Perry in Fort Dodge (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
FORT DODGE, Iowa--For weeks, Rick Perry has been everywhere in Iowa, or at least that's how it has felt.
Backed by nearly $4 million in ads, the Texas governor's face has been a ubiquitous presence on television across the state, his voice a constant mainstay on local radio.
"I'm Rick Perry, I'm not ashamed to talk about my faith," he confidently declares in the ads that have been airing almost nonstop in the state since early December.
But when Perry turned up here on Saturday morning, he wasn't the man voters have been seeing on TV. Standing before a crowd of roughly 75 people at Bloomers Coffee Shop, he lacked the confidence and swagger that has defined his long political career in Texas.
Instead, he spoke with an air of uncertainty that captures the state of his campaign, during?what could be a last-ditch effort to save his struggling 2012 presidential campaign.
His Republican rivals have long mastered their stump speeches, repeating variations of the same lines at every stop, but Perry spoke cautiously, his eyes drifting repeatedly away from voters in the room and down to pages of prepared text. Dominating his remarks were attacks on Rick Santorum, who has leaped ahead of Perry in the polls here and is now considered his chief rival for viability here and in contests to come.
"Sen. Santorum is a good man. He's got a great family. I respect him substantially. But we do have differences," Perry said, eying his notes.
Echoing a line of attack he unveiled just two days ago, Perry argued that Santorum is a creature of a Washington whose record isn't as conservative as he suggests.
"If you want to truly overhaul Washington, D.C., we can't do that with a senator who has voted to raise the debt ceiling eight different times, allowing our debt to grow from $4.1 trillion to $9 trillion on his watch," Perry said, turning to his next page of text. "That's so much debt, it exceeds what President Obama has done in the White House."
"And what's so important?" Perry paused, glancing at his text. "I've gotta ask Rick, 'What was so important that it compelled you to add greater debt to our children's charge card?'"
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