There are a couple of issues where Rick Perry was getting flak last night that may help him in the general election; his HPV vaccine faux pas and his moderate stance on immigration issues.
There are three problems with the HPV vaccine case; the impression that the vaccine was still a bit buggy at the time, the unilateral manner in which Perry made the decision and the idea that good girls don't need a vaccine against STDs. Michelle Bachmann played that latter card indirectly last night, having "innocent girls" being forced to get the vaccine.
On that last point, Bristol Palin comes to mind; as a middle-schooler, she'd clearly be in that "innocent girl" but that didn't last. A lot of good girls wind up slipping on that front, as much as their parents would like to avoid it. "My daughter wouldn't do that!", the mom roars, but a certain percentage of those daughers do. You can give them a vaccine that covers them from one aspect of that bad choice while continuing to make it clear that it is a bad choice.
That's going to help shield Perry from some of the "anti-science" flak that he's gotten.
The immigration issue will help Perry in the general; there is a bit immigration-hawk contingent in the modern GOP, but none of the candidates have that as a main plank in their platform. In 2008, Tom Tancredo was running as the uber-hawk and people were leaning to the hawkish side to cover that part of the political ecosystem. There's no Tancredo in 2012 and a lot of the hawkish part of the Tea Party is more ticked at economic issues to get too hot and bothered about a somewhat moderate Perry being the nominee.
Bachmann might be able to run to Perry's right on both issues, but she may not have enough traction there to make much of a dent. I don't see Romney being able to make much hay on those two issues, either.
These two give Perry a bit of a moderate sheen; not much, but the immigration issue might allow him to get an extra 5-10% of the Latino vote, which might make the difference in places like Florida and New Mexico.
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