After dominating last week's Republican Presidential debate, GOP frontrunners Rick Perry and Mitt Romney - along with six other White House hopefuls - will square off tonight in Tampa, Florida, home to next year's Republican National Convention.
The first encounter between Perry and Romney last week at the Reagan Library in California did not disappoint, as the two heavyweights repeatedly jabbed at each other over a host of issues.
Romney's team has spent the last few days hammering home some of their attack lines from last week, one of which could well be discussed again in the Sunshine State, which is home to so many senior citizens.
"Rick Perry: Reckless, wrong on Social Security," read one Romney press release from recent days, as Perry and other GOP candidates zero in on Perry's assertion that Social Security has become a "Ponzi scheme," which promises retirement benefits, but can't deliver.
"It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there," said Perry, who doubled down on comments about the retirement system from his book.
"Anybody that's for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it's not right," Perry said in last week's debate.
"Our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing Social Security, but who is committed to saving Social Security," said Romney.
There could well be two parts to tonight's debate - one will involve Perry and Romney and their second showdown - the second will involve the other six candidates on the stage, all of whom are trying to stay relevant in the GOP race.
- Michele Bachmann seemed to struggle in last week's debate, as she looks to recapture the buzz that she had when she participated in her first debate back in June.
- Herman Cain tried to elbow his way into the conversation, repeatedly invoking his new 9-9-9 economic plan.
- Jon Huntsman did manage to push his way in a few times, but also managed to make a number of Republicans wonder why he was on the GOP stage with his views on global warming
- Look for Newt Gingrich to have another strong debate; one might have to predict that Gingrich will again rebuke those asking questions of the candidates, as he has in the last few Republican gatherings.
- Ron Paul got into it a few times with Rick Perry last week, as it became clear there is some bad blood there - will Paul try to repeat that tonight?
- Rick Santorum remains on the stage, but only at the margins of the conversation about the GOP nomination. This is the second of five debates in six weeks on the GOP side; next week brings one in Orlando, while October includes one in New Hampshire and then one in Las Vegas. It's not out of line to say that Perry and Romney have the chance to make this race all about them again tonight. Digging into the reporter mindset, the two of them are the GOP frontrunners by far, and the natural instinct will be to detail their second debate battle in less than a week. That kind of story line gets more and more difficult for the other six candidates to push aside, making the two debates in Florida over the next two weeks all the more important for people like Cain, Bachmann, Paul and Huntsman. It should be an interesting night. Follow me on Twitter as well for updates from Tampa @jamiedupree.
