With time running out, Rick Perry trolls for the undecided

Stopping by a popular local diner where tall red velvet cakes and bags of grits were displayed for sale, Rick Perry emphasized his differences from other Republican candidates to a crowd of largely undecided voters Saturday morning.

“Who is best prepared?” he said to voters at Page’s Okra Grill. “Is it someone who came off of and has that Wall Street insider mentality? Is it some of the others who have the Washington insider mentality? Every one of those individuals -- I will suggest to you -- are flawed in the sense of this great concern that Americans have between the nexus of Wall Street and Washington, D.C.”

Perry’s speech, which criticized other candidates individually, deviates from his remarks in previous days that have focused mainly on his plans to cut the size of government and balance the federal budget. With the South Carolina primary just a week away, candidates are finding it’s time to either distinguish themselves from each other and pull ahead, or cede defeat to frontrunner Mitt Romney.

“If you want to live in a state that mandates that you have to buy health insurance if you live in that state, you’re free to go live in Massachusetts,” he said.

Perry emphasized his experience as governor of Texas, the world’s 13^th largest economy, and criticized other candidates for their role in approving bank bailouts, earmarks and government healthcare programs.

“There are individuals on that stage that are in love with earmarks,” he said, as voters ate eggs and grits and tall stacks of pancakes. “My friend Rick Santorum will come in here and say he’s a fiscal conservative. But ask him, ‘Why have you voted for the bridge to nowhere? Why did you vote for [a] teapot museum?”

An ad criticizing Santorum for similar bills is currently running on television in South Carolina – sponsored by Mitt Romney’s “super PAC,” Restore our Future.

Perry also emphasized his military service to the crowd, which included many veterans and retirees who said they had come for breakfast, as they do every morning.

“I’m the only person on that stage that volunteered to serve our country,” he said, to applause. (Ron Paul also served in the military, but was drafted.)

Many of the patrons in the popular restaurant said they had come in for the food, not knowing that Perry was coming to visit, including a few Shriners who were heading to a meeting next door. That may be a good thing for Perry, as many were undecided voters, but it provided him with a distinct disadvantage in trying to hold everyone’s attention. When previous speeches in small restaurants have been met with loud applause and supportive shouts, many patrons chatted and ate their breakfast, not listening to Perry, who spoke in front of TV corners and ardent supporters in one corner. At the bar, men and women sat, their backs to Perry, creating a rumble of sound that made it impossible to hear the candidate from the opposite side of the restaurant.

These were not necessarily voters obsessed with politics. One woman said she had to leave halfway through the speech to attend a pig pickin’ – in which friends would roast a pig and then eat it. Another said she had to go to work. A retired couple said they were from out of state but were interested in the spectacle. Two men eating eggs said they were Democrats.

But despite the noise, Perry was able to reach Dean Brown, an undecided voter from Mt. Pleasant who had come in for breakfast and got to hear a candidate as a bonus. He’s leaning toward supporting Romney, but said he was waiting to see if anyone else pulled ahead.

“I’ll vote for whoever can actually bring a challenge to the current administration,” he said.