Mitt Romney consolidated his front-runner status on Tuesday night in the Republican presidential race, overshadowing his rivals in the latest debate which was dominated by the country's faltering economy.
His main rival, the Texas governor Rick Perry, needed a strong performance after seeing his poll ratings drop sharply, the result of doing badly in the previous two debates. But he again failed to deliver.
Republican strategists were scathing about Perry's inability to mount a comeback and his lack of fire. The veteran Alex Castellanos said Perry's team had complained he had been tired in the last debate because of having to stand for so long. This time he had been sitting down but was still lacklustre.
"Next time he is going to have to get a mattress," Castellanos said on CNN of the Texas governor's sleepy performance.
In a debate short on policy detail, Romney emerged as the most fluent and most at ease, a much more relaxed campaigner than he was during his failed bid for the Republican nomination in 2008.
Romney's success in the debate came hours after he secured the much-prized endorsement of the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, who last week announced he would not be joining the race.
In the debate organised by Bloomberg and the Washington Post in Dartmouth, New Hampshire, Romney made much of his experience as a businessman, claiming this provided him with the leadership qualities to help the US tackle unemployment and its lack of competitiveness.
His refrain was that if he had only worked in politics he would not be in the race. It was because he had experience in business he felt he could help the country back to competitiveness and deal with 9.1% unemployment.
"I'd be prepared to be a leader. You can't get the country to go in the right direction and get Washington to work if you don't have a president that's a leader. And three years ago we selected a person who'd never had any leadership experience, never worked in the private sector," Romney said.
Perry has dropped from frontrunner in the polls in August and early September to third place behind Romney and the former businessman Herman Cain.
Perry was near invisible during the first hour of the debate, dodging detailed questions about his economic policy, saying he was keeping it under wraps until he makes his first major economic speech on Friday. During the second hour he was a bit more visible, seeming less nervous and halting.
At best Perry did himself no further harm, avoiding any gaffes or exposing weaknesses for his rivals to exploit.
The only other of the eight candidates to make much of an impression was Cain, who has surged in the polls in recent weeks through a combination of humour and populist rightwing politics. But questions remain about his staying power.
The remaining candidates were largely left on the sidelines: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Congressman Ron Paul, former diplomat Jon Huntsman, former senator Rick Santorum and former Speaker Newt Gingrich.
One of the most revealing parts of the debate was when the candidates were given an opportunity to put questions to their rivals. Most opted to challenge Romney, confirmation that they see him as the frontrunner needing to be pegged back. Cain, Gingrich and Perry all aimed their questions at him.
Perry rehearsed what will be one of his main campaign themes, questioning Romney's record as a conservative, in part because of his former governorship of Massachusetts.
"Governor Romney, your chief economic adviser, Glenn Hubbard, who you know well, he said that Romneycare was Obamacare. And Romneycare has driven the cost of small-business insurance premiums up by 14% over the national average in Massachusetts," Perry said. The question builds on a tough negative advert the Perry camp has put out against Romney, accusing him of being a flip-flopper.
Romney in the past was often apologetic about his health record, fearful of alienating the right, but no longer.
"You know, the great thing about running for president is to get the chance also to talk about your experience as a governor. And I'm proud of the fact that we took on a major problem in my state," Romney said.
The issue that has dominated the Republican race since the weekend, Romney's Mormonism – described by the pastor Robert Jeffress, an ally of Perry's, as a cult – was not discussed. Huntsman, also a Mormon, joked that he could not raise it since it was an economics debate.
Earlier in the day Romney called on Perry to repudiate the pastor.
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