Rivals challenge front-runner Rick Perry
Candidates vying for the Republican nomination sparred with Rick Perry at a CNN/Tea Party Express debate in Florida.
What happened
The Republican presidential field turned its fire on the front-runner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, this week, ripping his record on Social Security, immigration, and a mandatory vaccine program for teen girls. At a CNN/Tea Party Express debate in Florida, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney—running second to Perry in the polls—challenged Perry to explain his description of Social Security as a “failure” and a “Ponzi scheme.” Republicans, said Romney, could not afford to nominate a candidate who wants to end the program. In an attempt to soften previous comments, Perry assured seniors that if he were elected president, the entitlement program would be “slam-dunk guaranteed” to remain in place, but that it required wholesale reform to survive. The two candidates also battled over jobs. Romney said his years as a corporate executive gave him superior knowledge of the private sector, while Perry said the pro-business policies he’s instituted in Texas would help the U.S. economy “take off like a rocket ship.”
Several candidates questioned Perry’s conservative credentials. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum blasted Perry for allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay lower, in-state tuition to attend Texas state colleges. Immigrants deserved the right to become “contributing members of our society,” said Perry, to boos from the debate’s conservative audience. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann assailed an executive order Perry signed in 2007 mandating that preteen girls receive a vaccine to prevent HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cancer. He admitted that was a “mistake,’’ but Bachmann accused Perry of trying to force “a government injection” on “innocent little 12-year-old girls.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What the editorials said
We do need a serious conversation about Social Security, said The Wall Street Journal, but so far, we haven’t heard one from either Perry or Romney. Perry’s “hot rhetoric” is more likely to alarm seniors than to persuade them the program needs fixing, while Romney is using Democratic-style scare tactics. The truth is, Social Security is a kind of Ponzi scheme, but “unlike a Ponzi scheme, Social Security can be reformed.” The candidates need to explain how.
We deserve more clarity on immigration too, said The Washington Post. The candidates have so far been vague and evasive on the issue, focusing on their “secure the border” mantra when, in fact, illegal crossings are at their lowest level in 40 years. The real issue is the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are already here. Perry showed real guts, though, in defending in-state tuition for immigrants’ children, said The Sacramento Bee. Braving the boos of the Tea Party will impress the “moderate independents” likely to decide the 2012 election.
What the columnists said
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The feud over Social Security helps only one candidate, said Ed Kilgore in The New Republic, and that’s Barack Obama. While Romney and Perry wrangle over “whether to demolish or merely slash” Social Security, the president can present the 2012 election as a “choice between two very different visions of American government”—rather than a referendum on his handling of the economy.
Even if Social Security doesn’t hurt Perry, said Steve Kornacki in Salon.com, the HPV-vaccine controversy might. The vaccine is an issue that “matters deeply to religious conservatives,” who believe it promotes sexual promiscuity. If Bachmann, who is Perry’s main competition for the Christian Right’s vote, can use the issue to win the caucuses in evangelical Iowa, it could do “serious damage to Perry’s candidacy.”
All in all, it was a good week for Mitt Romney, said Beth Reinhard and Alex Roarty in TheAtlantic.com. Establishment Republicans are sweating over the “swaggering, cowboy-boot-wearing” conservatism Perry has now displayed in two debates. All Romney has to do is play the “cool corporate executive,” let secondary candidates chew away at Perry’s support on the Right, and wait for the party to turn to him. But in 1980, the GOP establishment had similar doubts about another very conservative candidate, said Gerald F. Seib in The Wall Street Journal. Like Perry, this candidate got “conservative juices flowing,” had no love for Washington, and was attacked for “questioning the wisdom” of Social Security. His name? Ronald Reagan.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - September 7, 2024
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - football widows, meddling kids, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Smoking ban: the return of the nanny state?
Talking Point Starmer's plan to revive Sunak-era war on tobacco has struck an unsettling chord even with some non-smokers
By The Week UK Published
-
Crossword: September 7, 2024
The Week's daily crossword puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
The final fate of Flight 370
feature Malaysian officials announced that radar data had proven that the missing Flight 370 “ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The airplane that vanished
feature The mystery deepened surrounding the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
A drug kingpin’s capture
feature The world’s most wanted drug lord, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was captured by Mexican marines in the resort town of Mazatlán.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
A mixed verdict in Florida
feature The trial of Michael Dunn, a white Floridian who fatally shot an unarmed black teen, came to a contentious end.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
New Christie allegation
feature Did a top aide to the New Jersey governor tie Hurricane Sandy relief funds to the approval of a development proposal in the city of Hoboken?
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
A deal is struck with Iran
feature The U.S. and five world powers finalized a temporary agreement to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
End-of-year quiz
feature Here are 40 questions to test your knowledge of the year’s events.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Note to readers
feature Welcome to a special year-end issue of The Week.
By The Week Staff Last updated