Rick Perry Campaign Facing Headwinds
BLITZER: Rick Perry has been taking pokes at President Obama for reading from a teleprompter, but we will check how the Republican candidate fairs himself with and without one. Take a look at this.</s>RICK PERRY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you're looking for a slick politician or a guy with great teleprompter skills, we already have that. And he is destroying our economy. I'm a doer, not a talker. In Texas we created 40 percent of the new jobs in the entire country since June 2009, and we cut a record $15 billion from our state budget. Now they say we can't do that in Washington. Well, they're wrong, and they need to go.</s>BLITZER: Rick Perry's new ad. Let's continue with Donna and David. Anything wrong with the politician, for example, using a teleprompter? We know President Obama does it very well.</s>FRUM: During a financial crisis when an unfortunate stray remark can be heard by markets, it may be a very good idea. President's words carry very powerfully. And there is a reason for caution. In this case, this particular attack is a particularly weird one because if the suggestion is, well Barack Obama, he would be completely tongue-tied, everyone knows he can't talk. We all know he can talk. No one gainsays that. So if he can talk so well, why mock him for talking carefully?</s>BLITZER: When Governor Perry gave his major economy speech in Pittsburgh the other day, he was reading from a teleprompter.</s>BRAZILE: I don't have a problem with that. I typically I can read from one, if it's close up. If not, I just go by the cuff.</s>BLITZER: I use a teleprompter every day.</s>BRAZILE: I don't have a problem with it. The point is I don't think Rick Perry has anything to say. I have watched his campaign for the last month. It looks like Rick Perry is struggling to get a message with voters and he is having a struggle with his own words, not the words coming out of President Obama. He is getting a lot of buzz because of this the other day. He was speaking without a teleprompter, off the cuff. Let me play an excerpt.</s>PERRY: This is such a cool state. Live free or die. You got to love that, right?</s>BLITZER: Is it fair or unfair to look at that and say, that looks a little, I guess, strained?</s>FRUM: It does look a little odd. You catch him in a relaxed moment. But I think what his candidacy will turn on is, is the Texas miracle true? Did it really happen the way he said it happened? And as the evidence gathers that the state of Texas had the same fiscal problems or worse as everybody else. They look a little better because they do their budgeting over two-year cycle not a one-year cycle. As it turns out, a lot of jobs were government jobs, and many of the rest were taken by aliens, half of them illegal. That story doesn't look so compelling. And then the simple solution to the nation's problems he produces, his numbers don't work. The idea that through expanded drilling can you create millions and millions or 1.2 million job over 20 years. That figure doesn't --</s>BLITZER: You saw that campaign commercial where he says 40 percent of all the jobs in the United States were created in Texas over the past couple years on my watch. That's a pretty effective slogan.</s>BRAZILE: David mentioned the fact that, look, Texas is blessed with a lot of oil. Some people in Louisiana think they have been taking some of our natural resources. But the truth of the matter is that Texas has a lot of resources. And that's one of the reasons why they created so many minimum wage jobs. Is that the jobs we want to see created in the future? Not really. We want to see jobs in the middle class pay for their bills, et cetera. But I have to say, watching that clip, I thought I was watching Saturday night live.</s>BLITZER: It was a little painful watching that clip. And I guess the comedians will have fun with that. If you want to be president of the United States, whether you are Herman Cain, Rick Perry or Mitt Romney, or anyone else, you've got to expect that they will be scrutinized at every second, everything they say. It just comes with the territory.</s>FRUM: I get a little weary, though in the middle of this economy crisis. People may say I don't like the way that guy holds his shoulders or moves his head back and forth. You can be a very, very successful president whether you hold your shoulders one way or the other. Our economic problems are so severe, things are so out of line, and it is so important to find the right answer that those ticks of verbal, mannerisms, the physical ticks, I think, let's leave them to one side.</s>BLITZER: I think you make a good point. We should focus really -- there are major economic issues on the table. Who could do a better job with the economy, helping people who are losing their homes, and national security, some of the side issues. That's a fair point.</s>BRAZILE: Well, look, it is not the way he looks or how he holds his head or the jokes he makes. It's really, what is his plan for the future. What is his plan to grow the economy again and get the private sector off the side lines?</s>BLITZER: He has been outlining his energy plan, his tax plan. He has been outlining plans.</s>BRAZILE: We have looked at those plans. And I think most people come away saying, OK, is that the drill, baby, drill, and let's cut taxes for the wealthy. It's not a prescription for the future. And I think that's the problem Rick Perry is having, he doesn't have really anything to say.</s>BLITZER: You wrote a column. And I want you to tell us, give us the gist of it, because it is a good one, entitled "How the Tea Party could drive the GOP to Disaster." What are you talking about?</s>FRUM: I laid out their four options for the nomination and the election. What happens if you nominate a Tea Party candidate and the candidate loses? What happens if you nominate a candidate like Mitt Romney and he wins? And I laid out the last hypothesis, what happens if you do nominate a Tea Party candidate and that person wins because of the depth of the economic crisis with a platform that is utterly inadequate to the crisis. That would be a very, very dangerous thing because the country does not need tighter credit. The country does not need a premature focus on the deficit. These are the kind of large balanced approach that Mitt Romney laid out.</s>BLITZER: Do you think there is a Tea Party candidate among the Republicans out there who could win?</s>FRUM: I think Rick Perry is a very undervalued stock right now. I think as there is a lot of resistance to Mitt Romney. As the people who don't want him, look at their field of choices, Rick Perry is the choice that makes the most sense, if that's your point of view. He is a governor. He has won elections. He has held public office and I think people will tend to converge on him as alternative. And then, it becomes -- if that happens early, he could beat Romney.</s>BLITZER: I wrote my blog today in our CNN SITUATION ROOM blog today, did you see it?</s>FRUM: Yes, I did.</s>BLITZER: On how the Democrats really are going -- they're focusing their attention on Mitt Romney, David, the president's advisor yesterday, saying he has no core basically ignoring all of the other Republican candidates. They are going simply after Mitt Romney. You noticed that.</s>BRAZILE: Well, you know, Mitt Romney is a great target for Democrats because it is true that he has had four positions on one issue and then he will change it when the weather changes. But look, if Herman Cain can survive this round of scrutiny, I think that Cain will be a viable candidate, but I agree with David. Rick Perry still has another leg --</s>BLITZER: Donna, David, guys, thanks very much. Good discussion. President Obama today orders the FDA to do something about prescription drug shortages and to do it now. Stand by for details. We will also tell what you today's executive order could mean for you. That and today's other top stories, that's coming up. And it's one of the world's most dangerous and deadly drives, the 24- hour trek from Pakistan to Afghanistan. We are going along for the ride.