Romney, Perry spar on jobs in presidential debate

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Appearing together for the first time on a debate stage, the two leading contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination squared off Wednesday over the question most likely to shape the race: Which one is better equipped to restart the country's economy?

Seizing the spotlight in his national debate debut was Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has vaulted to a lead in the polls since he joined the race three weeks ago.

“We put the model in place in the state of Texas. When you look at what we have done over the last decade, we created 1 million jobs,” Perry said, noting Texas has generated more jobs in the past three months than Massachusetts did in the four years it was governed by his chief rival, Mitt Romney. Perry said that under Romney, Massachusetts “had one of the lowest job-creation rates in the country.”

Romney shot back that Texas — unlike Massachusetts — has been blessed by abundant natural resources, low taxes and a business-friendly regulatory environment.

“Those are wonderful things, but Governor Perry doesn't believe that he created those things,” Romney said. “If he tried to say that, well, it would be like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet.” this was a reference to a famous misquote that Republicans have long used to criticize the former vice president.

“As a matter of fact, [then-Texas Gov.] George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor,” Romney said.

In addition to sparring with each other, the candidates were framing their arguments with an eye to the speech on job creation that President Barack Obama is scheduled to give tonight before a joint session of Congress.

Romney had tried to get a jump on his Republican rivals and Obama by releasing a 59-point economic plan the day before the debate.

The proposal calls for a tougher trade stance with China, including officially sanctioning that country for currency manipulation. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who served as Obama's ambassador to China, said if a Romney administration labeled China a “currency manipulator,” it could endanger U.S. interests there.

“I'd have to say, Mitt, now is not the time in a recession to enter a trade war,” Huntsman said.

On Social Security, Perry defended the views he espoused in his book, “Fed Up!” saying it is “a monstrous lie to our kids.”

Some Republicans have said those opinions would make Perry vulnerable in a general election against Obama, and Romney said he agreed. Romney accused Perry of labeling Social Security “a failure,” adding that “you can't say that to tens of millions of Americans who've lived on Social Security. . . . Under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it's a failure.”

Perry quickly retorted by saying he believes Social Security is “a Ponzi scheme. That is what it is. Americans know that. . . . Maybe it's time to have some provocative language in this country.”

Also appearing on stage were five other candidates: Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, former Godfather's pizza chief executive Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

From the outset of the race, Romney had been regarded as the front-runner by virtue of his fundraising network and the fact that his previous presidential run, in 2008, gave him national name identification. But Romney's inability to excite much of the GOP base, especially the insurgent tea party forces, prevented him from consolidating much of a lead in the polls.

The precariousness of Romney's position became apparent when Perry entered the race. Although the Texas governor has been a declared candidate for only three weeks, he has opened up a five-point lead over Romney in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Wednesday's debate, which was co-sponsored by NBC News and Politico, was fraught with symbolic significance, given that it was set at the the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in what would have been the 40th president's centennial year.

The Air Force One plane that flew Reagan to three U.S.-Soviet summits provided a backdrop; his widow, Nancy, 90, sat in the audience, wearing her signature red.

There were frequent references to Reagan's legacy as a touchstone for the right and as the figure who helped lead a conservative realignment in the country.

Whether Perry's surge is a sign of a true realignment in the race, or the political equivalent of a sugar high, is likely to be tested over the next month as the contest enters a more intense phase.

In part, that pace will be dictated by the calendar. Labor Day has traditionally served as the starting gun for the candidates' final sprint into primary and caucus season, and a time when many voters begin to tune in to the contest.

But the pace and the stakes in the coming weeks will be elevated by the fact that there are five debates in the next six weeks, each of which offers the opportunity for a breakout moment or for a disastrous slip.

The latter was what happened to the once-promising candidacy of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty in a debate in New Hampshire in June, when he whiffed an opportunity to attack Romney on the Obama-like health-care overhaul that he signed into law when he was governor of Massachusetts.

The perception was planted that Pawlenty was not up to the fight, and he never fully recovered. After a disappointing showing in a straw poll in Ames, Iowa, in August, Pawlenty withdrew from the race.

Romney's health-care program in Massachusetts was once again a target.

When the candidates were asked whether any of them agreed with Romney's statement in his 2008 presidential race that his Massachusetts law was a “great opportunity for us as a country,” no candidate raised a hand.

Perry called it “a great opportunity for us to see what in this country does not work.”

Meanwhile, Bachmann, who won the Iowa straw poll, has seen any momentum she might have had from that victory all but stopped by Perry's entry. But the debates have been a forum in which she has shined, and the rapid-fire series in the coming weeks may represent her best opportunity to regain her footing near the front of the field.

Bachmann has tried to retool her campaign, with a major shake-up this week and the debates presenting an opportunity for her to show that she is running a campaign that can go the distance.