Another intense night unfolded as the GOP presidential candidates continued to battle for the lead — which means knocking Rick Perry out of first place. The candidates might not agree on anything, but they seemed to have the same opinion on the President’s performance. In Tampa, Florida on Monday night the eight presidential candidates showed similar behavior as they did the previous week.

Perry continues as the front-runner in the race thus far and it was obvious that all other contenders were relentlessly trying to shake him. Michele Bachmann targeted Perry on his bill that requires teen girls to have the HPV shot in the state of Texas. She questioned if the drug company’s donations were the initiative behind the mandatory vaccinations or if it was actually about “protecting life.”

Mitt Romney challenged Perry by telling him how he really felt about his job creation, saying, “look I think governor Perry would agree with me that if your dealt four aces, that doesn’t make you necessarily a great poker player.” Romney and Perry continued their one-on-one battle throughout the night, as seen the week before. They still remain the top two candidates in the race.

Ron Paul also chimed in on Rick Perry’s job record and mentioned that as a taxpayer in Texas, and with Rick Perry as his governor, his taxes have doubled alongside spending since he came to office. Rick Perry was not the only candidate faced with criticism. Ron Paul also dealt with confrontation from Santorum and sustained booing from the audience.

The cause was an article posted on Paul’s website that stated the 9/11 attacks were America’s fault. Michele Bachmann had a strong night and was seen as a bit more aggressive in Tampa than she was the week before in California. This was essential for her position as one of the top three front-runners and secured her stay in the race.

Many viewers believe that Bachman performed the best out of every candidate. Bachmann said she had “wonderful positive feedback and comments from it, so we’re delighted.” Candidate Herman Cain chimed in from time to time with his policies and said, “he would bring a sense of humor to the white house, because America is too uptight,” which added some humor to the debate.

No matter what stance each candidate took throughout the night, it was made clear across the stage that President Obama had to be replaced in 2012, amid a sense of humor. Newt Gringrich said, “I’m not particularly worried about Governor Perry and Governor Romney frightening the American people when President Obama scares them everyday.”

Santorum stated, “Some people say that Barack Obama’s economy is a disaster, my feeling is it would have to make a dramatic improvement just to be a disaster.” With a few more debates left to go, it will be interesting to see if Perry will continue to be the target for other candidates and if candidates will continue to clobber the President in hope of republican support.

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After much criticism, Texas governor Rick Perry is attempting to soften his criticism on social security. This marks his fourth flip on the issue. Perry, the current front-runner in the Republican presidential nomination, wrote an op-ed piece on Monday for USA Today. Although he still maintained that social security needs to be overhauled, he refrained from some of the more inciting rhetoric he has favored in the past.

Instead of calling the system a “ponzi scheme,” he wrote of “dire financial challenges facing the nearly 80-year old program” and emphasized the need to protect benefits for current recipients and those “nearing retirement.” In his article, entitled “I am going to be honest with the American people,” Perry stated that older workers would still be protected. “For younger workers, we must consider reforms to make Social Security financially viable.”

“I am going to be honest with the American people. Our elected leaders must have the strength to speak frankly about entitlement reform if we are to right our nation’s financial course and get the USA working again. For too long, politicians have been afraid to speak honestly about Social Security. We must have the guts to talk about its financial condition if we are to fix Social Security and make it financially viable for generations to come,” Perry wrote in his short piece.

Despite the change in tone, it is unclear how long this will last. When he first jumped into the race, Perry attempted to distance himself from his book, “FED UP!” where he first described social security as a “ponzi scheme.” However, last week at the Republican debate, the governor doubled down on his initial assessment, repeating the phrase and calling social security, “a monstrous lie.”

Other presidential candidates have criticized Perry for his remarks; however, the statements have not hurt him in the polls. A new CNN/Tea Party Express poll out Monday showed Perry with the same lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as he had two weeks ago, 30 percent to 18 percent. Perry also is leading Romney over electability.

Forty-two percent of voters believe that Perry could beat President Obama compared to Romney’s 26 percent. Rep. Michele Bachmann continues slipping, dropping to four percent in the poll, down from ten percent just two weeks ago.

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Texas governor (and Republican presidential hopeful) Rick Perry has condemned a federal judge’s order blocking certain provisions of Texas’ controversial sonogram legislation.

The Texas law requires women who are contemplating an abortion to view a sonogram of their fetus. Furthermore, they must listen to its heartbeat. Their physician must describe its state of development, with particular emphasis on the presence of internal organs and limbs. It easily passed both houses of the Texas legislature, both of which are controlled by Republicans.

U. S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled that the law was “unconstitutionally vague” and constituted an attempt to force doctors and patients to engage in government-mandated speech. In his judgment, Sparks said that “the Act’s onerous requirements will surely dissuade or prevent many competent doctors from performing abortions, making it significantly more difficult for pregnant women to obtain abortions.”

In addition, he found that the legislation “compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity, and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen.”

Sparks’ ruling prohibits the state from penalizing doctors who fail to comply with the act or women who fail to obtain the required sonogram within 24 hours of a scheduled abortion. Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, hailed the ruling as a “huge victory for women in Texas.” The Center is the organization that originally challenged the law in court.

“Politicians have no business telling doctors how to practice medicine or meddling in women’s private medical decisions,” she continued.

Gov. Rick Perry disagreed. “Every life lost to abortion is a tragedy and (the) ruling is a great disappointment to all Texans who stand in defense of life,” he said. “This important sonogram legislation ensures that every Texas woman seeking an abortion has all the facts about the life she is carrying, and understands the devastating impact of such a life-changing decision.”

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has announced that the state would appeal against Sparks’ ruling.

By coming out strongly in favor of the sonogram law, Perry is bolstering his credentials as a social conservative. His chief rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has a reputation for being much more moderate on social issues. No doubt Perry hopes that his strident social conservatism will win him plaudits from the GOP faithful and catapult him to victory in the primaries.

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Rick Perry, the Texas governor who entered the presidential race last weekend, has already started to make some strange remarks. The most obvious front runner has not stopped making stump speeches since entering the race. Unfortunately for Perry’s handlers, he likes to stray from his talking points.

During a stop in New Hampshire, Perry brought up border issues, stating that drones should be used in border patrol.  “Why not be flying those missions and using that real-time information to help our law enforcement?” He added, “Because if we will commit to that, I will suggest to you that we will be able to drive the drug cartels away from that border.”

Last year, Perry repeated his predator drone talk and also talked about deploying U.S. troops into Mexico to fight Mexican drug cartels. “I think we have to use every aspect of law enforcement that we have including the military,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC. “I think we have the same situation as we had in Colombia. Obviously, Mexico has to approve any type of assistance that we can give them.”

On Monday, Perry stated that it would be “treasonous” if Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke prints more money before the election. Perry stated during a speech in Iowa that if Bernanke “prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.” Perry went on to say that if Bernanke printed more money, the act would be “almost treasonous in my opinion.”

He went on to say, “We’ve already tried this. All it’s going to be doing is devaluing the dollar in your pocket and we cannot afford that. We have to learn the lessons of the past three years that they’ve been devastating. The President of the United States has conducted an experiment on the American economy for almost the last three years, and it has gone tragically wrong and we need to send him a clear message in November of 2012 that new leadership is coming.”

Despite the immediate criticism via Twitter of Perry’s comments, he is refusing to back down. NYU economics professor Nouriel Roubini tweeted of Perry’s comments: “Perry’s Remarks on Bernanke are criminal. This Texan thug is making murder threats on the Fed Chairman.”

Tony Fratto, who served as Deputy Press Secretary to former President George W. Bush, also criticized Perry’s comments. Fratto tweeted: “Gov. Perry’s comments about Chmn. Bernanke are inappropriate and unpresidential.”

Perry was unapologetic on Tuesday. “I am just passionate about the issue and we stand by what we said,” said the Texas Republican during a stop in Iowa.

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