Even with three national polls showing him with a double-digit lead over his rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry hasn’t lightened up on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Today on the Laura Ingraham show, Perry picked at Romney’s most obvious vulnerability. The Washington Wire reports:

It wasn’t quite “Obamneycare,” but Texas Gov. Rick Perry chided former [Massachusetts Gov.] Mitt Romney for the health care overhaul he signed as Massachusetts governor. “I think Mitt is finally recognizing that the Massachusetts healthcare plan that he passed is a huge problem for him, and yeah it was not almost perfect,” Mr. Perry said Thursday on the Laura Ingraham Show, a conservative national radio program. …

The governor is hardly the first to criticize the Massachusetts health care law, which conservatives and Democrats say was an inspiration for the health care overhaul Democrats passed last year. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has dropped out of the race, called it “Obamneycare.” Mr. Romney’s spokeswoman declined to comment. Mr. Romney has defended his health law, but has said it had mistakes and that it would not work nationally. Mr. Perry faces some of his own problems with conservatives on immigration and an executive order he signed that required sixth grade girls to receive a vaccine to prevent a sexually transmitted disease.

Perry is right, of course: Romneycare remains a glaring problem for Mittens, but, as the Washington Wire points out, Perry doesn’t have a perfectly conservative record, either (although he’s not alone in his slightly softer stance on immigration — the GOP field is notably squishy on this issue). Almost immediately upon Perry’s entrance into the race, Michelle Malkin sounded the alarm bell about his executive order in support of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. One of Perry’s strengths — his fly-in-your-face leadership, his reassuring swagger — appears to be a weakness for him at times, too, when, as in the case of the Gardasil debacle, he allows himself to be carried away with his own opinion and executive power.

None of this is to say Perry’s vaccine controversy equates to the purposeful passage of a state health system that served, in some important ways, as the basis for a fourth federal entitlement program that will cost the country nearly $4 trillion over the course of the next 20 years. Nor is it to say flaws in the records of either men mean Republicans should opt for the most perfectly conservative candidate on the ballot. Electability is ever key and, in the role of president, both Perry and Romney would demonstrate decisive leadership and move the country in a responsibly conservative direction (as would others of the GOP field!).

Instead, it’s all to say I’m looking forward to Sept. 7, when Perry will appear on the debate stage with the other GOP candidates for the first time. (The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced the list of debate candidates today. At the personal invitation of Nancy Reagan, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum will all meet in Simi Valley, Calif., for what promises to be the best debate yet!)

Romney has never really excited the base and he has been guilty of belated opining on important matters like the debt ceiling, but he also hasn’t yet made any major mistakes in his campaign — and, for the most part, I’m satisfied with the way Romney seems to have grown more conservative with age (on everything from abortion to health care to the flat tax — that happens, you know!). Perhaps I’m naive (probable!), but I don’t see his campaign as a charade aimed solely at his election; I see it as the fruit of years’ worth of consideration of the issues. But if, on Sept. 7, Perry can retain the enthusiasm his splashy entrance garnered, adequately respond to conservative concerns about his record and exude the same polish and professionalism Romney has mastered (albeit in his own refreshingly straightforward way), then he’ll undoubtedly deserve the frontrunner status he secured so quickly.

Update: Here’s the audio of Ingraham’s interview with Perry.