Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson condemned the booing of a gay servicemember that occurred at Thursday night's Fox News/Google GOP debate, and he expressed regret for not speaking up at the time.

In an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC, the former New Mexico governor said the incident -- in which a gay soldier serving in Iraq was loudly booed -- was "not right" and not representative of the Republican party he belongs to.

"If I have one regret from last evening, it’s that I didn’t stand up and say, you know, you’re booing a U.S. serviceman who is denied being able to express his sexual preference," he said. "There’s something very, very wrong with that."

Johnson said he was "chomping at the bit" to respond to the audience, but he was reticent to speak out due to his exclusion from the recent debates. "I’m feeling a little bit like I’m walking on egg shells," he said.

He told Sharpton he believes the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, which went into effect on Sept. 20, should have been done "a long time ago."

Sharpton asked Johnson about the unexpected outbursts from audience members that have characterized the last three Republican debates. At the Reagan Library debate on Sept. 7, the audience spontaneously applauded the mere mention of executions performed under the Texas governorship of Rick Perry. During the Sept. 12 CNN/Tea Party debate, Wolf Blitzer asked a hypothetical question about the fate of a sick, uninsured patient. "Are you saying society should just let him die?" Blitzer asked, provoking cheers of "Yeah!" from the audience.

Johnson, agreeing with Sharpton's description of the incidents as "ugly," called himself "the different voice in that debate." He said that he views the death penalty as "flawed public policy," and he argued in favor of caring for the sick, adding that "government perhaps is the only entity that's available" for the most needy. "Let him die? No, that’s not this country," he said. "We are a country of compassion. These are the people that we want to help."

ORLANDO – How did Rick Perry get here?

Just a few weeks ago, the Texas governor was taking the Republican presidential primary by storm, but his star has fallen rapidly over the course of his first three debates. On Thursday night, it came crashing down.

Conservatives flocked to the three-day conclave here – kicked off by the Google-Fox News debate Thursday night – "ready to marry" Perry, but left "spooked" by his performance, said one Florida Republican with contacts among both campaign operatives and grassroots activists.

That discontent has been building, though it's not final in any sense. Perry's fortunes have fallen in large part because of a series of gaffes that demonstrated his lack of discipline and experience on a national stage. In several key moments during the past few weeks, the governor showed a tendency to undermine some of his best moments and to make tough or difficult moments even worse. His potential supporters have grown leery of Perry as the list of his unforced errors has grown longer.

The good moments gone bad:

Perry's answer to the HPV vaccine question on Thursday night could have been a standout moment. At first blush, some thought it was one of his best. He explained his decision to mandate vaccination for young Texas girls with a personal and moving story of meeting a woman suffering from cervical cancer, which can be caused by the human papillomavirus.

"I got lobbied by a 31-year-old young lady who had stage-four cervical cancer. I spent a lot of time with her," Perry said.

Perry did indeed spend time with Heather Burcham, who died in July 2007. But while the governor gave the impression that his decision to issue an executive order mandating HPV vaccination, bypassing the state legislature, was influenced by this experience, he " target="_hplink">did not meet Burcham until after he had issued the order.

On Wednesday evening, Perry saw another strong moment soured. He started off well by speaking poignantly to a roomful of a few thousand activists here about his need for their prayers.

"As a governor who's made a great deal of decisions with consequences over the years, I couldn't have done so without being driven to my knees on many occasions. As I campaign for president, I not only ask you for your vote and your support, I ask you for your prayers," Perry said.

The connection in the room was palpable, and Perry added to it for a moment by asking the crowd to pray for President Obama, taking on an air of dignity and good will.

"I ask you to pray for our country. I ask you to pray for our president," he said.

But Perry couldn't help himself. He added a request that the activists pray for Obama that God "open his eyes." Maybe some in the room didn't mind, but the implicit claim by Perry that his policy positions have divine fiat destroyed any of the moral high ground that Perry had momentarily begun to claim.

The bad moments made worse:

Perry had to have known he was going to get hammered on immigration, particularly his support for providing discounted in-state tuition at Texas public colleges and universities to children of illegal immigrants. He took flak for that in last week's debate, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney argued at length Thursday as to why the policy "makes no sense."

Perry bristled, and in his eagerness to hit back, he slighted a large swath of the conservative grassroots.

"If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart," Perry said.

Calling people who disagreed with him heartless will resonate. One conservative activist who said he agreed with Perry on the issue was still offended by the suggestion that those who disagreed with Perry lacked empathy.

Romney jumped on the line in his opening comments Friday morning during a speech to the Conservative Action Political Conference in Florida.

"I think if you're opposed to illegal immigration it doesn't mean that you don't have a heart. It means that you have a heart and a brain," Romney said to cheers.

Perry managed to commit a double error in his answer Thursday night to the HPV vaccine question. Moments after he had told the misleading story about Heather Burcham, he came back to a topic that has bedeviled him already: whether his vaccine mandate should have had an opt-out for parents or an opt-in.

"I readily admitted we should have had an opt-in, in this program," Perry said.

But that's not true. In the first two debates, Perry vigorously defended the opt-out, saying in California on Sept. 7: "I don't know what's more strong for parental rights than having that opt-out."

Perry has said at least twice outside the first two debates -- once before them, once after -- that he should have had an opt-in. The difference, of course, is that an opt-out acts much more like a mandate, requiring parental action for children not to be vaccinated. With an opt-in, only children whose parents really want the vaccination receive it.

Perry expressed some frustration with the topic, but in the process insulted parents.

"I don’t know what part of opt-out most parents don’t get," Perry said.

Though such fortune is becoming more common, Romney adviser Stuart Stevens could hardly contain his glee when talking to reporters about Perry's comment after the debate.

Stevens said Perry's position amounted to this: "If you're a parent and you don't like what he did, you're stupid."

The other gaffe by Perry that made a bad moment even worse came in the second debate on Sept. 12 in Tampa, when Rep. Michele Bachmann pointed out that Perry's former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, was a lobbyist for Merck, the drugmaker set to make the HPV vaccine and profit from the mandate.

Perry's response must rank among the all-time most ill-advised debate lines.

"The company was Merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them," Perry said. "I raise about $30 million. And if you're saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I'm offended."

If he meant to imply he could only be bought for more money, Perry was successful. Given the many ways in which he has presided over a pay to play system in Texas, made questionable use of taxpayer funds and hid behind a shroud of secrecy in his dealings as governor, it was a low moment for his political prospects.

Combined with two major gaffes on foreign policy in the last debate, and a bumbling attempt Thursday night to point out Romney's past flip-flops, the overall portrait of Perry has for many changed dramatically -- from a rock-ribbed conservative warrior to that of a overconfident, underprepared and not-ready-for-prime-time opportunist.

The reviews were brutal on Friday, and even Tea Party groups like FreedomWorks signaled that their past opposition to Romney might soften if Perry continues to fumble.

"The truth of the matter is, you've got to stop getting into trouble," said Al Cardenas, the former Florida GOP chairman and current chairman of the American Conservative Union, which hosted the CPAC conference. "He's got to get himself out of these issues."

RELATED VIDEO:

The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False | Rick Perry says Mitt Romney shifted stance when he deleted health care line from his book

Seems Rick Perry and Mitt Romney have each sold a few more books lately — to each other's campaigns. Romney used Perry's comments about Social Security in Fed Up!, the Texas governor's screed against federal expansionism, to portray Perry as a foe of the popular retirement program. Then, at the Sept. 22, 2011, Fox News/Google debate in Orlando, Perry struck back by suggesting that Romney had altered the paperback edition of his book No Apology to downplay his support of the Massachusetts health care plan. PERRY: "Speaking of books and talking about being able to ...

>> More

Daily Caller - The predictions market site Intrade now puts former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s chances of winning the Republican nomination at 43 percent, a rise of over 3 percentage points since Thursday’s presidential debate. Texas Governor Rick Perry’s chances are now estimated at 27.1 percent, a drop of over 17 percentage points.

Andrea Tantaros, NY Daily News
When viewers turned on their TV sets to watch the Fox News-Google GOP presidential debate on Thursday night, they expected to see an extended back-and-forth between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry that would cement their star status. What they got instead was a second tier of candidates that consistently outshone them, leaving the Republican Party questioning the mettle and messages of its frontrunners. While the race is arguably still between the former governor of Massachusetts and the current one of Texas, the B-listers made the audience take a second look. Each, in his or her own way, seized...

Scott Conroy, RealClearPolitics
Decision day for Sarah Palin is coming next week. That is, of course, unless it isn't.Asked in July when she would decide whether to run for president, the former Alaska governor told Fox News' Sean Hannity, "August and September. You do have to start laying out a plan if you are to be one to throw your hat in the ring, so that's basically the time frame."During an early August appearance at the Iowa state fair, Palin echoed that language, suggesting again that late-summer was "basically" her deadline to decide."That is still a...

Carl Cannon, RealClearPolitics
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Nine Republicans sparred on a stage here Thursday night as part of a three-day conservapalooza designed to galvanize the GOP base, winnow an unwieldy roster of candidates, and flesh out the issues to use against President Obama in next year's general election.To date, the unforgiving metrics of funding and poll numbers place Rick Perry and Mitt Romney as the front-runners in the 2012 Republican presidential field, with the Texas governor leading the former Massachusetts governor in every national poll, and most of the state-by-state matchups.Nothing that occurred...

Immigration, Social Security and health care were the most contentious issues in Thursday's spirited debate among the field of Republican presidential candidates vying for their party's nomination. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney put on another polished performance while Texas Governor Rick Perry seemed at times to struggle. Nonetheless, no candidate delivered a knock out punch.

All of the candidates criticized President Barack Obama's handling of the U.S. economy. Governor Perry began the debate by once again referring to the relatively strong Texas economy and jobs creation as the reasons he should be elected president, "If it'll work in the state of Texas, it'll work in Washington, D.C." Former Governor Romney again pointed to his private sector experience and his economic plan as the reasons he should be in the White House. But, late in the debate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson had the night's best line, "My next door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this president."

Governors Perry and Romney, the two frontrunners according to polls, went after each other on Social Security. In his recently released book Governor Perry denounced Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" and suggested that some of the responsibility should be turned back to the states. When asked about Governor Romney's attacks on his stand Perry seemed to be on the defensive, "It's not the first time that Mitt has been wrong on some issues before...we never said that we were going to move this back to the states." He continued, "We ought to have as one of the options the state employees and the state retirees, they being able to go off of the current system, on to one that the states would operate themselves."

Governor Romney seized the opening, "Well, it's different than what the governor put in his book...There's a Rick Perry out there that is saying -- and almost to quote, it says that the federal government shouldn't be in the pension business, that it's unconstitutional." Governor Perry quickly responded by switching subjects to the former governor's universal health care plan for Massachusetts. The Texas governor said, "(In your book) you said it was exactly what the American people needed, to have that Romneycare given to them as you had in Massachusetts." Governor Romney denied he ever wrote that.

Immigration was a hotly debated subject and it found Governor Perry having to defend his policies. The Texas "Dream Act" allows children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuitions for college. Governor Romney criticized the Texas governor's position, "We have to turn off the magnet of extraordinary government benefits like a $100,000 tax credit -- or, excuse me, discount for going to the University of Texas. That shouldn't be allowed. It makes no sense at all." And former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum attacked Governor Perry's overall immigration policy, "I think he's very weak on this issue of American sovereignty and protecting our borders and not being a magnet for illegal immigration."

Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, who had a stronger debate performance this time around, went after Governor Perry for his executive order in 2007 mandating that all 12 year-old Texas girls receive the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer. "Governor Perry made a decision where he gave parental rights to a big drug company," she charged, "That big drug company gave him campaign contributions and hired his former chief of staff to lobby him to benefit the big drug company." The governor said he was lobbied by a 31 year-old woman with cervical cancer and concluded, "I erred on the side of life and I will always err on the side of life as a governor as the president of the United States."

Governor Perry stumbled through his only real attempt to go on the offensive against Governor Romney, who he accused of being a flip-flopper on key issues. "I think Americans just don't know sometimes which Mitt Romney they're dealing with. Is it the Mitt Romney that was on the side of against the Second Amendment before he was for the Second Amendment?" Then the governor seemed to lose himself, "Was it -- was before he was before the social programs, from the standpoint of he was for standing up for Roe v. Wade before he was against Roe v. Wade? He was for Race to the Top, he's for Obamacare, and now he's against it. I mean, we'll wait until tomorrow and --and-- and see which Mitt Romney we're really talking to tonight."

It is unlikely that Thursday's debate in Orlando, Florida, will dramatically change the polls. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who had seen a bump up in a recent New Hampshire poll, may have actually hurt himself a bit with his awkward answer to who he might pick among the debaters to be his vice presidential running mate. His answer was businessman Herman Cain because he was also wearing a yellow tie at the debate.

In the weeks ahead, Governor Perry will have to do a better job of explaining his positions on Social Security and immigration or they may ultimately drag him down. Yet, what the governor lacks as a debater he makes up for in charisma and charm. On the other hand, while former Governor Romney is a strong debater with a solid business background, he is haunted by Romneycare and his history of changing positions on core Republican issues. A lack of enthusiasm may make it easier for President Obama be reelected, provided he makes progress on reducing unemployment and improving the economy before election day 2012.

So, even though it is clearly a two-man race for the Republican nomination, many Republicans still haven't decided who to support. In other words, neither candidate is yet shovel-ready.

Rick Perry says he maintains a "great rapport" with former President George W. Bush, but he disagreed with Bush's efforts to reform education and create a prescription drug program under Medicare.

Perry dismissed reports that he had a tense relationship with Bush, whom he succeeded as Texas governor. Perry said during a Republican presidential debate that he was "very vocal" in his disagreement with the prescription drug program, which he called "very expensive."

Perry says he also opposed the No Child Left Behind reforms of the nation's education system. He said the federal government "has no business telling the states how to educate our children."

Asked to draw a contrast between himself and Bush last month, the Lone Star State Republican said, "You know, they’re not all carbon copies in Texas." He added, "I tell people, I say one of the quick you can tell the difference is that he’s a Yale graduate. I’m a Texas A&M graduate. But the fact is it doesn’t matter where you’re from. The next president of the United States, which state they’re from doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s in their heart and what’s in their mind. And what’s in my mind and what’s in my heart is we’re gonna get America working again."

Around the same time, the Texas governor had this to say when asked if there's any tension between the Bush and Perry camps in an interview with Time.

Not from my perspective, and certainly not between George W. Bush and I. And frankly, his dad, I mean, I got great respect for them. And the President 43 and I have a very good personal warm relationship. If there are people that were on his team [in] the past that haven’t agreed on policy or picked a different horse in a political race—you look back over my political career, and if I chastised and removed everyone who’s been on the other side of me in a political race I wouldn’t have any friends or helpers.

Political veterans in Texas, however, say the tiff goes back to 1995, when then-Governor Bush refused to appoint Perry's brother-in-law to the appeals court bench.

Below, a video of highlights from Thursday night's debate.

WATCH:

Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson drew laughs from the audience at Thursday night's Republican presidential debate with a colorful criticism he leveled at the White House.

"My next door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration," said the White House contender toward the end of the event.

Johnson, a libertarian and lesser-known candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, said in a statement following the debate, "Tonight, a great many people had their first opportunity to see that there is a candidate who will actually focus like a laser on the task of reducing government, eliminating deficits, and freeing the economy to create real jobs. As Republicans, we need to face the reality that today’s out-of-control spending is as much a Republican problem as it is a Barack Obama problem, and simply paying lip service to bringing it under control won’t fly with the American people."

He continued, "Likewise, Republicans deserve to have a candidate who will challenge the notion of foreign intervention and unjustified, undeclared wars we cannot afford. I am gratified to offer that alternative."

Not long after the culmination of the debate, Johnson's name was among the top searches on Google Trends.

Accepting the premise that the race for the Republican presidential nomination has come down to a two-man contest between the frontrunner Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, the question is which of those two candidates helped himself the most in Thursday evening's debate in Orlando, Fla.? The answer has to be Romney.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Once again, Rick Perry got blindsided.

The Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate, as in his first two debates, started off with pep in his step, trading barbs with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and giving as good as he got. Yet once again, he came under attack on his right flank from other candidates, and came away looking shell shocked.

In past debates, Perry was taken to task for mandating a vaccine for elementary school students and for cronyism. On Thursday night, it was immigration. Former Sen. Rick Santorum attacked Perry for supporting in-state tuition rates for children of illegal immigrants, drawing Perry into a back and forth on the issue.

"I would say that he is soft on illegal immigration," Santorum said. "He doesn't want to build a fence. He gave a speech in 2001 where he talked about binational health insurance between Mexico and Texas. I mean, I don't even think Barack Obama would be for binational health insurance."

Santorum called Perry "very weak on this issue of American sovereignty and protecting our borders and not being a magnet for illegal immigration."

Perry, who has in many ways been the opposite of former President George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism," said the other Republicans who opposed in-state tuition for children of illegals were heartless.

"If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart," Perry said.

But Romney scored obvious points on this issue by pointing out that students from states outside Texas have to pay full tuition.

"If you're a United States citizen from any one of the other 49 states, you have to pay $100,000 more. That doesn't make sense to me," Romney said.

The exchange on immigration ended with Santorum interrupting Perry repeatedly as the Texas governor struggled to make the case that you can stop the flow of immigrants from Mexico without building a fence along the entire border.

It wasn't clear what impact the night had on Perry's prospects. He needed to change the dynamic in which Romney drew blood from him and he remained on the defensive. In some ways, he did this. He was far more polished and prepared than he was in the first two debates. He did score some points against Romney, knocking him for changing a line in his book between the hard cover and paperback editions about his view of his health care overhaul in Massachusetts, and calling the health care plan "an absolute bust."

But Perry also had some awkward moments, struggling and faltering when he tried to paint Romney as a flip-flopper. And when asked who he would pick as a running mate, Perry said he would take former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain and "mate him up" with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga).

"There are a couple of images I'm going to have a hard time getting out of my mind," Romney joked.

A focus group run by Fox News said after the debate that Romney was the clear winner, and that Perry lost a large degree of support. Romney's poise, confidence and specificity -- which has been a mark of his performance in each debate -- clearly impressed the voters.

What was clear is that Santorum gained enormously from another strong performance. He has gathered momentum with every debate -- speaking with authority and expertise on policy and with obvious passion on issues in a way that resonates with the conservative grassroots. With Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) fading as voters question her electability, Santorum may be putting himself in a position to make some real noise in Iowa, which goes first in the primary process. Depending on how Perry does over the next few months, that could elevate the Pennsylvanian significantly.

The line that drew the most applause of the night came from former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.

"My next door neighbors two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this administration," Johnson said. The audience roared.

Thursday night's debate came with the backdrop of a stagnant jobs market, heated budget wars in Washington and a massive sell-off in the stock market with the Dow Jones Industrial average dropping 390 points. The Republican presidential field has, for weeks, argued over which candidate could best turn around the floundering economy. And Thursday proved no different. But the primary has also been waged over separate issues, including perspective platforms and rhetoric on Social Security reform, the efficacy of mandating vaccinations and, perhaps most importantly, which candidate stood the best chance to defeat President Obama.

The polling has been fluid. While Perry has been vaulted into frontrunner status, despite his late entrance into the race, that lead has been narrowed in recent days. In New Hampshire, Romney has even widened his advantage, with a Suffolk University poll released on Wednesday evening showing him with a 27-point lead over his nearest competitor, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). In Florida, the home-state for Thursday night's affair and the fourth state in the primary calendar, Perry is holding to a six-point advantage over Romney, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week.

On the periphery remain a host of candidates, some heading in opposite directions. Bachmann, who seemed poised for good fortune in Iowa after a win in August's critical Ames Straw Poll, has been in a prolonged stumble, with staff turnover, verbal gaffes and now money woes weighing down her campaign.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, whose debate performance had been defined by uncomfortable attempts at humor and un-landed jabs at competitors, has managed to inch up in the polls, ever so slightly. In that same Suffolk University poll, he registered in third place, at 10 percent, more than double where he stood several months ago.

Scott Conroy, RCP
Decision day for Sarah Palin is coming next week. That is, of course, unless it isn't.Asked in July when she would decide whether to run for president, the former Alaska governor told Fox News' Sean Hannity, "August and September. You do have to start laying out a plan if you are to be one to throw your hat in the ring, so that's basically the time frame."During an early August appearance at the Iowa state fair, Palin echoed that language, suggesting again that late-summer was "basically" her deadline to decide."That is still a...

O'Connor & Weisman, WSJ
ORLANDO, Fla.—Republican presidential front-runners Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, taking up where they left off in their last on-stage meeting, attacked each other over Social Security and health care in a televised debate Thursday, with the Texas governor on defense for much of the contest.The third Republican presidential debate in as many weeks showed the same dynamics as the prior two, with many of the candidates jabbing away at the Texan. In one exchange on immigration, Mr. Romney said he couldn't understand why Mr. Perry signed a Texas law giving in-state university tuition...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Hours before the sixth Republican presidential debate, the mood among the crowd was one of giddy anticipation. The early disappointments with the field have faded. The political landscape has blossomed. And despite the occasional sharp elbow thrown between the candidates, the prospect of retaking the White House has limited the bruised egos and hurt feelings.

"Spanky McFarland could be running, and if he could beat Obama I'd vote for him," explained Neil Moore, a Chicago Republican and 30-year union man, who stood outside the Orlando convention center.

Spanky McFarland ain't on the ballot. But Moore's point is the same. Among the issues he's considered when it comes to choosing a candidate, electability is paramount. That's why, as he puts it, his "mind" is telling him to vote for Mitt Romney while his "heart says" Rick Perry.

"I like Ron Paul," Moore adds. "I think he is a very smart man. But I don't think his approaches are very good. I don't know how else to say it."

Moore didn't have to say much more. The crowd at Thursday night's presidential debate echoed those sentiments. Where they disagreed was on what actually made a candidate electable. Romney certainly has the polish to take on Obama. But that wasn't necessarily a strong selling point.

"Listen," said Sherri Ortega of Florida, channeling a line she's heard ad nauseam on conservative talk radio, "we can never be good enough for the Democrats to vote for us so stop trying to be like Democrats."

"Romney has had six years to sharpen up his stances," she added. Perry, she said, should be given some "time to think about them."

By "them" Ortega means, most specifically, Social Security, over which Romney and Perry have had some of their sharpest disputes. The former Massachusetts governor has insisted that Perry's talk of Ponzi schemes, illegality, and state-run retirement programs makes him vulnerable in a general election contest. Perry counters that he's simply talking straight.

"It's fixable," says Moore, apparently siding with Romney on this one. "Raise the retirement age. Lower the benefit levels over time to adjust for longer life expectancy. Give people an option to choose [a private plan]. And keep your freaking hands out of it. Quit stealing from it. ... I like the system. I want it improved."

But not everyone thinks Social Security reform is that simple or, for that matter, all that toxic to discuss.

"It's a total Ponzi scheme, and I'm glad Perry said it," said a Florida woman who remained nameless. "Things were fine before Social Security was put in place. People took care of each other. Communities looked after each other."

Florida State Senate President Mike Haridopolos, speaking in an interview with The Huffington Post, noted that the program was "not the third rail it used to be."

Haridopolos, who is not affiliated with any campaign, pointed to the willingness of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to talk about reforming Social Security during his successful campaign in 2010. While Perry may have gone too far in some of his rhetoric, Haridopolos added, there is widespread agreement with him on the need for changes to the system.

"If the governor had his chance, he'd probably walk back some of the comments about it being a Ponzi scheme, but we need a real plan for Social Security," Haridopolos said.

For others, Perry's bluntness was a virtue in its own right. Steve Hogan, a 65-year-old from Palm Beach County, voted for Romney in the 2008 primary but said he was leaning toward Perry this time around.

"He's basically honest," Hogan said of the Texas governor, "and people realize you can't skew your words to make yourself look better. He may say them a little awkwardly, but he says what he means. I think American people are ready for that."

Gaston Larranaga, a 66-year-old who came to the United States from Uruguay at age 23, joined the Navy and then worked for IBM, also said he was backing Perry despite having voted for Romney in 2008.

"I'm on Social Security, and I'm worried about my children not having their thing," Larranaga said. "People are smarter right now. There are a lot of things being said about all the old people. I don't buy it."

"Perry is guilty of a little flashy language," Larranaga added. "I think he can sell it."

Unlike Hogan or Larranaga, the majority of the roughly dozen attendees interviewed said they had yet to make up their minds about which candidate they'd support. But even among the undecided masses, the basic demand for the Republican field was the same.

"I just want someone to take it to Obama," said Ortega.

Nine candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination are facing off in a primary debate in Florida on Thursday night.

The two-hour event is sponsored by Fox News and Google. GOP contenders participating in the forum include: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

The debate will mark the third of the election season for Perry since the White House hopeful announced his candidacy for president of the United States. Despite leading the GOP primary pack in national polls, the Lone Star State Republican has found himself having to fend off an increasing number of attacks from rival contenders in recent weeks.

Below, a live blog of the latest developments to unfold in Thursday night's debate in Florida.

The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Gary Johnson says U.S. prisons are packed with small-time drug dealers

Presidential candidate Gary Johnson, a longtime advocate of legalizing marijuana, says U.S. prisons are packed with too many small-time drug dealers. In a meeting with the editorial board of The Telegraph in Nashua, N.H., the former New Mexico governor explained some of the reasoning for his controversial position: "We now have 2.3 million people behind bars in this country, we have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world," Johnson said. "The majority of those people behind bars are there because they sold small amounts of drugs." We'll ...

>> More

For Alexander, a former Tennessee governor and two-time presidential candidate whose checkered shirts and pickup truck on the campaign trail failed to gain him the White House, his exit from the Senate GOP's leadership was more about gaining freedom, he said.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Texas governor Rick Perry has pointed to job growth in Texas during the current economic downturn as one of his main accomplishments. But in a new report for the Center for Immigration Studies, based on data collected monthly by the Census Bureau, we found that newly arrived immigrants (legal and illegal) have been the primary beneficiaries of this growth between 2007 and 2011, not native-born workers.

We found that of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent (225,000) were taken by newly arrived foreign workers (legal and illegal). The Census Bureau asks immigrants to say when they came to the United States, so it is easy to look at new arrivals who took jobs. Of newly arrived immigrants who took a job in Texas, the data show that 93 percent were not U.S. citizens. We estimate that about half of newly arrived immigrants who took jobs in Texas since 2007 were illegal immigrants. This means that about 40 percent of all the job growth in Texas between 2007 and 2011 went to newly arrived illegal immigrants and 40 percent went to newly arrived legal immigrants.

Keep reading this post . . .

ContributorNetwork - ANALYSIS | Whether one is a Democrat, Republican, or true Independent, an objective look at the last debate held in Florida, the CNN/Tea Party Express event in Tampa, was nothing short of a Rick Perry pile-on. The Texas governor was literally slammed, ridiculed, burned, mocked, undermined, and generally made to look bad in front of a national audience by members of his own political party. Be that because of his quick jump into the lead over the 2012 GOP presidential field or because his policies and ideas truly are at odds with many of his fellow hopefuls or even because he once was a Democrat, the other candidates went after Gov. Perry as if he were the incumbent Democratic president and not simply a fellow GOP presidential nomination contender. Ten days later, just a few miles to the northeast, the question must be asked: Will the Fox News/Google Republican Presidential Debate in Orlando be more of same?

ContributorNetwork - ANALYSIS | Former Massachusetts governor and current Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has made some gains in recent national polling, according to the listing at Real Clear Politics, pulling to within four percentage points of frontrunner Rick Perry in at least a couple surveys, including Rasmussen Reports' latest. In an interview with USA Today, Romney told the national newspaper that his plan going forward was to show the contrasts between himself and Perry, to draw starker lines between himself and the seemingly more conservative Perry and hope it works to persuade Republicans to vote for him in the upcoming caucuses and primaries. He also said he would like to see Sarah Palin enter the Republican race. He says she will make the race "more exciting" and that is most likely true. But is that the only reason Romney wants Palin, who recently alluded to Perry as a crony capitalist, in the hunt for the Republican presidential nomination?

Daily Caller - Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback endorsed long-time friend Texas Gov. Rick Perry Thursday.

This story ends with the execution of Troy Davis.

It begins with a former Illinois governor, who was pro-death penalty, and saw the life of a woman worth saving in 1996.

I was scheduled to help cover the execution of Guin Garcia, as an intern for the Bloomington-Normal, Ill. Pantagraph. I worked out of the Pontiac, Ill., bureau back then.

I was excited and ecstatic to cover something this big as an intern. I was to focus on the crowd outside and their reaction. I was literally scared about this assignment. The surroundings of the prison grounds at Stateville Correctional Center were only known to me from television coverage, usually after a riot.

My bureau chief/mentor gave me an idea of what to expect. Protesters, both for and against the death penalty, cover both sides if you can was his advice.

I was all set to do so. I heard, in between classes, that the governor had commuted Garcia's sentence. I didn't sleep the night before, I was full of caffeine, and was rarin' to go and quite frankly was pissed that the governor commuted her sentence.

Why?

I wouldn't get the story. I was hungry for her death because of the story/stories that would follow from this woman, who I didn't know and lived in the prison in the town I grew up in.

Her commutation was early on in my internship. I'd like to say I was young, but I wasn't. Naive, eager; willing to prove my mettle as a budding reporter, absolutely.

I was wrong. I shouldn't have wanted this woman's death, she hadn't harmed me, I didn't know her...

If I had known then, I would have been ashamed. I am ashamed I wanted this woman's death to get the story, 15 years later. Fifteen years too long.

The Garcia case really was open and shut, yet she had a troubled past, to say the least. She admitted to killing her daughter and her husband. She was convicted and served time for killing her daughter. She was convicted and sentenced to death for killing her husband. She wanted to die; Gov. Edgar said at the time it wasn't up to the state to grant this woman's wish.

So, why didn't Troy Davis receive the same consideration?

Why is he now dead at the hands of the executioner of the state of Georgia?

He was convicted by a jury. I can stand by that. That same jury said he deserved to die. I can understand that based on the information given to them for consideration during his trial.

However, based on the coverage I've seen the last few weeks, the jury wasn't given the whole story and 7 of the 9 eyewitnesses recanted their testimony a few said they were coerced into identifying Davis as the shooter of Officer Mark McPhail.

Even the ballistics information that was given at trial was found to be erroneous.

With all of this doubt, why couldn't the state of Georgia have halted this man's execution to make absolutely sure that Davis was actually the shooter?That they were putting the right man to death for for murdering Officer McPhail?

Where was Troy's Gov. Edgar? He couldn't even get a reprieve from the Supreme Court, just a four hour waiting period before those drugs were injected into him.

I rejoice in finding out that Guin Garcia has found life fulfilling. I hadn't visited her case since my internship ended.

I grieve for the murder of Troy Davis, because he should have been able to have the same ending Guin did.

Guin is alive because a true compassionate, conservative, governor saw worth in her life.

Where has the compassion gone in this day of grief?

Reuters - Representative Darrell Issa, a leading Obama administration critic, endorsed Mitt Romney for president on Thursday, bolstering the conservative credentials of the former Massachusetts governor.