Posted on 10/19/2011 8:58:06 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
It was Fight Night in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and for arguably the first time this year, Mitt Romney took some body blows.
Romney generally acquitted himself well and even got in some jabs of his own at Tuesdays CNN debate in Nevada, but the totality of the attacks left their mark on a candidate who has been more the Teflon candidate than a punching bag early in the 2012 campaign.
Perhaps most notably, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) actually made some headway Tuesday night. After some troubled performances in the last few debates, Perry launched a new attack (new to this campaign, at least; it had beenbeen used in the 2008 campaign) on Romney for hiring a landscaping service that employed illegal immigrants.
In addition, former senator Rick Santorum (R) said Romney has no credibility on repealing President Obamas health care bill because of a similar bill Romney spearheaded as Massachusetts governor, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) joined in the attack on Romneycare.
The Perry exchange seemed to get under Romneys skin more than the others. And as Perry kept pressing the point and interrupting Romney, Romney became visibly angry and actually put his hand on Perrys shoulder for a moment. Then, he got a little personal.
Its been a tough couple of debates for Rick, so I understand it, Romney said in response to that attacks, adding: You have a problem with allowing people to finish speaking.
The attack has yet to play out completely, but it was arguably the first time that Romney was out of his element on the debate stage. (Of course, it wasnt the first time he has awkwardly pleaded with someone to let him speak.)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
My estimation of Perry would have gone up several notches had he done that. He would have been out of the race for that but still..........
“As for normal American men they do their own lawns ...”
Seriously? Name just one of the Republican candidates who mows their own lawn. Or aren’t they “normal” American men?
Where I live, you can get your lawn mowed for roughly $25 an hour. Let’s say that you need to earn $50 hourly to clear $25 after taxes. I know plenty of “normal” men who would happily pay someone $25 hourly because a) they’d rather invest the extra hour in work they love (and could earn far more than it would cost them to “farm out” this chore); b) they’d rather spend time with their family, friends, whatever. I’m not sure someone who values their time at less than $25 an hour has the chops to take on the most challenging job on the planet.
P.S. That was a cowardly move on Romney’s part, he knew that Perry was too much of a gentleman to do anything about it but grin and bear it, so he made his symbolic touch, asserting his “manliness”.
The great F.R. thinker JimRob once said of Romney that he’s not even a man, I’m in full agreement.
“Perry came off horribly. No substance, petty and small is no way to get people to support you.”
I don’t like Romney remotely, but he has this debate thing down cold. He slammed Cain with his ‘bushel basket’ comment. Perry looked quite the fool when he brought out the you-hired-an-immigrant attack on Romney. As Perry started his feeble little comment, Romney did that fake tv show host laugh of his, and I said to myself, “I hate that smarmy POS Romney!” But then he just cut Perry into tiny little pieces with his response.
Romney has got this format down. If only he could actually BE a conservative instead of being a big flip-flopping fake.
You can take it to the bank. It works equally well for these idiots-on-parade "debates" as well.
Stop beating the dead horse and join the rest of the human community.
Yes my fiancee’ said if Mitt did that to him he would have decked him. The thing is though they really need to stick to bashing Obama. The intermural spats just take away from the main objective.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.