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Following on this post, here’s Rick Perry in the Time feature out on him today:
There may be someone who is an established Republican who circulates in the cocktail circuit that would find some of my rhetoric to be inflammatory or what have you, but I'm really talking to the American citizen out there. I think American citizens are just tired of this political correctness and politicians who are tiptoeing around important issues. They want a decisive leader. I'm comfortable that the rhetoric I have used was both descriptive and spot on
It’s a common tendency among bloggers and pundits to try to draw conclusions about what Perry’s style and recent debate performance will ultimately do to his campaign. But the reality is that no one knows for sure yet. Once he starts talking more specifically about policy, continues the public debate both on stages and in the airwaves, voters will react in ways we cannot entirely predict.
That said, Katrina Trinko points to a new Bloomberg poll this morning to give Perry and his supporters some pause. It's not just the pundits who have trained a sharper eye on the Texas governor. Voters might be doing the same. Tough talk may not be enough to paper over confusing statements about important issues (whether a conservative should mandate HPV drugs, how to handle Afghanistan) or his tendency to communicate style and principle rather than ideas. Perry’s lead (note: it’s still a lead) over Romney has shrunk this week.
Trinko also points out that Perry’s entrance into the debate has not made the electorate content about the 2012 field. There’s still a big appetite for a new candidate:
Don’t hold your breath for the draft Chris Christie/Paul Ryan/Sarah Palin efforts to end: Forty-seven percent still hope that another candidate will jump into the race, compared to 42 percent who are “mostly happy” with the current field.
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