DEBATE TOMORROW – AT 7:56 A.M. ET:  A critical Republican debate will take place tomorrow evening at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. 

It is critical because, I think it is safe to say, it will be make-or-break for Rick Perry.  When he announced his candidacy several months ago, he was seen by many Republicans as the great hope.   And it's been downhill from there.  His debate performances have been shockingly poor.  He often appears indifferent and poorly prepared.  He has a history of making incendiary statements about key issues like Social Security, and they've come back to bite him.  After leading in the polls immediately after his launch, he's slipped back, trailing Mitt Romney in most of them, and even trailing Herman Cain in some. 

It's now reported that his political staff, which is highly regarded, is making drastic changes in the Perry campaign, and in the candidate, insisting on rigorous debate preparation, and also insisting that the candidate, who's had a habit of fading away as debates progress, get more sleep.

And there's something else.  In the past week the ugly issue of Mr. Romney's religion – he's a Mormon – has erupted, tanks largely to a key supporter of Mr. Perry's, a pastor in Dallas.  The man called Mormonism "a cult."  That's pretty disgraceful stuff in this day and age.  As one who recalls when candidate John F. Kennedy had to go to Houston to assure local ministers that his Catholicism would not interfere with his presidency, I'd thought we'd gotten beyond this stuff. 

Rick Perry had a chance to show that he could be a truly national candidate by responding vigorously to that pastor's slur, and he blew it.  He issued a lukewarm written statement about religious tolerance, etc., etc.  He missed the moment to show presidential leadership.  So, I'm sorry to say, did Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, who ducked the issue.  But it was Perry's supporter who made the statement, and Perry had a special responsibility to disassociate himself, and he did not.  What is Rick Perry thinking?  Anything?  Perhaps he will use the debate to show that he isn't just a local pol with a swelled head.  He doesn't have too many chances left.

There is much that is good about Rick Perry.  He's been a successful governor of one of our largest states.  He strikes me as, fundamentally, a decent man.  But there's a difference between the minors and the majors, and right now Perry is hovering in between.

October 10, 2011