Just like Charlie Brown, Rick Perry has had several chances to kick that football to the GOP nomination -- but he keeps on falling down. And there isn’t a Lucy to blame.

On paper, the Texas governor is the most logical person to benefit from a potential Herman Cain downfall.

He's currently the country's longest-serving governor. He's an outspoken critic of the president with conservative credentials. And he's got the money.

But every time Perry seems to have an opportunity to make a positive second impression, he gets overshadowed by something negative -- of his own creation.

Last week, when he unveiled his flat-tax plan, the thing he hoped could catapult him past Cain and his 9-9-9 plan, he was instead answering questions about (1) whether or not he thought President Obama was born in America, and (2) whether or not he would attend future debates.

Then today, Perry stood to benefit from the allegations that Cain sexually harassed two women when he was head of the National Restaurant Association. But, instead, what's getting attention -- besides those allegations against Cain -- is a zany speech Perry gave Friday in New Hampshire.

These openings don't come along very often, and Perry's chances at capitalizing are becoming slimmer with just 64 days to go before voting in Iowa.

In the spring of 2008, the Hillary Clinton and John McCain campaigns ganged up on then-Democratic front-runner Barack Obama -- often hitting him with the same lines of attack. He's too inexperienced. He's naive on foreign policy. His promises aren't based in reality.

And the one-two punch certainly bruised Obama, although not enough to deny him the Democratic nomination or stop his decisive general-election victory.

Now we're seeing a similar sort of tag-teaming, with the Obama White House and Rick Perry making the same exact attacks on presumptive GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.

Just check out what White House senior adviser David Plouffe said on "Meet the Press" yesterday, and what Perry said on "Fox News Sunday," per NBC's Sarah Blackwill:

Perry: He's been for pro-abortion.

Plouffe: He was an extremely pro-choice governor. Now he believes that life begins at conception.

Perry: He's been for, you know, supporting gay rights.

Plouffe: He was to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights issues. Now he wants to amend the Constitution to further gay marriage.

Perry: We are very, very different from the standpoint of consistency.

Plouffe: What you need in that office is conviction. you've need to have a true compass and you've got to be willing to make tough calls.

*** UPDATE *** Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul emails First Read:
“Gov. Perry and President Obama have a lot in common, including their support for tuition breaks for illegal immigrants and opposition to a border fence. They also share abysmal jobs records. Under Rick Perry, Texas unemployment has doubled. And under President Obama more middle class American’s have lost their jobs than anytime in modern history. It is no wonder their only strategy is to issue false and negative attacks on Mitt Romney.”

In his first appearance on a Sunday morning national news program as a presidential candidate, Gov. Rick Perry defended his jobs plan against accusations that it is insufficiently bold, admitted that he has changed his position on federal subsidies for the energy industry, and again slammed rival Mitt Romney on the issue of "consistency."

Asked by host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday to explain why his new economic plan only promises the creation of 2.5 million jobs -- not as ambitious a number as many economic experts would like -- Perry said that any increase in job creation is a good one. 

"I think it's amazing that people, when we've lost 2.5 million jobs in this country and there is another state that is juxtapositioned to that that created a million jobs, and for people to go 'Well, that's not enough,' he said. "Let me tell you, any jobs at this particular point in time helps." 

As First Read wrote earlier this week, Perry's goal translates into about 52,000 new jobs per month over a four-year term -- a pace that current President Barack Obama currently matches. And it wouldn't likely be enough to make a dent in the unemployment rate, considering 14 million remain unemployed.

But on Sunday, Perry called the idea that his plan could actually result in an uptick in the unemployment rate "absolutely false on its face."

"The idea that I'm going to let people talk this plan down for the sake of just having an intellectual discussion, that's not correct," Perry said. 

The Texas governor, who has made the elimination of federal subsidies for the energy industry a key part of his energy plan, was also pressed to explain a letter he wrote to the Department of Energy in 2008 requesting government assistance for a nuclear power facility in his home state. 

"We were asking at that particular point in time for the federal government to support the nuclear power industry in the state of Texas or across the country from that standpoint," he said. "But from a general standpoint, any type of federal dollars flowing into these industries we think is bad public policy." 

"I've changed my position from the standpoint of having any desire to have the federal government" participate in subsidies, Perry continued. "I've learned some things over the course of the years, and what I've learned is the federal government, you keep them out of these issues, particularly on the energy side." 

Perry, who has tried to highlight rival Romney's policy flip-flops on the campaign trail, again challenged the former Massachusetts governor on "consistency" and hinted at future negative attacks by exposing "the truth." 

"I don't get confused with just telling the truth. Someone might say that's negative," he said of how prepared his campaign is to attack Romney outright. "If we're telling the truth about someone, the truth is the truth whether it hurts your feelings or not."

Striking an optimistic tone about his opportunities to recover from a dizzying plunge in the polls, Perry suggested that he will take a slow-and-steady approach to a contest that is "not yet settled." 

"Don't sprint it, just take a nice easy run at it and continue to stay focused and take your message to the people," he said. 

Texas Gov. Rick Perry will participate in at least five additional debates, the Perry campaign confirmed to NBC News yesterday.

The governor will participate in the following debates in the month of November and the beginning of December: CNBC in Michigan (Nov. 9), CBS in South Carolina (Nov. 12), a Family Leader forum in Iowa (Nov. 19), and CNN-sponsored debates in DC (Nov. 15), and Arizona (Dec. 1).

AP first reported the news.

Sources in Perry’s campaign have expressed frustration with the extensive schedule of contests, noting the time it takes to travel to each venue and prepare the candidate reduces the amount of time Perry can spend interacting with voters.

But Perry himself said Friday in New Hampshire that he intended to participate in future contests, joking, "Shoot, I may be a good debater before this is all over."

"We haven't made any decisions about what we're gonna do," he said Friday.

Spokesman Ray Sullivan told NBC News earlier this week that the campaign would decide on future debates "on a case by case basis."

CONCORD, NH -- Rick Perry took a broad swipe at Mitt Romney in the former Massachusetts governor's backyard Friday, telling local radio station WKXL that Romney could not be counted on to be a "consistent" president. 

"Consistency I think is very important," he said, "You may not agree with me on everything, but you don't have to wake up in the morning and wonder is Rick Perry going to be the same guy in two years that he was two years ago. And the answer to that is yup, he will be." 

Pressed by hosts to criticize Romney by name, Perry said Romney has changed positions on gun rights and the Obama-passed health care law. 

"Like it or not, the governor has been on opposite sides on a lot of issues," Perry said. "He was for banning handguns, now he's Mr. Second Amendment. He was the father of Obamacare."

"I don't believe in government-mandated health care," he added. "Not in a state, and not in a federal government."

Perry said that his strong emphasis on social issues, like abortion and faith does not preclude him from doing well in in independent-heavy New Hampshire. 

"Your position on social issues is going to be your position," Perry said. "I've got mine, and I'm going to be very strong in standing up for them whatever that may be. I'm no expert when it comes to what religion that you're going to choose or what have you. But what I am an expert on is job creation."

Perry also tweaked the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters, noting a quote from one of the activists sent to him by his son Griffin.

"He said you know, we got here at 9 am and those people -- and this was in Toronto -- I think Bay Street is their comparable -- he said those bankers that we came to insult, they'd already been at work for two hours when we got here at 9 o'clock. And when we get ready to leave, they're still in there working. I guess greed just makes you work hard."

The radio interview, which included questions from GOP Senate gubernatorial candidate and noted New Hampshire conservative Ovide LaMontagne took place in Concord Restaurant The Barley House. After the interview, the candidate accepted a "Texas Perry Burger" from the chef, which consisted of a coffee-rubbed beef, brisket, coleslaw, barbecue sauce, an onion ring, and a jalapeno bun. 

"I'm all over it," Perry said before nibbling at a single fry. (He declined to take a big bite in front of press, opting instead for the take-out option.) 

"That's awesome," he said.

*** UPDATE *** Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul sends on this response: 

CONCORD, N.H. -- Rick Perry said he is unsure whether he would skip any future scheduled debates.

"I don't know whether we're going to forgo any debates," the Texas governor said in a question-and-answer session with reporters at the New Hampshire Secretary of State's office, where he filed for that state's primary. "There are a lot of debates. Shoot I might be a good debater before this is all over.

"We haven't made any decisions about what we're gonna do."

He also again characterized his remarks about the president's birth certificate as a joke, disputing that the controversy counted as "a mistake"

"Listen, I don’t consider making fun of something being a mistake. I don’t think Americans see that as anything other than a distraction, just like I see it as a distraction," he said before brandishing his postcard-size hypothetical tax form. "I don’t see this as a mistake."

He also addressed gay marriage, immigration, and his chances in New Hampshire.

Rick Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan set off a flurry of punditry yesterday when he said on CNN that the campaign may skip some of the upcoming debates in favor of retail politicking.

Here's what Sullivan told NBC News today in defense of the campaign's decision to consider skipping future debates:

"We are committed to CNBC Nov 9th. We haven't declined any to date. There have been eight GOP primary debates to date, with 16 more scheduled over the next 12 weeks. We need to determine on a case-by-case basis whether and how these fit into our schedule given the pressing need to meet actual voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and other early voting states."

He didn't answer specific questions about what criteria would need to be met to participate in a given debate. But asked to respond to critics who say this strategy essentially avoids rather than confronts an obvious weakness for the candidate, Sullivan said:

"We have done five debates and will do more. We have had tough questions at the debates and will at future debates. The voters and media of Iowa, NH, SC and FL ask tough questions too and we need time to campaign on the ground in those early primary states."

The campaign has been frustrated with the intense schedule of debates to date -- a venue in which their candidate has notably underperformed. Aides are fond of noting how much practice other candidates -- including Mitt Romney and, even, Ron Paul -- have had in past presidential debates compared to Perry, who largely avoided debating his opponents in past races.

First, it was "no reason to think otherwise." Then it was, "I don't have a clue." Then it was "a distraction."

And on Day Four, it's finally, "I have no doubt."

After days of questions, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said unequivocally that he believes the president is an American citizen.

"I don't think I was expressing doubts," he said of his previous comments about the validity of the president's birth certificate in an interview with Tampa's Bay News 9 to be aired Sunday, per the St. Petersburg Times. "I was just having some fun with Donald Trump."

Asked if he believes President Obama is an American citizen, Perry responded, "I have no doubt about it."

Perry's flirtation with birtherism, which began Sunday in an interview published in Parade Magazine, resulted in at least a partial overshadowing of his rollout of a flat tax-based economic plan in Gray Court, S.C., yesterday. Perry implied that his questions about Obama's birth certificate were meant in "fun" during an interview with CNBC's John Harwood, but he also appeared to sympathize with Trump's skepticism that the president's birth certificate -- which he made public in an April press conference -- is real.

"I don't have a clue about ... what his birth certificate says," Perry told Harwood. "But it's also a great distraction."

But in the interview in Tampa, where Perry held a fundraising event Wednesday, the Texas governor dismissed the whole controversy as a joke.

"It's fun to... Ya know, lighten up," he said.

Perry also challenged his competitors to reveal other personal documents, including college transcripts. (Perry's recently published grades at Texas A&M reflected his academic struggles.)

"Let's lay out our income taxes," he said. "Let's lay out our college transcripts. Mine's been on the front page of the paper. So if we're going to lay out all these things, let's lay them all out.

Here's a partial transcript:

PERRY: "I don't think I was expressing doubts. I was just having some fun with Donald Trump. So I...."

ADAM SMITH, ST. PETE TIMES: Are you comfortable that he's an American citizen?

PERRY: Oh yeah. It's fun to.. Ya know, lighten up.

SMITH: So you have no doubt he's an American citizen?

PERRY: "I have no doubt about it. But here's the more interesting thing. Let's lay out our income taxes. Let's lay out our college transcripts. Mine's been on the front page of the paper. So if we're going to lay out all these things, let's lay them all out."

AP

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry holds up his post-card sized version of the tax form he says Americans would fill out if his 20-20 plan were enacted.

Herman Cain’s made a career out of catchy slogans. 9-9-9 is just the latest for the former motivational speaker. Rick Perry may be trying to take a page out of the gimmicky playbook and adding a prop -- the post card.

“That’s all you need,” Perry said holding up a folded over sheet of paper, the size of a post card. On it, an income tax form, he says is all that would be needed to do your taxes if his 20-20 optional flat-tax plan is passed.

“How many people would rather have the old system in place?” he asked rhetorically, before holding up the paper again. “Let’s do it on a post card; let’s do it this way.”

Swiping at Cain, he said his plan wouldn’t include a value-added tax, or a sales tax. “That’s the difference right there,” Perry said, referring to 9-9-not-a-pizza-9. “This post card is the way to do it.”

He added, “This is the way to go” again holding up the paper.

And holding it up one more time, he said, “We’re going to be talking about things like this.”

In all today he said “post card” or held up the paper nine times, seven just at this afternoon’s news conference.

NBC’s Matt Loffman and Morgan Parmet contributed to this report.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Just one day after taping an interview in which he called questions about the validity of President Obama's birth certificate "a good issue to keep alive," Gov. Rick Perry dismissed the controversy as a distraction.

"That is one of the biggest distractions that there is going," Perry said at a press conference touting his 20-20 post card plan. "We need to be talking about jobs. If somebody wants to see my birth certificate, I'd be happy to show it to them. But the fact is that is a distraction and Americans really don't care about that, if you wanna know the truth."

He added, "What Americans want to talk about is jobs."

The Texas governor, who has plummeted in polls, sounded optimistic about his chances in the first-in-the-South primary state, where he promised to campaign "in every corner" until the January contest.

"I feel pretty good about the prospects," he said, noting the "pro-military and pro-freedom, patriotic" values of voters in the state.

Despite low poll numbers and the calling in of staff reinforcements, Perry characteristically used a sports metaphor to say that the campaign has not yet run its full course.

"My bet is that when Clemson or South Carolina are at halftime --  you know it doesn't happen very often that they're behind at halftime -- but they're not going to call the game at halftime. So, we're going to continue to be working. You know, we may change defense a little bit. We may call an audible or two. But the fact is it's a long time until this campaign is over with, and we're going to be talking about things like this."

Perry believes that his newly unveiled flat-tax plan will be politically successful, despite the high-profile defeat of one of its backers, Steve Forbes, in 1996.

"I just happen to think that when Americans look at what happened, there's a lot that's changed since 1996 from the standpoint of our tax code in this country," Perry said, adding that financial regulations like Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as new laws like the Obama-passed health care law, have built public support for reform.

"Let's do it on a post card," Perry declared, brandishing the envelope-sized mock flat-tax form his campaign has distributed today. "Let's do it this way."

About two dozen "Occupy Columbia" protesters attended the press conference in the South Carolina state capitol, but remained mostly quiet. One unidentified member of the audience yelled, "Answer the question!" after Perry's response on the president's birth certificate.

Perry received the endorsement of South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell and met with Gov. Nikki Haley while in Columbia. His next public appearance will be on Friday in New Hampshire.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Neither Rick Perry nor Mitt Romney have spent much time here, but both candidates are using South Carolina as the staging ground for an essential campaign event: the big policy speech.

Perry introduced his flat-tax proposal today in Gray Court, in the Upstate, while Romney earlier rolled his out his labor and foreign policy visions in Charleston.

The locations are picture-perfect backdrops for the candidates’ topics of choice. Perry delivered his tax-policy speech at the ISO Poly plastics factory, after touring some of its facilities. Romney delivered his labor speech near the Boeing Dreamliner factory and his foreign-policy speech in front of an audience of uniformed cadets at the Citadel military college.

Giving big speeches here also lets candidates hit South Carolina while doing more retail campaigning in the first two primary states. Heavy media coverage is practically guaranteed, especially in the local markets, where the speeches take place, whose viewers might be particularly connected to the topic: employees at other Upstate manufacturing plants, for example.

“At this point, Iowa and New Hampshire are the first two, and you’ve got to pay attention in sequential order,” said Scott Buchanan, political science professor at The Citadel. “You’re not ignoring [South Carolina] but at the same time you’re not spending an inordinate amount of time here.”

The regions in which Perry and Romney give their speeches also happen to be politically strategic, with Perry speaking today in the voter-rich, socially conservative Upstate and Romney’s speeches taking place in the Lowcountry, where social issues are less prominent.

“They’re both playing to the area of the state where they feel that they can mine some votes,” said Neal Thigpen, former political science professor at Francis Marion University.

The Upstate region, where Perry delivered his tax speech, also contains a significant number of Evangelical voters – a key demographic for Perry. In Laurens County, where ISO Poly is located, 38% of primary voters picked Mike Huckabee, who ran as a social conservative, in 2008, while Romney netted less than 8%.

While Perry chose the Upstate to deliver his tax speech, Romney has given his two major South Carolina policy addresses in Charleston – three-and-a-half hours south of Laurens County.

Charleston has become a poster city for union disputes, given the National Labor Relations Board’s feud with Boeing over its Dreamliner facility there, which the NLRB says was relocated from Washington State to punish striking workers. It came as little surprise, then, that Romney picked the North Charleston city hall to unveil his labor policy, just after touring the Boeing facility.

Equally symbolic was the site of Romney’s foreign policy speech, The Citadel. The former Massachusetts governor unveiled his plan for an “American Century” surrounded by rows of uniformed cadets. While Charleston provided Romney with fitting backdrops, the city (and its namesake county) also contains a large number of voters that might be more inclined to vote for him.

While Romney came in fourth overall in the 2008 primary here, he came in second in Charleston County, with almost 19% of the vote. When asked about site selection, Romney’s South Carolina Director David Raad said the venues were germane to the issues that were discussed, adding that the campaign would chose different locations for speeches if they fit the topic.