Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s lackluster performance in the three Republican primary debates he has participated in thus far has many conservatives scratching their heads and wondering if he isn’t the dream candidate many thought he might be two months ago. But just how much trouble is his campaign in?
While analyzing the results of Saturday’s Florida Straw Poll on “Fox News Sunday,” Fox News senior political contributor Brit Hume said businessman Herman Cain’s victory may not mean all too much and that Perry’s lackluster performances recently may indicate his campaign is on the verge of “total collapse.”
“You can read it any of those three ways it seems to me,” Hume said. (RELATED: Hume on Obama: ‘Making a big speech right now is probably the last thing he should do’)
“I mean Perry really did throw up all over himself in the debate at a time when he needed to raise his game. He did worse it seems to me than previous debates. Romney was as strong as he’s been lately. He has clearly raised his game in reaction to the emergence of Perry. It’s been good for Romney in a way that one might not have predicted. Michelle Bachmann seems — I mean she was dead last with [a] tiny fraction. Look, Herman Cain was there. He tried hard in this. He gave a stemwinder speech. He is a marvelous stump speaker. It seems to me he gets a moment out of this, but I can’t imagine it’s going to last very long. Perry is about one-half a step away from almost total collapse as a candidate.”
Later in the panel, Hume explained the Texas governor’s position on immigration may be the one glaring flaw in his candidacy.
“I don’t think we’re being too harsh on Rick Perry,” Hume said. “He still has some opportunity to recover his balance and put in a strong performance. What was so strikingly troubling about — from a Republican point of view — about this performance was that Perry was thought of as a true conservative. Now it appears he has a position in immigration which is anathema to a lot of conservatives. So this really hurts him with the base. You can’t, you know — look at all of the Romney. He’s got some trouble with the base. That’s what’s holding him back. Now Perry has got the same trouble and his weakness is very real indeed.”
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As far as the prospects of another candidate like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie entering the race, Hume warned not to get one’s hopes up for an unknown commodity.“As for whether someone might get in the race — you can’t rule anything out,” Hume said. “It is still early, but what keeps happening here is these people keep having a moment and they get in the race as Perry did, zoom to the top. Everybody’s in love and get then we get a dose of them in reality on the debate stage or wherever and they don’t seem so great. Now I am as impressed as the next person is by Gov. Christie’s tough sort of tough love governance in New Jersey. But who knows how he would fare on the national stage, you know freshly minted from a governorship, having not spent all that much time on the national issues. If he gets on a debate stage, he could screw up badly as the next guy.”
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