Rick Perry Ad Hits Mitt On Health Care, Flip Flopping And In General Being A Lousy Option

After a string of dull and ineffective web ads, Team Perry finally unleashes the guy who did the T-Paw ads (at least I assume it's him).

I have two problems with Perry's approach.

First, I think most people who supported him when he jumped in didn't abandon Perry because they love Mitt. They did so because they have questions and/or problems with him. Mitt's support has been fairly steady throughout the course of the campaign. The problem with attacking Mitt is people already know his problems, there's a reason he was rejected last time in favor of John McCain. People either support Mitt because they like him or think he's the best chance to beat Obama. Either way, his negatives are known and factored in already.

Second, the real threat to Perry isn't so much Mitt but at the moment, Herman Cain, who is now even beating Obama in at least one poll, questionable though it may well be.

I get why Mitt thinks he can wait the Cain boomlet out but at some point, doesn't Perry need to start trying to actively peel away some voters from Cain? They are probably betting that at some point people will conclude Cain isn't a real option against Obama and those voters will migrate to Perry not Mitt.

Perry obviously doesn't want to run the risk of angering Cain voters by attacking him but if they may find out that by the time Cain runs his course, Perry is too far behind to capitalize. I guess there's really no good choice for Team Perry but every day he attacks Mitt and doesn't change either of their numbers, is another day Mitt and Cain just keep humming along.

I really hope Perry gets his act together and soon. There are debates scheduled for this week and next. With the primary schedule getting ever more condensed, it's getting late pretty early for Perry.

posted by DrewM. at 10:44 AM

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