For Rick Perry, the beginning of the end?

Michael Medved moots that although the most recent GOP debate revealed no decisive winner, it certainly illuminated the inadequacy of Rick Perry, whose lack of presidential appeal may well usher in an end to his presidential ambitions sooner than anyone had imagined. He writes:

What hurt him most weren’t the tentative, insecure moments when he tried to defend himself against attacks (from Rick Santorum in particular, but also from Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney) but the feeble, stumbling occasions when he tried to go on offense in his own right against his chief rival, Romney. An obviously canned “gotcha” line intended to slam Romney for switching sides on several major issues (abortion, gun rights, health care) collapsed into such tongue-tied incoherence that it became uncomfortable to watch. Romney deftly responded that he set out his substantive positions clearly and unequivocally in the book he wrote two years ago (No Apology) and that he stood behind every argument and proposal specified in the text. A more nimble debater than Perry might have jumped in to say that “it’s hardly appropriate to congratulate yourself, governor, on your rock-solid convictions just because you’ve now managed to go two years without changing them.” But Perry, looking down at his podium and scribbling notes about something, let the moment (and the opportunity) slide. 

Ardent supporters of the Republican Party, as observers of Palin and Romney can well attest, care little for substance or meaningful political discussion; most of the GOP candidates this year have survived on rhetoric. Following Obama, it is expected that a president (even a Republican president) should have a certain level of eloquence, charm, and charisma. Perry lacks these things. If he is to revive his campaign, it will require the kind of emotive circumlocution until recently dominated by the intelligent, now mastered by the likes of Romney and Palin.