ORLANDO, FL — If you can’t win the game, change the rules. That’s what Rick Perry tried to do in an address to the CPAC Florida conference here Friday, one day after what was universally derided as a terrible debate performance Thursday.
Speaking to what sounded like a friendly crowd, Perry told his supporters not to worry and asked his party to remember that debating isn’t everything.
“As conservatives we know that values and visions matter,” he said. “It’s not who is the slickest candidate or smoothest debater who we need to elect.”
Perry went on to attack what he called the smooth talkers of the recent Democratic past, including President Obama and Bill Clinton who Perry said “could sell ice to Eskimos and then come out the next day against ice.”
