GOP presidential debate in Tampa – live

Frontrunner Rick Perry will be the target at the CNN Tea Party Republican presidential debate in Tampa. Follow it here live. •  Click to jump to the start of the blog 7.05pm ET: Here’s some background about Rick Perry’s career as a politician in Texas. It includes clips from a 1990 ad when he was running for state agricultural commissioner (a big job in Texas and many US states). 7.04pm ET: Romney appears certain to zero in on Perry’s remarks from the last debate about social security. Already today I’ve received emails from the Romney campaign headlined “RICK’S LATEST RETREAT ON SOCIAL SECURITY”. Tampa Bay Online reports : Mitt Romney didn’t wait long to begin his attack on Rick Perry over Social Security — his campaign is doing door-to-door distribution of a flier attacking Perry on the issue. The flier, which a campagn spokesman said is being left at the doors of Florida GOP primary voters, portrays the GOP primary as a two-candidate race — “Two candidates. Only one will protect what’s important to you,” is the headline. Of those two, it says, Perry is “reckless and wrong on Social Security.” The bold-face tagline: “Rick Perry: How can we trust anyone who wants to kill Social Security?” The New York Times has the background : The Republican candidates for president are likely to find themselves in the middle of an intraparty feud over Social Security as they take the stage in Tampa, Fla., on Monday night for another nationally televised debate. Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, has sparked a high-stakes political fight over Social Security by calling the popular retirement program a “failure” and a “Ponzi scheme” on the campaign trail and in his recent book. And his rivals have pounced. Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, warned during a debate last week that the Republican Party should nominate someone “who isn’t committed to abolishing Social Security, but who is committed to saving Social Security.” 7.01pm ET: There was a boost for Rick Perry before tonight’s debate: the news that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal – still a rising star in the modern Republican party, despite being overshadowed recently – has endorsed Perry’s bid for the nomination . That rather trumps Mitt Romney’s big news earlier today that one-time presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty – who pulled out before the race had barely begun – is now backing him . Preamble: Welcome to “Rick Perry versus the World 2″, the sequal to last week’s popular Republican presidential debate , in which GOP candidates queued up to kick Texas governor Rick Perry in the shins – including Perry himself, if you believe some of the coverage. Tonight’s debate-cum-brawl starts at 8pm ET (1am BST), from the Florida state fairgrounds in Tampa – with the novel twist in that the debate is co-hosted by CNN and the Tea Party Express group. CNN is billing it as “the Tea Party Debate,” which is not at all a desperate bid by a cable news channel with sagging ratings to lure in viewers from Fox News. Six days ago it was Perry who grabbed the post-debate headlines with his description of social security as a “Ponzi scheme,” based on earlier strident criticisms Perry had made in his 2010 book, “I’m Not Running For President” (recently reissued as “Rick Perry’s Winning Plan For America”). In Florida, though, the Republican electorate is more elderly, quite fond of social security and willing to vote. As the third largest state in the Union, and a critical swing state in 2012, Florida holds a lot of sway in the Republican contest. You can read my preview of tonight’s debate here . Since then there has been plenty of action, with the Romney campaign putting out leaflets designed to terrify the elderly of Florida by saying that Perry wants to destroy social security (state pensions, in this context). As well, Michele Bachmann – who risks sliding back into obscurity that some say she richly deserves – is also to make on a full-on attack on Perry for his unspecified threats to reform social security. Pery showed last week that he doesn’t run from a fight, and is more than happy to start one. So tonight could be very entertaining indeed. Beyond all of the tactical discussion, the startegic point is that Perry may be running away with this race, barring an implosion on his part. The latest polls show him with solid leads – the latest one by CNN has Perry leading in every single category. Polls this early, especially national polls, are pretty useless. But still, they play into a growing realisation that Perry is the one to beat – assuming he can be beaten. Kick off is 8pm ET, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below, and I’ll also be adding even more vapid remarks on Twitter at RichardA . Republican presidential nomination 2012 Tea Party movement Rick Perry United States Mitt Romney Michele Bachmann Republicans US elections 2012 CNN Florida US politics Ron Paul Jon Huntsman Newt Gingrich Richard Adams guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.