
Michele Bachmann and former Senator Rick Santorum both assailed Perry’s executive order that required young girls to receive a vaccination preventing a cancer-causing sexually transmitted disease. Bachmann called the 2007 edict by Perry “flat out wrong” and a “violation of a liberty interest.”
When Mitt Romney took the first jabs during the opening moments of the debate, Perry did not dispute the charges that he called Social Security an absolute failure. He had made the charges in his recently published book, calling the program one that “violently [tosses] aside any respect for our founding principals of federalism and limited government.”
The Republican debate was staged in Tampa, Florida by tea party groups and CNN.
