ORLANDO – The alarm bells are ringing for Rick Perry’s 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 country’s 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 GOP’s 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 Perry’s still-young White House bid, and left party strategists wondering what he can do to bounce back.
“Perry’s 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. “Perry’s gotta retool, reorganize and retrench very quickly.”
Said one prominent conservative activist: “They’ve really got to go into damage control mode and right this ship, and they’ve got a relatively brief amount of time to do it. And if they don’t, I think he’s done.”
Click for Full Text!
