It wasn’t supposed to be this way for Rick Perry.
A hard-talking embodiment of the conservative id, the Texas Governor entered the race in August and quickly shot to the front of the pack on broad appeal to the Tea Party base, and his message on job creation.
But something funny is happening to Rick Perry on the way to what many expected to be a charge to the nomination: Namely, Rick Perry.
After a series of missteps and stumbles, most of his own making, the latest Washington Post / ABC News poll shows Perry having lost about half of his national support in the last month. The former frontrunner is now staring back up at his chief rival, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, and running neck-and-neck with the surging Herman Cain.
From the Washington Post:
After a quick rise in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has experienced an almost equally dramatic decline, losing about half of his support over the past month, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Perry’s slide, which comes after several uneven performances in candidate debates, has allowed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to resurface atop the GOP field. But the most direct beneficiary of the disenchantment with Perry is businessman Herman Cain, who is now tied for second place.
Perry also faces opposition to one of his signature immigration policies in Texas, the survey shows.
His rapidly changing fortunes underscore the fluidity of the Republican race and the lingering dissatisfaction with the candidates.
The Post / ABC poll shows Romney holding steady at 25 percent, but Perry now tied with Cain at 16 percent. As the Post points out, that’s a 13 point drop for Perry over the month of September. His drop in support seems to have directly benefited Cain, with the former businessman’s numbers rising 12 percent over that same period.
