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I was hoping Perry would be better on his feet than he was last night. Of course, this is his first debate so now my hope is that we see improvement in future debates. He seemed to be searching for his responses to the questions and didn’t have the polish he’s going to need for the general election. That said, he did well given that the MSNBC leftists came after him with both barrels. Their lame attempt at making accusations appear to be questions was about as transparent as it gets. I think even Perry was surprised by this. Hopefully, this will serve as a learning experience for him and he’ll be better prepared in the future.

If you think about how the debate was designed last night, it gave practically all of the candidates a responsibility and a command to be critical of Perry's answers. With little exception, Perry would take the leading questions on a particular issue FIRST. Then, the moderators would ask other candidates to comment on Perry's response.

"Governor Huntsman, what do you have to say about Governor Perry's response?"

"Mr. Paul, what do you make of Governor Perry's remarks?"

"Mr. Santorum, do you agree with Mr. Perry's answer to that question?"

I was pissed how they set the debate up to be a Perry counter-point operation. He even said he felt like a "Pinata."

I was hoping Perry would be better on his feet than he was last night. Of course, this is his first debate so now my hope is that we see improvement in future debates. He seemed to be searching for his responses to the questions and didn’t have the polish he’s going to need for the general election. That said, he did well given that the MSNBC leftists came after him with both barrels. Their lame attempt at making accusations appear to be questions was about as transparent as it gets. I think even Perry was surprised by this. Hopefully, this will serve as a learning experience for him and he’ll be better prepared in the future.

Mase, this is the best summary of Perry's performance in the debate that I've read to date. Thank you for posting it.

I was disappointed in his performance -- I also was "hoping Perry would be better on his feet" -- but I remain cautiously optimistic.

My take-away from Perry's lackluster performance is that I now believe Sarah Palin will enter the race. I believe that it was wise of her to sit this one out to see how Perry would do. He didn't do so hot. As you say (and as I hope) that could change.

But I think, based on his performance last night, and based on Palin's promise to basically come in "if needed", I predict she will now enter the race.

I remain hopeful for Perry, but I want a full airing of all our options. That means it's time for Palin to come in.

And for the record, my main worry about Perry right now isn't that he should be better on his feet, it's his bull-headed insistence that SS is a ponzi scheme. He's right; it is. But he should have emphasized (like Romney did) "we can fix it", rather than, seemingly: "it's broke beyond repair".

If electability is the big bugaboo regarding Palin, I think Perry has officially joined the "is this person really electable" crowd with his extremely poor articulation of his position on SS. As someone here pointed out, he merely repeated over and over again, ponzi, ponzi, without any detail, without any facts. It's obviously something he cares deeply about, so why no detail, why no facts?