ORLANDO The alarm bells are ringing for Rick Perrys presidential campaign. The Texas governor, who leaped to the top of national polls immediately after his August kickoff, finds himself suddenly reeling from a pair of setbacks in the countrys most prominent political battleground.
First, Perry drew a round of scathing reviews for his unfocused debate performance in Orlando Thursday night. Then he suffered a thumping defeat in the Florida GOPs straw poll to long-shot candidate Herman Cain, no less that amounted to a vote of no confidence from dissatisfied activists.
The back to back stumbles added up to the worst week of Perrys still-young White House bid, and left party strategists wondering what he can do to bounce back.
Perrys showing in the straw poll was disastrous. He was here, he worked the crowd, and it just proves that the debate performance really undermined his support, said Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, who was at the straw poll in Orlando this weekend. Perrys gotta retool, reorganize and retrench very quickly.
Said one prominent conservative activist: Theyve really got to go into damage control mode and right this ship, and theyve got a relatively brief amount of time to do it. And if they dont, I think hes done.
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