The Republican presidential candidates are stepping up Thursday night for another round of debates — this time in the big swing state of Florida, ahead of the state GOP’s straw poll on Saturday.
Gov. Rick Scott has been talking up the straw poll, seeking to raise the profile of his state party in the nomination fight, and even claiming that the winner of the contest will become president. A bit bold perhaps, but with polling indicating a close race at the moment between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry in the state, Florida’s importance is growing rapidly in the primaries as well as the general election.
So in preparation for the debate, let’s review some key things to look out for.
1. Perry vs. Romney, Part XXVII
Mitt Romney is betting everything on Rick Perry’s history of attacks on Social Security proving too extreme even for Republican voters. While much of the press thus far has focused on Perry’s rhetoric on Social Security, which he calls a “Ponzi scheme,” the real heart of Romney’s attack is on Perry’s attacks on the program’s existence itself. Looking to focus his message further, Romney’s campaign released a series of pointed questions for Perry on Wednesday regarding the Texas governor’s repeated claim that Social Security is unconstitutional and should be delegated to the states. Expect to see the issue pop up in the debate, either from the moderator or Romney or both.
2. Can Bachmann Inoculate Herself On Vaccine Gaffe?
Bachmann will have to try to recover from the fallout of her blunder from the debate last week, when she attacked Perry for issuing an executive order that young girls in Texas be vaccinated against the sexually-transmitted disease HPV — and claiming that a woman told her after the debate that the HPV vaccine had caused her daughter to develop mental retardation. This statement helped to spread long-standing myths that vaccines cause retardation or autism in some children, an idea that the medical profession has worked very hard to dispel. This led not only the wider news media, but even many prominent conservative pundits, to slam Bachmann for making a false, dangerous statement — something that we here at TPM have noticed about her for a long time.
3. Yay, Israel!
Republican contenders think this is finally the year that they peel off a significant chunk of the Jewish vote, egged on by a surprise Israel-centric victory in New York’s 9th district this month by Bob Turner. President Obama is working frantically this week to head off Palestinian leaders’ attempt at gaining recognition as a state and the top Republican contenders have relentlessly attacked him over his Israel policy now that the issue in the spotlight. Older Jewish voters, who Republicans think are most persuadable in 2012, are disproportionately concentrated in Florida so you expect some epic pandering on Friday.
4. The Fed May Have Committed Some Light…Expansionist Monetary Policy
Rick Perry previously accused of Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke of being “almost treasonous” if he were to expand the money supply — which would potentially help the economy, and thus rebound to the benefit of President Obama’s re-election. They may not have put it as menacingly, but Congressional Republican leaders wrote a letter to Bernanke on Tuesday themselves, urging him not to do so as well, a move contrary to the usual norms under which the Fed is supposed to be insulated from politics. But the Fed ignored them and announced a new round of monetary stimulus. Will Perry reprise his tough talk against Bernanke now that the Fed has apparently shrugged off his first warning?
5. Gary Johnson Is Finally On Stage — Can He Make A Splash?
Fox News has now invited another candidate, former two-term New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who was excluded from debates for the last few months — and they reportedly did so over the objections of the state GOP, as Johnson’s name is not on their straw poll ballot. Johnson was previously included in a Fox debate back in May, but it was a low-key affair that only featured lower-tier candidates such as Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain and Ron Paul. Since then, Johnson has protested his exclusion in various says — in June, he posted a 40-minute YouTube video in which he answered every question from a CNN debate, from which he had been left out.
