Perry takes the spotlight and the heat

SIMI VALLEY, CALIF. - In Wednesday's high-stakes Republican presidential debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry was treated as the front-runner, questioned repeatedly by moderators and targeted by nearly all his rivals.

"I kind of feel like the pinata at the party," said Perry, who sparred early and repeatedly with the previous presumed front-runner, Mitt Romney. It was Perry's first presidential debate.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who had surged to a win in the recent Iowa straw poll, got little chance to solidify her status as a first-tier candidate Wednesday. When questions finally came her way, she plowed familiar ground, saying she would repeal "ObamaCare," knows of the need for jobs "firsthand," and suggested she could return the country to the days of cheap energy.

Perry and Romney grabbed the early focus and kept it through much of the nearly two-hour televised appearance. Like Bachmann, the other candidates -- Rep. Ron Paul, former Gov. Jon Huntsman, former Sen. Rick Santorum, former Rep. Newt Gingrich and businessman Herman Cain -- struggled to grab a share of the spotlight.

They had a brief skirmish over who had the right experience and more success in creating jobs, but it was a prelude to the sharpest exchange of the night.

Perry took on the Social Security system, repeating his contention that it was doomed to fail.

"It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there. Anybody that's for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it's not right," Perry said.

"Under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it's a failure," he said. "It is working for millions of Americans, and I'll keep it working for millions of Americans. And we've got to do that as a party."

Refusing to retreat

To applause from the crowd, Perry refused to retreat.

"You cannot keep the status quo in place and not call it anything other than a Ponzi scheme," he said. "Americans know that, and regardless of what anyone says, 'Oh, it's not, and that's provocative language.' Maybe it's time to have some provocative language in this country and say things like, let's get America working again and do whatever it takes to make that happen."

Gingrich appealed for at least a measure of unity, promising the live audience, including former First Lady Nancy Reagan, that he wouldn't rough up his fellow Republicans.

Despite that, the bickering continued as Perry and Paul engaged in a Texas showdown, while Huntsman accused his rivals of being anti-science on issues such as climate change and evolution, positions he said would cost the party votes in the general election.

"We can't run from science. We can't run from mainstream conservative philosophy. We've got to win voters," Huntsman said.

But first they will have to continue narrowing their own primary field. Some pundits are already assuming Bachmann will be the next to drop.

While Bachmann's ascent spelled doom for Tim Pawlenty's presidential ambitions, Perry shares her Tea Party base of supporters and entered the field with a splash that threatens to overwhelm the other Minnesotan.

A 'very solid performance'

But her former campaign manager Ed Rollins said in the California debate "spin room" that knocking Perry out was not Bachmann's goal. Her goal, he said on MSNBC, was to show she was "smart" and "articulate." She turned out a "very solid performance," Rollins said.

Recent polls have shown a narrowed race, with Perry on top and Romney slipping to second. Bachmann has barely hung onto third place and has slid even lower in some polls.

Bachmann has canceled several previously scheduled campaign appearances in California so she can return to Washington for Obama's jobs speech to Congress. She will be a guest on Fox News' "On the Record" Thursday night to react to Obama's speech.

"I think tomorrow night, when the nation tunes in to the president, I'm afraid that we won't be seeing permanent solution," she said Wednesday, in one of her few chances to speak. "I'm afraid what we'll be seeing are temporary gimmicks and more of the same that he's given before."

Staff writer Baird Helgeson contributed to this report. rachel.stassen-berger@startribune.com www.twitter.com/RachelSB