Rick Perry forgot his lines during last night's debate
So Rick Perry had an agonizing 45-second brain freeze during last night's debate. And Mitt Romney's campaign is
giddy about it:
Officially, Romney advisers resisted the impulse to pile on Perry Wednesday night. Several Romney strategists, who’ve previously delighted in tweaking the rival they view as the most formidable, declined to comment on the Texas governor’s debate stumble.
“There is nothing I could say that could darken the moment that Rick Perry had up on stage,” intoned senior Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom.
Romneyworld's hope? That Perry's gaffe eliminates him from contention:
Romney backers are exquisitely aware that their only opponent with a conservative record and a sizable pot of campaign cash may have just imploded for good since his gaffe came in the wake of several exceptionally weak debate performances. There’s still a gaping space in the field for an anti-Romney conservative, but the list of plausible options is narrowing to approximately none.
Romney's campaign is right to be thrilled about Perry's stumble in the sense that it overshadowed everything else that happened in the debate—including Mitt Romney's weak performance. Not only did Romney stumble badly on both health care and auto bailouts, he also made the laughable claim that he is "a man of steadiness and constancy." And the site of the GOP crowd hailing Herman Cain as a hero and the warm reception given to Newt Gingrich is a reminder that Repubicans are still desperately seeking a not-Romney.
Even if Perry's gaffe sinks his campaign (and I actually doubt it hurts him as much as pundits predict), there's no way that it will make the Republican base forget a decade of Romney apostasy on issues that are important to them. Romney clearly sees the GOP nomination battle as a war of attrition and his campaign's strategy is to win by default by eliminating the opposition.
But Rick Perry isn't Mitt Romney's only opponent—both Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain are doing better in the polls than Perry. And if Rick Perry were to drop out of the race tomorrow, approximately none of his support would go to Mitt Romney. At this point, the only question is whether Perry's support would go to Cain, Gingrich, or perhaps one of the other candidates. So while Romney's campaign might like the idea of Perry imploding, given that their path to the nomination relies on a dividing the Republican base, they should be careful what they wish for.