Rick Perry Gallops In
Jules Witcover

There were eight Republican presidential candidates standing there in Wednesday night's debate at the Ronald Reagan Library, but the two-hour talkathon made clear that one of them -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- has already established himself as the focal point of the fight for the GOP nomination.

Most of the candidates took verbal shots at President Obama for lack of leadership. But the main test of the exercise was determining whether the tough-talking Texan had the stuff to push through the swinging doors of the saloon and rule the room. The answer unquestionably was yes.

The moderators took dead aim at Perry on everything from his record as Texas's longest-serving governor and his controversial dismissal of Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" to his assertion that man's contribution to climate change is an unsettled question.

"I kind of feel like a pinata here at the party," Perry jokingly observed as the debate heated up. But he didn't intend to be a stationary target, lashing back out pointedly at his chief challenger in the polls, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and showing an obvious willingness to narrow the field to a two-man race.

For once, the always-courteous Romney was not a pushover, seizing on Perry's description of Social Security as "a monstrous lie to our kids." Defending what Democrats have always called the third rail of American politics -- touch it and you get incinerated -- Romney pounced on the remark.

"Our nominee," he shot back at Perry, "has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing Social Security but who is committed to saving Social Security." Perry said current Social Security recipients have nothing to fear from him, but Romney cast him as a foe of the system and himself as its champion. It's a gambit that could prove to be a life preserver for Romney with voting senior citizens.

The issue that dominates the political conversation right now, however, is job creation, and Perry's boast of being the national leader in that category also drew challenges. Romney noted that Perry had the advantage of the gas and oil industry hiring workers, and former Utah Gov. John Huntsman added, "I hate to rain on the parade of the Lone Star governor, but as governor of Utah, we were the number one job-creator" during his service there.

Huntsman sought earnestly to elbow his way into the Perry-Romney exchanges, as did Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, the tea party favorite whose early win in the Iowa Republican straw poll has been eclipsed by the unvarnished conservative Perry's late but timely entry into the race. Neither seemed to find much running room.

A function of these pre-presidential election year debates is to winnow down the field, paving the way for more pointed debates among the surviving candidates. But with four more such exchanges scheduled over the next five weeks or so, the also-rans -- Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsyvania Sen. Rick Santorum and businessman Herman Cain -- are likely to hang in awhile longer.

In his first presidential debate, Perry proved to be deft at parrying troublesome questions about his record and his sharp-edged conservative views. He also managed to come across as cordial and at the same time Texas-tough, which is likely to appeal to voters looking for someone to take on Obama, whom many regard as weak and averse to confrontation.

Perry didn't hesitate, either, to call Obama a "liar" for saying the Texas-Mexican border was safer than it's ever been, and he suggested that "maybe it's time to have some provocative language in this country."

A question thrown to Perry from MSNBC moderator Brian Williams on whether he has lost sleep over the 234 executions he permitted of individuals convicted of murder drew this response: "No, sir, I've never struggled with that at all." If anyone comes into Texas and kills a child, a police officer or any other citizen, Perry said, "you will face the ultimate justice ... that is, you will be executed."

In other words, the sheriff has arrived, and everybody better get out of the way.