GOP rivals target Perry in pre-debate criticism

PHILIP ELLIOTT

Asso­ci­ated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial con­tender Michele Bach­mann said Thurs­day that social con­ser­v­a­tives don’t have to set­tle for a nom­i­nee who does not share their val­ues, and rival Mitt Rom­ney said the party should nom­i­nate some­one from the pri­vate sec­tor — double-team crit­i­cism of front-runner Rick Perry.

Rom­ney and Bach­mann opened a forum on faith and free­dom ahead of Thurs­day night’s tele­vised GOP debate with sharp crit­i­cism of their chief rival. Other com­peti­tors were fol­low­ing at the event tai­lored to the reli­gious vot­ers who are a key part of the party’s base of support.

Bach­mann said 2012 is a time for the GOP to nom­i­nate some­one “who is a true social con­ser­v­a­tive.” She didn’t men­tion her rivals by name, but she has crit­i­cized Perry’s posi­tions on ille­gal immi­gra­tion and man­dated vaccinations.

“Of any of elec­tion, this is the one where con­ser­v­a­tives don’t have to set­tle,” she said.

For his part, Rom­ney pitched him­self as a proven busi­ness­man who detoured into pol­i­tics for one term as Mass­a­chu­setts’ governor.

“‘There are plenty of peo­ple who are run­ning for pres­i­dent who are politi­cians. Noth­ing wrong with that. … I think it helps to have some­one who has had a job, to cre­ate jobs for the Amer­i­can peo­ple,” said Rom­ney, mak­ing his sec­ond pres­i­den­tial run.

The Perry cam­paign, with the Texas gov­er­nor to speak near the end of the forum on the side­lines of a three-day GOP meet­ing, kept its eye on Romney.

“Rom­ney flip-flops are leg­endary and are exactly why he isn’t con­nect­ing with con­ser­v­a­tive vot­ers,” said Perry spokesman Mark Miner. “After years of pan­der­ing and pol­icy evo­lu­tion, Mr. Rom­ney just can’t be trusted on impor­tant eco­nomic and social issues.”

The forums and debate come as the Repub­li­cans increase their crit­i­cism of each other. Rom­ney and Perry have spent recent days trad­ing jabs over Social Secu­rity, job cre­ation and who is a bet­ter Republican.

It’s the lat­est exam­ple of the cam­paigns micro­scop­i­cally exam­in­ing each other’s records and past state­ments in a game of polit­i­cal one-upmanship.

For instance: Texas added jobs dur­ing the eco­nomic reces­sion under Gov. Perry’s lead­er­ship. But unem­ploy­ment went up last month and is at the high­est level since 1987, Rom­ney has noted.

Rom­ney filled in Mass­a­chu­setts’ $3 bil­lion bud­get hole with­out rais­ing taxes as gov­er­nor. Yet the state trailed 46 oth­ers in job cre­ation, Perry shot back.

A poll released early Thurs­day sug­gested Florida Repub­li­cans slightly pre­fer Perry over Rom­ney in their party’s bat­tle to find a nom­i­nee to face Pres­i­dent Barack Obama next year.

Perry was favored by 28 per­cent of the 374 reg­is­tered Repub­li­can vot­ers, com­pared with 22 per­cent who want Rom­ney as their nom­i­nee. The ran­dom tele­phone sur­vey, con­ducted Sept. 14–19 by Quin­nip­iac Uni­ver­sity, has a mar­gin of error of plus or minus 5.1 per­cent­age points.

With five months remain­ing until the first nom­i­nat­ing con­tests, the GOP con­tenders came to senior citizen-rich Florida this week, ready with lines sharp­ened for fel­low Repub­li­cans more than for their once-favorite tar­get, Obama.

San­to­rum used the forum to urge reli­gious con­ser­v­a­tives to look at the Repub­li­can can­di­dates’ records and ques­tion their authenticity.

“Don’t just look at what box they check, what pledge they take. Take a look at what bul­lets and arrows they’ve taken for the causes they believe in,” he said. “We have a long list of pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates … who say one thing and then cower when the going gets tough.”

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a favorite of the party’s lib­er­tar­ian wing, used his appear­ance to empha­size his anti-abortion posi­tion and his skep­ti­cism of the Fed­eral Reserve.

“Lis­ten for the truth and prac­tice only the truth and we can, once again, become the most pros­per­ous and most free coun­try in the world,” Paul said.

Also join­ing the Thurs­day night debate: Geor­gia busi­ness­man Her­man Cain, for­mer House Speaker Newt Gin­grich of Geor­gia, for­mer Utah Gov. Jon Hunts­man and for­mer New Mex­ico Gov. Gary Johnson.

Posted by AP News on Sep 22 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.