Visual source: Newseum
The Rick (how do you like being the front runner, Governor?) Perry edition.
WaPo:
Republican Party leaders, who only a few weeks ago viewed the GOP presidential nomination race as wide open, now consider it a two-man contest between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney and are choosing sides in what many think could be a long and potentially divisive campaign.
NY Times:
While Mr. Perry received a warm reception from the audience on Monday, his performance showed that his transition from governor to presidential candidate is still a work in progress. His advisers believe he withstood the attacks without significant damage, but they concede that his answers could be sharper and more precise.
Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who was a top adviser to Senator John McCain and is not aligned with a candidate in this presidential campaign, expressed his skepticism as the debate unfolded.
“Listening to Perry try to a put a complicated policy sentence together,” Mr. Murphy wrote on Twitter, “is like watching a chimp play with a locked suitcase.”
I don't think Perry made a good impression.
Laura Bassett:
As the Republican presidential field continues to attack Texas Gov. Rick Perry's executive order mandating the HPV vaccine for young girls, health advocates are growing worried that the vaccine itself is being stigmatized.
In the two most recent presidential debates, Perry has had to repeatedly explain and defend the executive order, which he says he signed in order to help prevent girls from developing cervical cancer as a result of the sexually transmitted virus. But his fellow Republican candidates have seized the opportunity to attack him over the issue, at times using some alarming and misleading rhetoric about the vaccine.
National Journal:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry received more than $28,000 from the pharmaceutical company that makes a vaccine used in the battle against cervical cancer, significantly more than the $5,000 he acknowledged in Monday night’s Republican debate in Florida.
NY Times:
The issue pushes many buttons with conservatives: overreach of government in health care decisions, suspicion that sex education leads to promiscuity and even the belief — debunked by science — that childhood vaccinations may be linked to mental disorders.
Few things are worse than politicizing public health. But, in this case the experts strike back.
NPR:
Now the nation's pediatricians have waded deep and early into the race for the presidency. In a unusual instance of political fact-checking of a candidate's statements by physicians themselves, the American Academy of Pediatrics has a tough prescription for Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann: Get your facts straight on the HPV vaccine.
AAP:
The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive HPV vaccine around age 11 or 12. That's because this is the age at which the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body, and because it's important to protect girls well before the onset of sexual activity. In the U.S., about 6 million people, including teens, become infected with HPV each year, and 4,000 women die from cervical cancer. This is a life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer.
And don't miss
Lance:
National Journal:
Rick Perry has cost Mitt Romney his lead in the polls but made him a better candidate and, potentially, a more formidable nominee.
The former Massachusetts governor, long disparaged as a fragile front-runner for the nomination, is showing a spark that seemed elusive when he topped the national polls. He delivered his second confident debate performance against Perry on Monday, raising more questions about the Texas governor’s position on Social Security even as Perry tried to close out the discussion by vowing the benefits were “slam-dunk guaranteed’’ for current recipients.
WSJ:
A day after a heated GOP presidential debate threw Mr. Perry on defense, the Texas governor on Tuesday was still answering questions about the first-in-the-nation law he signed granting illegal immigrants in-state tuition to state colleges and universities.
"These kids showed up in our state by no fault of their own, some 2-3 years of age,'' he told reporters in Tampa on Tuesday. "They want to be contributing members of society. So, it would be, I think, the wrong message to say somehow or another that you can't go to our colleges. When people really think about it, I think they'll understand what we did in Texas was the right thing for Texas," he said.
But among the conservative Republican electorate, such understanding may be in short supply. "For many conservatives and even independents, illegal immigration is an issue that touches on economics, fairness, education, jobs," said Kellyanne Conway, a GOP pollster who is not aligned with any 2012 presidential campaign. "To that extent, it could become a real vulnerability for Perry."
More on Perry here.