Republican presidential candidate debate: eight takeaways

By Maggie Haberman | 09/08/11 02:52 EDT GOP presidential debate on Wednesday was only the first of several match-up. But it may prove the most revealing. Viewers who tuned in at 105 minutes face to face, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library had a taste of their style of Rick Perry on stage at the first meeting in 2012 took part in the rest of the field for the first GOP debate, Mitt Romney, without a solid lead in polls beginning of the end for various applications. Read more Text Size - Reset + Listen Highlight GOP debate 44 POLITICAL E This is the political leadership takeaway: Rick Perry is now the clear favorite Texas governor received the most questions and questioners, Brian Williams, John Harris, but has also absorbed most of the shots of your competitors. If all the energy is concentrated in one direction, points out that the area is dominated by - and last night was Perry, who was in the spotlight. Perry has been recognized by the attention to him, saying at one point: "I feel a bit like a pinata." He does not know all the shots without any problems. In response to climate change, which Perry called Galileo, its head-scratcher, and it is too difficult for some of the goals has varied, which was the best individual (other than to show that a handful of satisfactory response, the logic of pushing back aggressively in the Republic of Texas Ron Paul is not clear). But he did not handle everything without any problems, he left with a significant result: it does not flop. Rick Perry does not forgive that Rick Perry For all his talk about softening the edges of a blunt, as he transitions to Perry at the national level are making an effort to adjust their language in a wide variety of topics - his most notable "Ponzi scheme, a monstrous lie" rhetoric of Social Security. Were asked, "Fed Up!" He says a better manifesto published last year, Perry looked at the beginning, he would back a bit. "But then he doubled down, saying that the program is in fact essentially a fraud. He did not regret his watch the number of people executed in Texas - 234 - and said he believes that Americans understand how he came to shoot-from-the-hip style of language that does not excuse the "right". "Perhaps it is time for the provocative language of this country," said Perry. All this suggests that, although there is a part of his political personality that can cause problems with him on the track, is clearly a calculation that its authenticity is one of its biggest selling points - especially in Mitt Romney. Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62963.html # ixzz1XLWtvyyD