• Rick Perry on Obama's 2008 election: 'Oops'

    By NBC's Andrew Rafferty

    GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Saturday had only one word to describe the 2008 election of President Obama.

    "Oops."

    Speaking at the North Carolina Republican Convention here, the former presidential candidate turned comedian in referencing his debate flub when he could not recall the three government agencies he wanted to eliminate. It became known as Perry's "oops moment" and effectively ended his campaign. But the one-time front runner in the GOP presidential primary said the country suffered the same kind of moment a few years earlier.

     "Three and a half years, nearly 100 rounds of golf. Barack Obama has exploded the debt in this country. He has passed a stimulus program that grew government and not the economy. He socialized health care and he armed Mexican drug cartels. Admit it, America, 2008 was our national 'oops' moment," Perry said.

    He spoke for less than 10 minutes at the convention, where Tim Pawlenty and Donald Trump also took the stage.  And though the speech was short, Perry did not hesitate to spend it making light of his failed run.

    "People ask me, what was it like to run for the presidency of the United States? And I tell them, I say, 'Let me tell you, I was the frontrunner for a while and it was the the three most exhilarating hours of my life,'" he joked.

    Republicans will continue to be drawn to North Carolina because of its importance as a swing state in November. Each of the three speakers at the convention this weekend talked about how essential it was for Republicans to win the state.

    "Whether you are Tar Heel blue or Blue Devil blue, we all agree that this next election, we need North Carolina to be Wolf Pack red," said Perry. "Let’s get it right, let’s win this election. Let’s go do everything that we have to do to deliver North Carolina for Mitt Romney and the Republican Party."

    Though he enthusiastically expressed his support for Romney, how much of a role Perry will play for the nominee seems unclear.  The governor of the Lone Star State seemed unaware that Romney would be campaigning there next week when asked if he will be making an appearance with his former rival.

    "I got lots of great people helping Mitt out ... I'll be campaigning with him lots of places," said Perry.

     

  • Tim Pawlenty: No mixed signal on Republican veep choice

    By NBC's Andrew Rafferty

     

    GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Over the past month, Tim Pawlenty's response to questions gauging his interest in being chosen as vice president have ranged from "take my name off the list" to "anybody would be honored to serve if asked."

    But speaking to reporters on Saturday after an impassioned address at the North Carolina Republican Convention, the former presidential candidate maintained he is not sending mixed messages.

    "I think I can help [Romney] in other ways like this, being a volunteer for his campaign.  But obviously anybody would be honored if asked," Pawlenty said. "But, beyond that, I don't think those two things are inconsistent.  I'm trying to signal that I could best serve him in a different way, but anybody would be honored to serve if asked."

    Speaking to more than 1,000 Republicans here in an important swing state, the former Minnesota governor and national co-chair of the Romney campaign showed why he has established himself as one of the GOP nominee's top surrogates.  He drew high praise for his speech urging conservatives to unite in opposition to President Barack Obama.  Many in the crowd said he they found Pawlenty to be an even more impressive speaker than Donald Trump, who took the stage the night before.

    Pawlenty acknowledged that he has been able to find a level of comfort now that he had not been able to as a candidate.  Asked what accounted for the change, he said, "I don't know the answer to that, other than that I speak from the heart now, I don't particularly use a script now other than a few notes. I don't have a bunch of handlers telling me what to do and I just let it fly."

    He fired up the North Carolina crowd talking about their importance as a swing state, throwing in much of the same speech he used while a candidate, but mixing it with praise for Romney's vision for America.  His message was that it was time for conservatives to come together.

    "If we're going to win as a conservative movement, we got to recognize that we're a team," Pawlenty said. "And so when the Vikings or the Hurricanes and other teams go out and practice with each other as teammates, they don't go out and smash each other in the boards or knock each other out when they're practicing as teammates, do they?"

    He added, "It's important that we recognize the coalition of conservatives consists of economic conservatives, and social conservatives and tea party conservatives and libertarian conservatives and security and defense conservatives and more.  And no one group can win the swing states or most states by themselves."

    One of those team members includes Trump, who in his address the night before again brought up questions about the president's place of birth.  It's the reason some feel the business mogul overshadowed Romney last Tuesday when they held a fundraiser together -- the same day the former Massachusetts governor secured the 1,144 delegates to earn the Republican nomination.

    "Donald Trump is trying to do what he can to advance the cause to try to get Mitt Romney elected president. ... So he's a somebody who can get attention, who can bring perspective to issues.  But also, he's part of team and a team needs to work together.  And that doesn't mean that everybody agrees on every issue," Pawlenty said.

  • Huntsman promotes 'third party movement' despite endorsing Romney

    By NBC's Jo Ling Kent

    NEW YORK – Jon Huntsman may have endorsed Mitt Romney, but the former GOP presidential candidate on Thursday called for a "third party movement" to freshen up the current presidential race.

    “We’re going to have problems politically until we get some sort of third party movement or some kind of alternative voice out there that can put forward new ideas," Huntsman said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

    “Someone’s going to step up at some point and say we’ve had enough of this,” he said. “The real issues are not being addressed, and it’s time that we put forward an alternative vision, a bold thinking. We might not win, but we can certainly influence the debate.”

    He suggested the leader of an alternative movement could be “a whole bunch of Americans out there that can’t find a place politically." 

    Huntsman, the former Utah governor and former ambassador to China, backed Romney on Jan. 16, just after dropping out of the race in South Carolina. Thursday morning, Huntsman qualified his endorsement, saying that he is "not a surrogate for anybody" but does believe that Romney is the best choice "given the lay of the land today."

    “All I can say is I’m looking at the political marketplace and the duopoly is tired and we’re stuck in a rut,” Huntsman said.

    Huntsman's involvement in the Romney campaign has been minimal compared to other well-known surrogates like fellow former candidate Tim Pawlenty, who has appeared with and on behalf of Romney on the campaign trail.

    Huntsman, who was elected to Ford Motor Co.’s board of directors, was quick to add that he is not interested in being the standard-bearer for his proposed alternative movement.

    "That ain't gonna be me, by the way," he said, quashing any possibility of a comeback run for the White House this cycle. "I'm not interested in that."

    Huntsman may have ruled out rejoining the campaign trail, but he has supporters pining for his return. Americans Elect, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization drafting presidential candidates online, currently lists Huntsman as its second most popular candidate after Republican candidate Ron Paul.

    Next month, Americans Elect plans to hold an online primary to select a candidate and then place that name on every state ballot as a third-party alternative. Huntsman has repeatedly ruled out running as an independent.

     

  • Pawlenty comes alive on campaign trail

    By NBC's Andrew Rafferty

     

    Manchester, NH -- Whats the difference between Tim Pawlenty the candidate and Tim Pawlenty the surrogate?

    A lot.

    The former presidential candidate who frequently faced criticism for being dull and unable to connect with voters has established himself as one of Mitt Romney's top surrogates by being the exact opposite.

    Whether on the trail, in the spin room after debates or speaking with voters, Pawlenty has used his new role to let his personality show in ways that rarely came through in the days leading up to the Iowa Straw Poll.

    That charisma was on display Sunday night during a brief swing through Romney's New Hampshire headquarters when he spoke to volunteers working the phones.

    "Go deep," he told a Romney staffer after catching a football when he walked in the door.  The former Minnesota governor wound up and failed to connect with his intended receiver, instead narrowly missing a campaign sign hanging on the adjacent wall.

    He then gave a pep talk to the young volunteers making calls just two days before the first-in-nation primary, starting with a joke about the person he described as Minneapolis' most famous son, NBA player Kris Humphries.  The former Minnesota governor took a jab at the basketball player's short lived marriage to celebrity Kim Kardashian.

    "Don't feel too bad for Kris Humphries. His marriage lasted longer than my presidential campaign," said Pawlenty.

    After thanking the volunteers for their hard work, he asked for some advice.

    "I just got one last question, I have an 18-year-old, I have a 15-year-old, they listen to all this music that's not of my generation.  Not including Lady Gaga or Katy Perry or any of that, give me something that I can go back that's new that they won't know about that I can say check out this person or band so it looks like I know what I'm talking about," he asked.

    Perhaps a sign of how attune he is to popular culture, no one was able to give him a new suggestion.  He brushed off the various suggestions of top 40 artists, shaking his head and saying "that's established."

    In what turned out to be the final days of his candidacy, Pawlenty barnstormed through Iowa, holding town hall after town hall, sticking around to interact with voters only briefly before racing off to his next event.  As a candidate, he could not get over the characterization that he was uninspiring, a claim passionately dismissed by those who knew him from his day in the Minnesota state legislature.

    After posing for a picture with the spritely volunteers, he requested "a funny one," telling everyone to stand back-to-back with arms crossed as the camera flashed.  He then grabbed a sucker out of a bowl sitting on the table and made some calls to New Hampshire residents urging them to vote for his new boss.

    Earlier in the day Pawlenty stumped with Romney, and will be on hand at the former Massachusetts governor's victory party on Tuesday.

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