Rick Perry and social security

One of the more notable features of the recent GOP debate was seen in Rick Perry's obvious obsession with social security. Matt Taibbi assesses the damage to his reputation among older voters:

In politics, it's the same. Once a candidate like Perry comes out of the gate threatening Social Security, the game is up. All you have to do from there is make him say it, over and over again. Romney and Hunstman will obviously do just that. They have the next six months to make sure every elderly and soon-to-be elderly person in America knows that Rick Perry wants to take their checks away.

Jonathan Bernstein warns that liberals can't count on Perry's extremism in the event of an Obama-Perry contest:

The general record on these things is that perceived ideological extremism hurts in presidential elections — but only by a few percentage points. If we’re really in for a true double-dip recession, Barack Obama isn’t likely to be saved by such things, and if the economy winds up hitting the upside of economists projections, he won’t need to be savd by them. What’s more, there is still plenty of time for Perry to blunt charges of extremism by modifying his positions and, especially, emphasis. Yes, the Obama campaign has the debate footage saved and ready to deploy. And yes, it will make no sense at all when Perry says (if he wins the nomination) that despite still believing what he’s said in the past, he remains committed to delivering every dollar of Social Security benefits to absolutely everyone who has ever paid into the system. It won’t make sense — but if the economy is awful and Obama is at 35% approval, it won’t matter because no one will be listening to the president any more.