I'm too lazy to get a picture of last night's debate, so here's an earlier one.
Not pictured: Multiple hydraulic lines that feed power to Rick Perry's facial muscles.
(Mario Anunzi/Reuters)
The reviews of the last Republican debate are in, and the reviews are not good. From the arch-conservative Weekly Standard:
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. After all, they still want to beat Obama—as do we. And they want to get along with the possible nominee and the other candidates and their supporters. They don’t want to rock the boat too much. But maybe the GOP presidential boat needs rocking.
The e-mails flooding into our inbox during the evening were less guarded. Early on, we received this missive from a bright young conservative: “I’m watching my first GOP debate…and WE SOUND LIKE CRAZY PEOPLE!!!!”
Kristol goes on to say, of Perry: "It was close to a disqualifying two hours for him."
Fox News hosted a column by Rich Lowry that ranked Perry no better:
[T]he story was Rick Perry. A few weeks ago, the question was how far and fast he would ascend; now, after his third debate, it's how much he'll drop.
Lowry's column also speaks to the effort Fox seems to be going to in order to boost Romney over Perry (the moderators during last night's debate seemed to go out of their way to prod Romney and Perry into fights, which was ... interesting).
I'm not sure I see Perry's performance as being all that bad, when compared to any of the others. Yes, Perry has a speaking style that makes the animatronic figures in Disney's Hall of Presidents seem positively charismatic, and yes, he does give the impression of being quite possibly dumber than George W. Bush, which is an accomplishment, but is that really markedly worse than some of the ridiculous, silly, bigoted, fact-challenged anarchist nonsense spouted by other candidates on the stage? I'm not sure it is. Merely being wooden and dumb may be a selling point, when surrounded by people that make perennial crackpot Ron Paul look like a reasonable fellow in comparison.
The more pressing issue for Republicans might just be that their own conservative viewers are watching the debate and firing off emails lamenting, as above, "WE SOUND LIKE CRAZY PEOPLE!!!!" Well, yes. Yes you do. The tea party wing of the party has such tight control over the agenda that, as usual, any deviance from the hardest of hardline positions is tantamount to apostasy. That's why the most applauded attacks on Perry were over him being insufficiently pro-cancer, or not being sufficiently punishing of the children of illegal immigrants, and why the most rebroadcast snippets of each of the last three debates were the moments when the conservative audience (1) applauded the death penalty, (2) demanded that a hypothetical uninsured American be left to die rather than be treated, and (3) booed an active-duty soldier because he was gay.
It looks like the general GOP reactions are going to go in two different directions. A great number of Republican leaders and pundits (e.g. Mitch Daniels and the like) are still seeking an imaginary "better" candidate, someone who will save them from the current crop of ridiculous figures. Another large segment (Fox News and allies) seems to be heavily pressing for Romney to be accepted as that non-ridiculous candidate, hopefully before these debates damage his credibility beyond repair. Indeed, even the tea party seems to be begrudgingly willing to give Romney a chance, ironically because Perry is, of all things, being too moderate for them:
The head of an influential Tea Party group that has been outspoken against Mitt Romney signaled Friday that their opposition to the former Massachusetts governor is softening as Rick Perry falters.
"Romney has an opportunity to rehabilitate himself," Matt Kibbe, chairman and CEO of FreedomWorks, told The Huffington Post in an interview.
Perry, the Texas governor, who entered the race about six weeks ago, has stumbled after a meteoric start, Kibbe said.
"It looks to me like Rick Perry has been buttoned down by political handlers. He was being very cautious last night. It was as if someone told him he wasn't allowed to say what he wanted to say, so he sort of fumbled a couple things," Kibbe said.
How that translates into supporting the one candidate explicitly positioning himself as a moderate I have no idea, but nobody ever accused the tea party of consistency—and FreedomWorks, as one of the right's more prominent astroturf groups, is likely to align itself ever more closely with the business interests of the party as the primaries go on.
Bottom line: The debate made all of the candidates look pretty awful, but as far as conservative pundits are concerned, they've coalesced around Rick Perry as being the one most in trouble. Bachmann and Santorum have been nearly forgotten. Romney has deep problems with the base, Ron Paul continues to be very studiously ignored by the national media, and newcomer Gary Johnson's performance was so painful that it looked like he was only there because he won a "come debate with actual presidential candidates" contest down at the local supermarket. No savior there, either.
So there's not much for them to be happy about today.