The Republican presidential candidates will make their case to conservative voters in Florida on Friday, attending a CPAC event for activists to press them on issues like national security, limited government and social values that will likely echo questions from their debate of a night before.
The all-day event includes a straw vote of the nine candidates who appeared at Thursday night’s debate hosted by Fox News, Google and the Republican Party of Florida, where there was no shortage of fireworks but which appeared to underscore the familiar themes and dynamics of the race.
Frontrunner Rick Perry, the most popular target for attack aside from President Obama, stepped up his jabs against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, so much to the point that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman wondered if the two would bludgeon each other.
Among the pointed go-rounds between Perry and Romney was over their written vs. spoken word on Social Security and health care. Questioned on whether Perry thinks Social Security should be run by the states, Romney suggested that the Texas governor had flipped from his prior view.
“There’s a Rick Perry out there that is saying — and almost to quote, it says that the federal government shouldn’t be in the pension business, that it’s unconstitutional. Unconstitutional and it should be returned to the states. So you better find that Rick Perry and get him to stop saying that,” Romney quipped.
But Perry said Americans who are in the government’s retirement program or close to joining it have nothing to worry about, because it won’t be dismantled.
“Now, it’s not the first time that Mitt has been wrong on some issues before,” Perry said.
The other seven challengers who participated in the debate were looking to gain ground on the leading pair. They were Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, businessman Herman Cain, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.
Johnson delivered what was perhaps the best-received line of the night when he attacked President Obama’s record on creating “shovel-ready” jobs.
“My next-door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration,” he said to large laughter.
The debate enabled the viewing public to weigh in with votes on questions they wanted asked. More than 18,000 questions and 100,000 votes were submitted via text and videos to the YouTube.com/FoxNews website.
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2 Responses
Perry & Romney are beginning to sound like clowns at these debates, I can’t listen to them seriously any more.
1. Social Security is a “ponzi” scheme – the question is what to do about it – Perry’s on strong ground.
2. Most people would probably agree with the statement that if someone is paying state taxes, their child should attend that state’s university paying the in-state rate. Perry is on strong ground.
3. Building a border fence is ridiculous — sealing the border requires other solutions. Perry can speak from being the person who lives next to the fence and would have to deal with its implications.