Playbook 2012_ The Right Fights Back (Politico Inside Election 2012) - Mike Allen [14]
Romney’s inner circle was feeling decidedly downbeat about the entry of a big-state governor with a common touch who had never lost in ten prior elections. But then campaign strategist Stuart Stevens came to headquarters holding a copy of Perry’s campaign book, Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington. Stevens announced: “Folks, you gotta read this book. He’s going to eliminate Social Security. He wants to return it to the states. No Republican has ever won on that.” Before long, the Romney aides were downloading the book from Amazon, looking for more incendiary views that could be used against Perry in the upcoming debates.
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The Republican debate on September 7, staged at the Reagan Library in California beneath the looming presence of Ronald Reagan’s Air Force One, was Romney’s fourth debate in 2011 and his seventeenth presidential debate since 2007. In a nondescript conference room at his Boston headquarters, Romney had practiced three times, for two hours each time, while his inner circle, including Stevens, Russ Schriefer, Rhoades, and Beth Myers, a veteran loyalist who was said to be inside Romney’s brain, zinged questions and thought up answers. The prep team had been stripped down from the 2008 debate prep sessions, which had “looked like an introductory economics course at college,” recalled an adviser. Gone were the practice lectern and the giant briefing book. No one “stood in” for the opposing candidates. Even the businessman’s dress code had been abolished. Romney wore jeans and an open-necked shirt.
On the day of the debate, campaign manager Rhoades decreed that the candidate needed to be “chillaxed,” so Romney was isolated for a quiet pregame meal with his family. “We don’t talk politics. We don’t talk about the debate. We just talk,” said Tagg.
The debate was Rick Perry’s first on a national stage. He arrived at the Reagan Library at the last moment, worrying the MSNBC hosts. Perry finally burst into the hall declaring, “The new kid on the block!” As the debate began, the Texas governor, appearing onstage with a bright blue tie puffing from his enormous chest, was all swagger. Not backing off from Fed Up!, he assailed Social Security as a “monstrous lie” and a “Ponzi scheme.”
Perry boasted about his record creating jobs in Texas and turned on Romney to remind the audience that his rival not only came from a liberal state but had proved less effective than one of his liberal predecessors, Governor Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee. “Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt,” Perry said.
Romney smiled. “Well, as a matter of fact,” he replied, “George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor.”
The large audience burst into laughter.
Perry complained of feeling like a “piñata” as the other candidates batted away. With die-hard-right conservative audiences, the Texas governor won applause by defending his record of overseeing 234 executions (Brian Williams of NBC: “Have you ever lost sleep over that?” Perry: “No, sir, I’ve never struggled with that at all.”) But at a later debate in Orlando, he lost points with the audience by saying his opponents were heartless for wanting to deny college tuition tax breaks to the children of illegal immigrants. He looked tired and stumbled over his applause lines. Nodding at Herman Cain, the former businessman who was beginning to make his mark at debates with his “9-9-9” tax plan, Perry said he’d like to “mate him up” with Newt Gingrich. Standing next to Perry on stage, Romney gave a convincing