Can Perry come back?

Bewilderment is the prevailing reaction to Perry’s fix. He went into his first debate a frontrunner, “very much in control of his destiny,” says Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain’s 2008 campaign and is neutral this year. But Perry’s debate performances have visited “grievous damage” on him and “imploded his campaign,” Schmidt said in an interview. “They have pretty conclusively demonstrated that he wasn’t prepared for a presidential race. And once that narrative has set itself, it’s difficult to unwrap.”…

Democrats are frustrated at this turn of events for at least two reasons. One, polls suggest Perry might be easier to beat than Romney, so they’d like for him to be doing better in the nomination race. And two, Perry is doing a bad job of softening up Romney. So bad that top Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod took on that role himself on a recent press call, pointing out changes in Romney’s stands on various issues and urging reporters to fill the scrutiny gap. “Governor Perry has made some halting efforts” to highlight Romney’s reversals, Axelrod said, “but he hasn’t exactly gotten the gun out of the holster.”…

Schroeder says he is “mystified” by Perry’s failure to release an economic plan before the Oct. 11 debate on economic policy. “You know you’re going to be asked about economics. To answer that you’ll be putting out a plan later this week is really strange,” he says. “People were just waiting for Rick Perry to seize his moment. He had a perfect opportunity to take advantage of that, and he didn’t.”