Rick Perry to make 2012 debate debut

Who will be the next GOPer to get knocked out? (Photos: Reuters)
 

Who will be the next GOPer to get knocked out? (Photos: Reuters)
 

NBC's First Read:

By the way, it’s now official: The Sept. 7 NBC-Politico debate will be the first that Perry attends. Per a release, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced that these eight Republicans will participate in the debate: Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Paul, Perry, Romney, and Santorum. The debate, which will be moderated by NBC’s Brian Williams and Politico’s John Harris, will take place at the Reagan Library’s Air Force One Pavilion beginning at 8:00 pm ET.

It'll be interesting to watch Perry, but it'll also be interesting to watch how his opponents approach him. Perry's got plenty of weak spots, but will his rivals try to exploit them? If they do, will they go at him from the left or from the right? For example, will any candidate be willing to go after Perry's plan to get rid of Social Security and Medicare? Or will they criticize his record on immigration, instead?

It'll also be interesting to see how Mitt Romney handles the debate. For the first time, he won't be on stage as a front-runner and he won't be able to use his say-nothing strategy to skate through the debate. He's going to have to actually mix things up, or marginalize himself to the point of irrelevancy. Whatever path he takes, it'll be entertaining. And we'll be discussing it here, live, on September 7.