With almost no one willing to defend a performance marked by meandering or inaccurate answers, botched canned lines and the damaging adoption of the left’s critique of conservatives on immigration, it’s hard to imagine how things could have gone much worse for Perry Thursday night.
Bill Kristol, the Weekly Standard editor, summed it up with one word: “Yikes.”
“Reading the reactions of thoughtful commentators after the stage emptied, talking with conservative policy types and GOP political operatives later last evening and this morning, we know we’re not alone. Most won’t express publicly just how horrified—or at least how demoralized—they are,” Kristol wrote.
Perry, he wrote, was “Awful. Just awful. After the first half hour he seemed unable to speak a coherent sentence, even when he was carefully prepared — and he made a cringe-inducing bungle of a rehearsed soundbite about Romney’s flip-flopping. It was one of the worst moments I can remember.”
National Review editor Rich Lowry offered a crippling assessment of Perry’s performance, pointing to “a handful of notably bad answers.”
Rick Perry sure knows how to mess up a good thing.
When he entered the presidential race last month, the Texas governor had an extraordinary opportunity.
The GOP base had strong, deep reservations about Mitt Romney, the only other heavy-hitter in the race, so if Perry could satisfy their thirst for purity while demonstrating competence as a candidate and campaigner, he'd be well-positioned to unify the party and run away with the nomination.
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