republican who can beat barack obama. and i think when you look at the florida primary, which is a big, important primary. it was four years ago, it will be very important in the general election, the single most important influence on that is the outcome of the new hampshire primary and the south carolina primary. and you saw polls today in new hampshire that show mitt romney gaining in his lead. and you show rick perry falling there. so i think the numbers in florida, lawrence, are an indication of what we're seeing at the national level, and we'll see in the debates going forward how rick perry continues to stack up. but for sure this is going to become an increasingly big part of mitt romney's campaign so long as we see numbers like that. >> does rick perry have to find a way to back off, to distance himself from his past statements on social security? >> i think those statements on social security, there's a strong case to be made that they render him unelectable.