WASHINGTON — After a weak debate performance and a loss in the Florida straw poll, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is having his fitness as the GOP presidential frontrunner seriously questioned. These doubts were on display during the roundtable on "Fox News Sunday."
"Perry really did throw up all over himself in the debate, at a time when he needed to raise his game. He did worse, it seems to me, than in previous debates. … Perry is one-half a step away from almost total collapse as a candidate," said Fox News commentator Brit Hume.
Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol wrote an editorial titled "Yikes" on Friday, writing of Thursday’s debate, "[N]one of the candidates really seemed up to the moment, either politically or substantively. In the midst of a crisis, we’re getting politics as usual — and a somewhat subpar version of politics as usual at that." The alternative, he wrote, is for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) to jump into the race.
On "Fox News Sunday," Kristol said his editorial reflected what many Republicans are thinking, as evinced in Saturday’s straw poll in Florida, where Herman Cain won with 37 percent of the vote. The results were considered especially embarrassing for Perry, who came in second, since former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney did not officially compete. (He ended up coming in third.)
But Kristol said it was a repudiation of both the frontrunners. […CONTINUED…]
