Perry looms large in narrowing US Republican race

WASHINGTON: Texas Governor Rick Perry loomed large over a narrowing White House race on Sunday despite Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann's victory in a key test that saw the first major Republican bow-out.

Perry, a popular fiscal and social conservative, will pose a major challenge to both the ultraconservative Bachmann and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a moderate who has until now led the polls.

Meanwhile Tim Pawlenty, a low-key former governor of Minnesota who was hoping for a crucial bump from Iowa's Ames Straw Poll, dropped out after coming in a distant third behind Bachmann and libertarian congressman Ron Paul.

The poll is unscientific and nonbinding but widely seen as an indicator of who is best positioned to energize the party's activist base and win the first batch of nominating contests early next year.

Bachmann told ABC News's "This Week," that her win was a "big message sent to Washington" by Americans frustrated with the slow pace of economic recovery and stubbornly high unemployment under President Barack Obama.

She also dismissed critics who say she is too radical, insisting she had attracted Democrats and Independents "because I'm talking about what people really care about, and that's turning the economy around and job creation."

But Perry, who announced his candidacy as the Iowa poll was under way, can challenge Barack Obama where the president is most vulnerable by pointing out that Texas has led the country in job creation despite the economic slowdown.

Late Sunday two of the top candidates, Perry and Bachmann, were in the first face-off as they both spoke after Republican Party dinner in Waterloo, Iowa, with the Texas governor insisting he was the man to beat Obama in the 2012, and flouting his commitment to stem federal government spending.

"The president of the United States has a pen, and it's called a veto pen, and I will use it until the ink runs out if that's what it takes to get the message that we're not spending all the money," Perry said to cheers from the crowd, according to the Des Moines Register newspaper.

Pawlenty, who had campaigned hard in Iowa, admitted to ABC television's "This Week" earlier Sunday that his message "didn't get the kind of traction or lift that we needed and hoped for" going into the Iowa poll.

He finished with a disappointing 2,293 votes, over 2,500 behind Bachmann and close second-place finisher Paul, a small government advocate with strong Tea Party support who is opposed to foreign aid and military interventions.

Perry meanwhile garnered 718 write-in votes, more than the 567 that went to Romney, who was listed on the ballot but has focused on other states.

The Texas governor, who succeeded George W. Bush in 2000, has touted his "Texas miracle," in which the state has created jobs while the nationwide unemployment rate has hovered above nine percent.

Perry also has strong credentials as a social conservative, and earlier this month held a prayer rally attended by more than 30,000 people.

Critics charge that the jobs created in Texas have been mainly low-paying, and have come as a result of reckless deregulation and painful cuts in social spending.

"Middle class families know his economic record is no miracle -- it's a tall tale," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said Saturday.

Multi-millionaire Romney has been making the most of his private sector experience on the stump, but faces lingering skepticism from core Republican voters for past moderate views on issues like health care and climate change.

Perry has been snapping at Romney's heels in opinion polls of Republicans over the past few months despite not being in the race, amid widespread discontent with the party's crop of candidates.

But analysts said Romney would enjoy the advantage of a months-long head start and experience in running a national campaign following his failed 2008 bid for the Republican nomination.

Bachmann, meanwhile, must convince voters she has appeal beyond her conservative base -- less than 17,000 people voted in the straw poll -- which will be critical in defeating Obama in the general election.

She insists she appeals to moderates, but on Sunday she told CNN that as president she would seek to reinstate a ban on gays serving openly in the military that was overturned last year with some bipartisan support.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011