ORLANDO, FL — Sorry, Rick: That dog don’t hunt.
Following a less-than-ideal performance in Thursday’s debate here, Rick Perry spent the last day or so trying out a new line on audiences in Orlando: You don’t need a good debater, or a guy who’s “slick,” he says, you need a strong conservative.
I asked a bunch of delegates gathered for the Presdiency5 straw poll at the Orange County Convention Center what they thought of Perry’s new spin. In a word, they thought it was lame.
“Heard that before from guys who lose debates,” a delegate from Hardee County laughed. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
Delegates pointed out that the eventual nominee is will have to debate President Obama – a master wordsmith if ever there was one. One said that John McCain “lost the election in the debates” and scoffed at the idea that debate skill isn’t important in 2012.
So it sounds like the new Perry line ain’t gonna work. Not in Florida anyway.
