Milbank saw an empty suit last night. The GOP elites are panicking a little. Blumenthal reads the polls:
Perry's perceived viability among ordinary Republicans may simply reflect news reports showing him doing well in the "horse race" of politics in recent weeks. The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found Perry to be the "dominant newsmaker" in mid-August, the subject of 55 percent of all election stories studied, compared to just 6 percent for Romney. And more than a dozen national media polls conducted since mid-August have shown Perry surging ahead.
So Perry's perceived electability advantage among rank-and-file Republicans may be just "bubble support," as political scientist and blogger Jonathan Bernstein put it.
PPP finds that Perry's remarks on social security may be hurting him:
When PPP did a national poll three weeks ago Barack Obama led Perry by only 6 points at 49-43. Now that gap has widened to 11 points at 52-41. The main movement has come with Democratic voters. On the previous poll Obama had only a 68 point lead with the party base at 81-13 but now it's 80 points at 89-9. We know there are a lot of Democratic voters disenchanted with Obama right now but if the GOP puts forward someone like Perry who's willing to go after one of the Holy Grails of the party's orthodoxy like Social Security it might scare those voters back into the fold.
Perry scares the crap out of me. I can't be the only one. The circumstances, however, are almost perfect for the GOP to get false confidence from the midterms, pick its most radical candidate, and come crashing down to earth next November. Remember Obama's core skill: getting his opponents to destroy themselves.
(Photo: Adrian Sanchez-Gonzales/Getty.)
The Dish 