Campaign Test

Though Perry, 61, has been known as a disciplined candidate and has never lost an election during almost three decades in politics, his readiness for heightened scrutiny of a presidential campaign is one of the major tests he now faces.

"You never really know how people are going to perform until you see them out there," David Axelrod, Obama's senior strategist, said in an interview last week. "This is a guy who has never done this before. It's harder than it looks."

Republicans were among those viewing the Bernanke remark as a stumble. Karl Rove, a Texan who was former President George W. Bush's longtime political adviser, chided Perry for "a very unfortunate comment."

In an interview on Fox News yesterday, Rove said Perry "is going to have to fight the impression that he's a cowboy from Texas. This simply added to it."

Before his Bernanke comment, Perry had raised questions with remarks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines drawing an apparent comparison between himself and Obama.

'Passionate About America'

"A guy like me can stand up on a soapbox at the Iowa State Fair and talk freely about freedom and liberty and America and that we are an exceptional country and we're going to stay an exceptional country," Perry said. "We don't need anybody apologizing anywhere in this world about America. I get a little bit passionate about that. That's OK. I think you want a president that is passionate about America, that's in love with America."

At the event in Cedar Rapids later, a reporter asked Perry whether he was suggesting that Obama doesn't love America.

"You need to ask him," Perry responded, according to ABCNews.com. "You're a good reporter, go ask him."

In Bedford today, Perry said he doesn't believe human activity contributes to climate change. Climate scientists haven't been totally truthful about their research, he said.

"There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects," Perry said. "I think we're seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists that are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change."