. >> full court pile on. >> perry seems so unprepared. >> he's not great at coming back. >> perry was losing the crowd. >> mitch, you were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker. >> hpv. >> a vaccine on a disease that has spread through sexual intercourse. >> this is just flat-out wrong. >> and then they lost them on immigration. >> that is not the american way. >> buenos noches mi amigos. >> job growth was 10% a year. >> i think you need to know what a real texas accent sounds like. >> good evening from new york. closely following the advice given to him on this program, not by me, president obama took his american jobs act on the road again today, this time to ohio, home state of house speaker john boehner. the president spoke to a crowd of more than 3,000 people at a columbus area school campus that recently completed a major modernization and renovation. the kind the president has proposed doing across the country in his jobs bill. >> those of you here at ft. hays have been making it happen. see, a few years back you decided to renovate this school. and you didn't just r

one would seem to run counter to what rick perry was saying, but rick perry did certainly hit upon somethingat this number right here. are there problems with social security? and here, major changes, are they needed? 55% say, yes. that is the case. of course, this is all tied in to one thing. the economy, ali. >> and this is -- this is interesting, because rick perry kind of made this an issue. social security's sort of a back burner concern to a lot of people. it's tied to our debt and deficit concerns but he's put this in the forefront. does this help him ultimately or not that these polls show not everybody believes his characterization of it? >> could be potentially a devastating issue in the general election. republican versus democrat. right now in the primary, it's not hurting him. in fact at the debate, that wasn't the big issue. we saw social security, up to last night, for rick perry now it's about mandates he has to deal with and illegal immigration. >> we'll be talking a lot more about it. thank, mark preston. back to christine. >> great work, you guys. appreciate that. >>> last

this is perry's to lose. perry has got the money. perry has the infrastructure. perry's got the conservative right wing christians. perry, it's his to lose. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. talking about tonight's social security. do you trust the republicans with your social security? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com and make a comment. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. >>> let's turn now to jim moore, "huffington post" contributor and author of the book "why rick perry will make americans miss george w. bush." and dave weigel with us tonight. and democratic strategist. gentlemen, glad to have us tonight. mr. cook, did rick perry do anything to hurt himself tonight in defending his position on where he stands on social security? >> no, i don't think he did. i actually think he helped himself tonight. i did think, though, that last week during the msnbc debate he got off his own narrative by talking so ardently about social security and that's what gave the other candidates

rick perry came out strong. everyone held themselves to the end and perry needed to do well. i think he did well. i don't think the social security exchange helps romney at all. i think he's foolish to continue it. he may want to go after perry on hpv or i am dprags. i think the majority believe with perry. for the life of me, i can't understand why he would go with this. >>> governor roland, your take. >> if you're ayala continue owe voter, the last thing you want to hear is some of the things you heard. colorado, new mexico, arizona will be -- the gop did themselves no favor in trying to curry with latino. so much emphasis, talking about social security, talking about a balanced budget, most of the -- >> it came up in abolished in the department of education. >> right. that's the only moment it came up. frankly, if you're a parent trying to get your kid educated. they didn't speak to the crisis when it comes to education. major failure in that not coming up. >>> gloria bore jer? >> i think anderson what we saw was this race is far from over. there's an internal fight going

. >>> mitt romney and rick perry. they're not waiting until tonight's debate in orlando to go after each other. romney has been hammering at perry on issues critical to floridians such as social security. perry fired back that romney is acting like a good democrat. tensions swell as the stakes grow higher, especially for perry tonight. >>> also, building a bridge for the 2012 re-election fight. president obama heads to cincinnati. talk of infrastructure in need of repair. the bridge that connects the home states of john boehner and mitch mcconnell. >>> fears of another government shutdown loom yet again after a temporary funding bill. not even a full-fledged one. goes south. a rare bipartisan rebuke for the republican leadership. it's thursday, september 22nd, 2011. this is "the daily rundown." i'm back in washington. i'm chuck todd. let's get to my first read of the morning. we begin with orlando. all eyes on the political world today are on the two battleground states that could decide the 2012 presidential race. fl

governor perry standing by what he said. he says the issue now is reforming it, but look for this to continue on what he said in the book, not what he said in the essay, the fact that he thinks the founding fathers would turn in their graves, social security shouldn't be there. governor perry now wants to talk about fixing it, not whether he would support it if the the first place. this will continue. >> i want to bring in a round robin to get initial impressions of what you heard tonight from all our panelists. eric ericson, what are your head leans going to be? >> well, i think this may be the first debate where mitt romney didn't come out the clear winner, rick perry came in strong, and really i think everyone held themselves to the end, and perry needed to do well. i think he did well. i don't think the social security exchange helps mitt romney at all at a republican primary. he's foolish to continue, and he may want to go after perry on immigration or hpv. i think the majority of republican voters agree with perry. for

taking 37% to perry's 15%. perry did eke out second place over mitt romney. perry's loss in florida is blamed on his debate showing both in substance and style and seeming inability to effectively attack romney. >> was it was before he was before the social programs from the standpoint he was for standing up for roe versus wade before he was against roe versus wade. >> perry defended his performs at saginaw island, michigan where he was competing in that state's romneyesque straw poll. >> there may be slicker candidates and smoother debaters. i know what i believe in. i will stand on that belief every day. i will guide this country with a deep, deep rudder. >> mitt romney handily beat perry in his former state of michigan where his father was governor and romney grew up. beat perry by 34 points. they know if romney this is nominee, their state may be in play. there was a sympathetic play on perry's bad 96 hours came from somebody who had to deal with bad debate performances before with clients, that was mary madeline. what she said on abc. >> rick perry is no

so they are looking at rick perry and right now, rick perry's biggest competitor is rick perry.t to introduce himself to the american people. he's using these debates to do so. and so, republicans and the rest of mer car looking at him and trying to figure out just who he is. so far, republicans like what they see. >> now rick perry seems, gloria, to have backed away from his long time critique of social security. he called in his book "fed up", calling it a ponzi scheme. but it looks like mitt romney will try to hammer him on it tonight. what does mitt romney try to do to chip away at rick perry. are romney people shocked at rick perry's rocket rise to the top? >> well, what rick perry did today, in a piece in usa today's kind of nuance, brooke, he didn't quite back way from it, but he said we need to reform it. not kill it. we need it reform it for younger voters. i would argue that's a little bit avenuance shift. but of doesn't really matter because mitt romney and perhaps michele bachmann are going to, not chip away at him, they are going to hammer away at him. there a flier

perry, 42%. romney, 26%.p shots at one moment in time. i believe as this campaign unfold is that mitt romney is the most knowledgeable, capable and electable candidate under this race. i don't have any doubt about that role of and i think you will see the change in the coming months? >> what's the worst part about rick perry? >> i don't know that there is a worst part. >> social security? >> governor romney, governor perry have different views. romney has the better view with which is let's fix it, reform it, put it on a better path. >> perry calls it a ponzi scheme. you think that will basically hurt him in the general election or republican contest? >> what i will say is romney has the better idea, which is let's fix it, get it back on stable and solid footing. but this idea of calling it a failure is not the wise path. >> what about you? when i immediately heard you were endorsing mitt romney i said maybe tim pawlenty wants to be his running mate if he gets the republican nomination. are you interested in

. >> perry versus romney, g.o.p.bate. >> how hot does it get between rick perry and mitt romney. >> eight people on the stage we're really only paying attention tonight to two. >> jon: thank you. i knew i could ignore those other people. by the way, i know it was a preview. what did happen? >> mitt romney and rick perry kicking it up a notch. >> mitt romney and rick perry went at it. >> mitt romney and rick perry go face to face. >> it was nothing but fire. >> it was exactly the thing you thought it would be. [ laughter ] there's only two explanations how that could have happened. one four months before any vote is cast. you decide the nomination is down to romney and perry. frame the debate by pitting the two against each other or your precogs. i'll let the audience at home decide. [ laughter ] >> governor romney, your private sector experience as governor perry's strategist recently put it consisted of being quote a buy out specialist. your response to that? >> governor perry you clearly don't like the massachusett

>> i'm watching perry.trong in defending his stanchions as he is on offense. he had really weak answers last debate. if he's going to solidify himself, he needs to give better answers. >> in 30% -- >> not a bad problem to have. >> michele bachmann is the one to watch tonight. if she can take wind out of perry's sail, this back to being a competitive race. >> alex, dana. great to see you. we'll watch tonight with you. carol, christine? >> thanks, ali. >>> just ahead on "american morning" a stunner at the u.s. open and what could be a match for the ages on the men's side today. we're going to talk to "sports illustrated" about one of the most action packed sports weekends of the year. >>> we know your toddlers love their gadgets. a school in maine is giving ipads to each of its kindergartens saying educational software on the ipad could help teach students how to read, but is this the best way to do it? more on this story later. when an investment lacks discipline, it's never this obvious. introducing investm

she put perry on the ropes. she put perry on the ropes on an issue that was passionate, to core conservative social voters. and then went too far. this is going to be a week that she may realize and regret that if this thing doesn't get back off the ground -- that if she doesn't get some momentum back in iowa, it could be seen as the week that ended her candidacy or ended her possibilities of even trying to win iowa. happiest people about that right now, the guy that was in iowa last night, rick perry. >>> finally, here in washington, apparently it's bill daley pile-on day. if you can't fire the owner, you fire the coach, right? or you complain about the coach. and a number of anonymous democrats are saying, it's time for the white house chief of staff to change in some form or another. the "huffington post" quotes one former administration official saying daley is disorganized and people are longing for rom. another anonymous source says is there a level of unhappiness with bill around the white house? yeah, yo

can perry take the punches and keep on swinging? plus, why has rick perry caught fire so quickly? we're going to ask ag guru donny deutsch, who thinks perry's got just what the right wants these days. plus, president obama goes to ohio, home of house speaker john boehner to sell his american jobs bill. and if speaker boehner doesn't think there's work to be done, we've got the list -- oh, you knew we would -- of 95 bridges in baioehner's own district tha are structurally deficient according to the department of transportation, and one's right in boehner's own district. and let me finish with the reign of terror sweeping through the tea party right. we start, however, with rick perry in the republican establishment. pat buchanan, who is not part of the establishment, is an msnbc political analyst, and george pataki, a longtime governor of new york joins us. a man who i once thought would be the nominee of the republican party. shows what i know about republicans. anyway, last week karl rove was asked about rick perry's past writing in statements on social security being a ponzi sch

she had rick perry back on his heels. she took him across her knee, and spanked him hard last night. and he deserved it. i thought she was very, very good. >> all right. heidi and mike, always a pleasure to have you with us tonight. spirited debate on that. thanks a lot. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. tomorrow night, "the ed show" goes to toledo, ohio, and you're invited. we'll see you from the corner of south huron and washington tomorrow night with a live performance of "the ed show." hope you can join us if you're in the neighborhood. >>> playoffs. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, fear factor. how scared of rick perry is the republican establishment? well, in one short month, perry shot to the top of the gop chart with tough texas talk about state's rights and saying the federal reserve chairman may be guilty of treason. it's raw meat for the base, but the party's grown-ups, if you will, desperate to beat president obama, are growing worried. perry's

some of these numbers for rick perry are just, we're curious about you, rick perry. we really want to know. so that's -- >> david, i think a part of this, we don't like to talk too much about it but i'll do it darn it. part of this may be southern conservatives, christian conservatives, people in the religious right, who have been shopping around looking for a candidate like them and romney isn't like them. he is a member of the lds church, obviously a northeastern guy, harvard guy, st. paul's guy, whatever, went to one of those schools up there and he is not one of them. isn't it as simple as geography if you look at it that way? >> in part. there are some very influential republicans back in 2008 who felt that mitt romney would have a mormon problem particularly in the south among christian conservative voters. he's going to put that to the test. it is i think very difficult to poll for that. very difficult to know about that. but i wanted to add another element too which is i think there are some shades of 2004 here as well. when you think about the candidacy of s

obama versus perry? >> yes. i do think they would rather see obama versus perry. to me that they're still kind of trying to lay groundwork for obama versus romney. they seem to think that in the end it's probably going to be romney. and if perry continues at this rate, they'll be right, i think. romney is turning in solid performance after solid performance in the debates. they might be "b" performances or "b" plus. they're not "a" plus. he's a good debater and he manages to put the focus on perry and not the focus on his own flip-flops, on obamney care, on the reasons that republicans really don't like him that much. and, you know, the more he sticks around, the more he, i think, might come to seem inevitable. >> and romney, gene, has been running for president for more than five years now. perry's been at it for about five weeks. that difference is really showing now. >> it sure is. romney is a much better candidate than he was last time around. he kind of knows how to do this. rick perry clearly does not. and he needs to be on an extremely steep learning curve

an intensely factor on the perry side. people hoop like perry like him a lot. people who know romney just like him. really good reporting in politico last week saying the book he wrote has a lot of land mines in it. people will start exposing those landmines, and we'll see if he has any staying power. there was never a question about the fact mitt romney was not going to be able to waltz to this nomination. not the front-runner and get the nomination next year. he was going to face a big challenge. looks like rick perry is the big challenge, but that doesn't mean that mitt romney can't bounce back. especially if people look under the hood, as you put it in terms of what rick perry really is, what he believes, and whether he could actually win a general election. >> two points now. is the concern about rick perry -- not whether conservatives like him or not. conservatives are really conservative, republican party. or the fear he won't pass muster next november? let me ask a shorter question. is it possible, you can't go too far right for the tea partiers? >> i t

perry worries gop. rick perry, beginning of the end? here is a talking points memo are the headline running with rick. they turn on perry after the debate and bill crystal wrote a special editorial with the headline yikes. no front-runner in a presidential field has ever had as weak a showing as rick perry. it's as close to a disqualifying two hours for him. thank you for joining us so much. >> thank you for having me. >> among republicans, that's the target audience through next spring. how bad did rick perry do? >> he had a tough night. it's difficult to say, it's a difficult night for perry. more than that, he created an opening for governor romney with 3500 republican activists gathered in orlando. this is a straw ballot that romney declined to participate in. there's been an opening created. you have to remember, we are very early. at this point, rudy giuliani was the darling of the media and leading in the polls. things can change quickly. >> politics gets more advanced every four years, things move faster. rudy giuliani was the l

rick perry, mitt romney.y that's been described as somebody that you're not sure if he's comfortable in his own skin. rick perry seems like, hey, i am who i am. >> one thing about mitt romney, i think mitt romney in private settings, sort of interesting, charming, engaging, in public not so much. i think perry feels like more comfortable in his skin. i think these guys spend too much time. i blame the candidates, because ultimately it's about the candidates, they spend too much time thinking about how they're coming in cost. and it's partly our fault. if he had said that thing, i wouldn't even see it. >> exactly. >> makes me blush. >> but can you imagine what they would have done -- >> but very quickly, it's a point that we all say we want authenticity and the minute a candidate is authentic, we all kill him. >> i know a little bit about that. >> oh, no. >> that's part of it. >> so washington folks can't handle these guys who really aren't comfortable with themselves like a rick perry and you're right. you're

we want you to vote for rick perry too. but not their rick perry, our rick perry.on august 13th write in rick perry, that's perry with an as q as for america, with an "a" for iowa,-- that's right. (cheers and applause) i'll join you. i'll join you. folks, i want every one in the iowa nation to go to the ames straw poll this saturday, going to be a beautiful day. there's food, there's booze. and write in rick perry with an "a" why "a" because there's no "e" in team. and this evening-- (laughter) >> and this evening at 1700 hours we struck again with our second ad in the greater des moines metropolitan area. jimmy? >> iowa, a land of good people who can make up their own minds. but outside groups like jobs for iowa superpac are trying to pander to iowans with pro perry ads featuring cheap cornography. >> just so you will vote for rick perry at the ames straw poll. >> but americans for a better tomorrow tomorrow believe that iowans deserve better. and we're going to give it to you. >> oh way. on august 13th. write in rick perry. that's perry with an a for america, wit

perry. >> i think americans just don't know sometimes which mitt romney they're dealing with. is it is mitt romney against the second amendment before he was for the second amendment? was it before he was before the social programs from the standpoint of he was far standing out for roe vs. wade, before he was against roe vs. wade? he was for race to the top? he's for obamacare and now he's against it. >> there are a lot of reasons not to elect me or other people on this stage. but one reason to elect me is that i know what i stand for. >> just roll right into immigration. and then here is the immigration hit. >> i would build a fence on america's southern border on every mile, on every yard, on every foot, on every inch of the southern border. >> i want to reinforce what congresswoman bachmann said. i strongly favor 100% control of the border. >> we have to have a fence, we have to have enough border control agents to secure the fence. >> i think the fact he doesn't want to build a fence, he

now perry. perry versus obama, obama wins with 50%. perry, 45%. question, does this strike you as cheeky? for governor perry who late in live converted from democratic party to the republican party, to question romney's political conviction? i ask you, tim. >> i think that romney care is a huge difficulty for mitt romney, because the main thing the republicans can use against obama is obama care. so on that very relevant issue -- romney care in massachusetts they passed a law that included individual mandates as well as subsidies for people to get insurance, and other -- >> what's the problem? individual mandate? >> individual mandate. and today the fact that it was a prototype for obama's national bill. and i think romney says that state by state, and this happened -- customized for massachusetts. >> it's way too huge. but the problem is you had four years ago john mccain in the same position that romney walks with all these things on immigration, on taxes, campaign finance reform. no republican could nominate him because he was too much of a rin

rick perry proved he's not interested in being anyone but rick perry. that's a strength and a weakness. perry doubled down in a view expressed in his book that social security is a ponzi scheme. he actually used the phrase before anybody used it first. listen. >> it is a ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today you're paying into a program that's going to be there. anybody that's for the status quo, with social security today, is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids. >> in the book "fed up," you say by any measure social security is a failure. you can't say that to tens of millions of americans who live on social security and those who have lived on it. our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing to social security but is committed to saving social security. >> the republican electorate is not young. the republican electorate is very old. perry showedes willing to poke it tighter and make the case he's the truth teller. he won't roll over for politics. romney's camp made clear in the spin room that they se

if no republican candidate can stop rick perry, might the author, rick perry, stop rick perry?now, co-author of politico's article today about this book, senior writer maggie haberman, thanks for joining me tonight, maggie. >> thanks for having me. >>> perry keeps getting caught in the pages of his own book. today, i did, just when i sat down at this table before the show, i flipped it open randomly to any page, because i believe i can find something nutty on any page. i landed on page 41. i promise you, i swear, and it says -- "this leads me to the great milestone on the road to surfdom, the passage of the 16th amendment." what's he talking about there, and when is it coming? >> it's going to come if we don't take all of these things back and revert to federalism, according to this book. i think this book is a tremendous potential problem for him in the general election, as you said, it's also a problem in certain primary areas. in florida, as you noted, this is not a good thing. seniors get alarmed about a change to social security. they do not want to hear it compared to a b

they did not succeed, so carl rove got perry to switch parties to run against me, but perry was inconsequential back in those days, he never campaigned statewide and didn't know anything about dallas or houston or south texas. he was an inept campaigner. so rove sent him out to west texas to go to farm bureau meetings, while rove raised about $3 million and put it in tv ads and trashed me. my real opponent was karl rove. >> what do we know about his debate style given his exposure. >> he's not particularly a nice guy, i don't think he's going to take well to a lot of this. but to me, i got to tell you, lawrence, the issue isn't whether or not he can debate or not, the issue is what kind of governor has he been? who might he be as president? right now, great example today, he comes flitting back here to tem as after being on the campaign trail. two days after these fires are bursting out all over the state. by the way, these fires are not an unanticipated consequence. in fact, perry's own state officials say that they were inevitable, inevitable not only because of the dry heat that we've been h

obama leads perry. >> and governor perry, who's also, as you know, running for president. >> it's a low. but he has not met it. >> perry is up by six in florida. >> rick perry has surged to first place in the state. >> polls don't really mean very much. >> it's going to be rick perry the pinata. >> jon huntsman's got some traction. >> right. >> romney's naturally going to do better in a state like new hampshire. >> rick perry calling mitt romney obama light. >> we don't need to nominate obama light. >> i can't see anything which suggests it makes any sense whatsoever -- >> the difference between the republican nominee and president obama. >> thanks, sweetie. thank you, sweetie. ♪ orange juice with natural vitamin c ♪ ♪ from the florida sunshine tree ♪ ♪ he >>> it's florida week in the republican presidential primary. tonight, nine republican presidential candidates will debate in orlando, ahead of the florida conservative political action conference tomorrow and the florida republican party straw poll on saturday. the mitt romney and michelle bachmann campaigns say their candidates will

you've seen mitt romney and rick perry.are so different, that's about as animated as mitt romney gets. rick perry, he's the cowboy, he's charismatic, he's shaking all hands. >> he connects. >> how do you close that gap if you're mitt romney? >> i think one of the -- >> the charisma gap. >> he's not even necessarily trying to be the charismatic, fire breathing kind of tea party guy. he was there on sunday in new hampshire in front of a tea party crowd. never even said the words tea party. >> in truth, regardless of what he says, we all three know this, mitt romney is not a natural tea party guy. he's an establishment politician, for better or worse. >> exactly. that's in some ways what he's running as. his whole campaign is all about being a ceo. the problem is that he doesn't necessarily connect with the tea party folks who are all about populace. >> the question is, you watched the 2010 election. this is a different republican party that you got elected to. you watched what happened. we saw people without establishment sup

bloomburg has perry. still a four point difference between perry and romney. that has to make mitt romney feel like he withstood the initial perry surge. >> i think romney has done really well in the last month considering the surge. he's held his own. maybe not being the frontrunner this early in the election cycle is not a bad thing. >> congressman davis, there's a southern factor here that will play in perry's favor in the primaries. explain it a little and how much you think mitt romney, particularly this primary calendar is going through south carolina, it's florida and mississippi, alabama, super tuesday in georgia and texas. >> so much of politics is identity. i think we miss that. bill clinton was a white guy from arkansas. you thought he had to be a moderate. mitt romney is from massachusetts, a lot of republicans think he has to be a political moderate because of that. similarly, because rick perry is a rock rib southern texas guy, people figure he has to be a conservative. that identity factor is part of what's allowed him to get traction with the r

then when michele bachmann linked perry's decision to contributions perry had gotten from a pharmaceutical company, perry's denial left him open to questions. >> the company was merck and it was a $5,000 contribution that i had received for them. i raise about $30 million and if you're saying that i can be budget bought for 5,000, i'm offended. >> his response was i'm offended if you think i can be bought by $5,000. he needs to come out and say it. he needs to try to explain relationships and talk about government and fund raising and his role as governor. >> some of the republicans we talked to today said that while perry wasn't perfect, the biggest problem he's creating for himself could come in a general election taking positions that could be hard to defend in the event he gets the republican nomination. >> executions. it's a controversial issue because he's had a lot of them. it didn't come up, but that's potentially an issue. >> a huge issue because he's got a lot more executions coming up and he's already gone on the record and said, hey, i support the texas position. i support exec

i just wrote about governor perry myself.yers on the half for half a million dollars loan for a company that is bellyup. republican lawmakers are blaming the white house. you'll find out what's going on "john king, usa." that's coming up at the top of the hour for our north american viewers. >>> but, first, a handcuffed houdini leaves michigan police in disbelief. the scape artist when we return. met an old man at the top asked him if he had a secret and the old man stopped and thought and said: free 'cause that's how it ought to be my brother credit 'cause you'll need a loan for one thing or another score 'cause they break it down to one simple number that you can use dot to take a break because the name is kinda long com in honor of the internet that it's on put it all together at the end of the song it gives you freecreditscore-dot-com, and i'm gone... offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com [♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. c

she's going to go after perry, has to go after perry because perry has taken some of her support.et her mojo back in iowa, she's got to go after him. but the santorum thing is interesting. go ahead. >> i think it's very interesting, i agree. and i think both of the possibilities you raise could be out there in some way. it's also his only path to -- these guys, when you're running for president, as long as you're in the race, you got to believe you can get something done. >> bill: oh, come on. they know they're not -- >> the only way he does well in iowa and the only way he does that is attack rick perry. >> bill: a programming note, i'll be with george on "good morning america" next tuesday talking about my new book "killing lincoln." coming right back with a politician who named his dog mohammed. not good. moments away. this is not only the master of all droids, it's the master of all machines. so powerful, it can access your home computer remotely and pull out your music, movies, images and documents at the mind-melting speed of verizon 4g lte. now nothing is beyond your digita

but if you compare perry care to romney care, at least governor perry offered an opt-out.is on hpv. if you have to have an opt-out, you should have the legislation. but romney care in massachusetts, there was no such thing as an opt-out. his mandate hurt small business owners. anyone with less than 11 employees had to pay a $300 fine for not abide big the mandate. this is the same candidate who says he wants to make it easier for small business. he can't reconcile what he's saying now with what his record was. >> i don't know that the hpv vaccine issue has staying power since perry backed down and has held on to romney here. many say that's the issue he should have flipped on but didn't. i'm interested in how to candidates pivot to immigration which i think is rick perry's ultimate achilles' heel. >> you mentioned that. i was the moderator of a panel with 100 tea party members in this room with this lunch. let's play a snippet of their questions because we know jobs and the economy are a big issue. we know these candidates have been sparring over social security. what do t

it was perry's immigration stance that romney seized on. >> my friend governor perry said that if you't agree with his position on giving that in state tuition to illegals, that you don't have a heart. i think if you're opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn't mean that you don't have a heart. it means that you have a heart and a brain. >> reporter: for his part today, a still feisty perry urged republicans to focus not on stage performance but on core beliefs. >> as conservatives, we know that values and vision matter. it's not who is the slickest candidate, or the smoothest debater that we need to elect. we need to elect the candidate with the best record and the best vision for this country. >> reporter: conservative stalwarts like freedomworks chair, dick armey, acknowledged perry had a tough night, but said there was plenty of time for his fellow texan to bounce back. >> everybody can come back from one bad debate. when it comes to the issues, like social security, perry stands on solid ground. the ice beneath him may have got a little thin last night, but that can solidify aga

all of which has been seized on by mitt romney, playing off perry's president zero, romney attacks perry as governor sub-zero. texas is suffering along with the rest of the country -- >> the problem is nationally the ship is going down and ultimately it's going to take us down as well. >> reporter: governor perry has lured companies with lower tax incentives and fewer regulations and state figures do show texas added over 1 million jobs during the last decade. but one in four were in the public sector fueled by federal stimulus funds. perry's supporters worry many of those jobs may now be in jeopardy, undercutting his central campaign message. in july, perry signed a budget that slashes $15 billion in state spending that analysts say will trigger more layoffs. the jobs available are often low-paying. that concerns advocates for low-income residents. >> middle class workers basically having to trade down, having to trade down in income, having to trade down in job security. >> reporter: last month, texas lost more jobs in the public sector than were created in the private sector. the resu