IMHO opinion, Perry is thinking of passing some debates, as it is a weak point for him and takes away from campaigning. Cain is thinking of passing campaign appearances because its draining his money.
Beyond that, Mr Cain realizes he is one step away from major scrutiny if he keeps providing sound bytes.
Believe me, the opponents have a ton of unabashed sound bytes.
Of course Herman's answer to these sort of criticisms is usually something like "I'm done with that!"
Cain had almost no name recognition when he entered the race.
Of course, he had to run like crazy, do every interview he was offered, make every speech he was asked to make and so on.
Now he is topping most polls, his favorability rating is sky-high and his name recognition equals or surpasses that of Mittens.
He’s accomplished Phase I. I see no downside to now being more selective about what he does. And the fact it, it doesn’t matter if he does fewer events: he has engendered so much interest, that one speech he gives may end up being watched literally by millions on the internet -— a far bigger and more important audience that 100 rubber chicken dinner fundraisers.
As for his money situation, he’s raised more in the last month than he has throughout his whole campaign. Another function of having achieved (through his frenetic pace and hard work) name recognition and high favorability ratings. With the money coming in now, that also allows him to be more selective about how many events he schedules.
I have no problem with Perry withdrawing the debates if he wants to. He’ll have to deal with the criticism, but it’s not insurmountable. The only thing is he will have to find a way to show people that he can get his message out in a different setting/format.