But even as the Perry rehabilitation tour went into full swing, Republicans inside and outside his campaign were skeptical of his prospects for survival.
“We’re in one of those stop-the-fights, throw-in-the-white-towel moments,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican consultant who supported Mitt Romney in the 2008 presidential race but is not affiliated with any of the 2012 campaigns. “It was just brutal. It turns out that being president is a very hard job. I think Perry’s taken himself out of consideration now.”
Perry began Thursday with a whirlwind tour of morning talk shows and moved on to “Late Show With David Letterman” in New York, making light of his gaffe and trying to combat the perception that his series of debate stumbles makes him ill suited for the rigors of a presidential campaign.
Although many Republicans praised Perry’s handling of the situation, most said it was not enough. Dozens of Republicans who were interviewed for this article, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the campaign freely, observed that the governor will have great trouble attracting the new donors and supporters he already needed to turn around his campaign.
Some of Perry’s backers rushed to his defense. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of his most prominent surrogates, issued a statement that said Perry is still “the right person” to defeat Obama. “He’s got a strong track record in Texas, and he knows how to create jobs and get America working again,” Jindal said.
Reaction to the gaffe, which took place during a televised debate in the Detroit suburbs, came on a day when the intensity of the GOP presidential contest notched up considerably, with less than two months until voting begins in the early-nominating states.
With another debate scheduled for Saturday in South Carolina, the two front-runners in the field — Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, and Georgia businessman Herman Cain — remained in Michigan for a busy day of retail politicking.
Romney, rallying a couple of hundred supporters a few miles from the Detroit suburb where he grew up, ducked questions about Perry’s performance, saying only that he was pleased with his own performance. “I’ve got to worry more about me than anybody else,” Romney said.
Cain, mingling with supporters in Ypsilanti, Mich., tried jovially to move past the sexual harassment allegations that have consumed his presidential campaign by training his attacks on Obama.
“How do you beat Obama? Beat him with a Cain,” he quipped at the Big Sky Diner.
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