Suzanne Staton' blog: Political Memo: Leading the Pack Brings New Perils, Perry Discovers

Political Memo

By JEFF ZELENY

Published: September 13, 2011

TAMPA, Fla. ? There is a good time to be a presidential front-runner. Now is not necessarily that time.

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Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has spent the last month reaping the rewards of being the freshest candidate in the Republican presidential race. He has attracted the attention of window-shopping Republicans. He has satisfied the initial craving of party activists who are searching for a conservative with a sturdy and commanding presence.

Yet when Mr. Perry awoke here on Tuesday after taking part in his second presidential debate, the downsides of being tagged as the Republican front-runner were coming into sharper focus. He arrived in Tampa intent on clarifying his view of Social Security. He left town with a new set of issues for his rivals to delve into when they reconvene for another debate next week.

The lectern that Mr. Perry has been standing behind as he introduces himself to voters in his nationally televised appearances has become a pedestal. And his Republican rivals are persistently ? and, for their own preservation, urgently ? trying to knock him off.

His 32-day-old candidacy is still flourishing. But at this stage of the campaign, Mr. Perry is unable to employ a trick that Mitt Romney clung to for much of the year when he was sitting atop the polls and the field: intentionally lay low and avoid altercations.

At his first debate last week in California, Mr. Perry cracked, ?I kind of feel like the pi�ata here at the party.? As the second debate drew to a close here on Monday night, he had spent so much time defending his Texas record there was hardly time to joke about it.

He was frequently challenged.

?I think we ought to have a conversation,? Mr. Perry said when pushed to detail his plan to stabilize the Social Security program.

?We?re having that right now, governor,? Mr. Romney replied. ?We?re running for president.?

He struggled to get the last word.

?If you?re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I?m offended,? Mr. Perry said, trying to end a heated exchange about whether campaign donations played any factor in his executive order requiring the vaccinations of sixth-grade girls against a virus that causes sexually transmitted diseases.

?I?m offended for all the little girls and the parents that didn?t have a choice,? said Representative Michele Bachman of Minnesota, drawing cheers and applause from the audience. ?That?s what I?m offended for.?

While Mr. Perry received a warm reception from an audience of about 1,000 Tea Party activists who gathered at the Florida State Fairgrounds on Monday, his performance showed that his transition from governor to presidential candidate is still a work in progress. His advisers believe he withstood the attacks without significant damage to his candidacy, but they concede his answers could have been sharper and more precise.

In a message on Twitter, Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who was a top adviser to Senator John McCain and is not aligned with a candidate in this campaign, expressed his skepticism as the debate unfolded.

?Listening to Perry try to a put a complicated policy sentence together is like watching a chimp play with a locked suitcase,? Mr. Murphy wrote.

The most stinging attacks came from the right side of the spectrum, where candidates like Mrs. Bachmann and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania are feverishly trying to plant seeds of doubt among conservatives to prevent the campaign from narrowing to a two-man race between Mr. Perry and Mr. Romney.

The lifespan of a presidential campaign often features a revolving door of front-runners.

At this point four years ago, neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidates leading the polls ultimately won their nomination. Yet 12 years ago, George W. Bush carried the banner of a Republican front-runner straight to the White House.

When it was Mr. Romney?s turn in the seat for the first half of this year, he stayed out of sight and seldom interacted with other candidates or the news media as he steeled for more difficult days ahead. That preparation, which is a luxury that Mr. Perry does not have because of his late entry into the race, has become apparent during the presidential debates.

Not only does Mr. Romney know when to speak, saying: ?The term ?Ponzi scheme,? I think, is over the top and unnecessary and frightful to many people.? He also knows when to stay out of the conversation, which he demonstrated by remaining silent during the intense discussion about mandating vaccinations for school girls.

Mr. Perry, for as long as he holds a lead among Republicans in national and state polls, will continue to take the biggest barrage of incoming attacks from rivals.

It is one of the drawbacks of entering the race just as the warm-up period is coming to a close. The current series of debates ? five forums over a six-week stretch of September and October ? are defining the contest more than nearly anything else the candidates are doing.

As the candidates of the summer give way to the rigors of a fall campaign, Republicans are far from certain which candidate will emerge as the party?s nominee to challenge President Obama next year.

Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race last month a day after Mr. Perry entered, said being branded as the front-runner was a blessing and a curse. He endorsed Mr. Romney?s on Monday and was sitting in the audience during the debate.

?The ultimate candidate and even the finalists have a long road in front of them,? Mr. Pawlenty said in an interview on Tuesday. ?There will be lots of ebbs and flows to this. The front-runner position can be perilous, and history shows that things change over 6 to 8 or 10 months in these races.?