John Raoux / AP Photo
The feud between frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry picked up steam at Thursday night’s Fox News/Google debate, as they attacked each other’s positions about Social Security and health care. Perry insisted Americans wouldn’t have to worry about their Social Security benefits while he is in office, but Romney attacked Perry’s claim that Social Security is “unconstitutional” and that it should be turned over to the states to manage. Perry tried to evade the question by attacking Romney’s health-care plan in Massachusetts, only to have Romney accuse Perry of “retreating from your own words in your own book, but you can’t make me retreat from my own words in my own book.” But Romney himself backed away from using the popular Republican insult lobbied at President Obama, that he is a “socialist,” instead saying that Obama is a big-spending liberal who takes cues from “European socialism.”