Rick Perry's underwhelming debates: Do they matter?

The news wasn't so good for the Republican presidential candidate who occupies the governor's office down there in Texas.

With their space-age podiums, cheering (or booing) audiences and their gotcha questions from media folks with their own makeup assistants, debates realistically have nothing to do with anything any president of any party would ever face in the Oval Office.

Debates do, however, have everything to do with how American voters perceive a candidate for president. How informed, well-spoken, straightforward, candid, quick, attentive do they look?

The Texas governor had suffered through two debate performances that could charitably be described as mediocre. He hardly looked presidential on the stage or up to the executive expectations that had pushed him to the front of the pack in polls.

Now came new polling showing his prime competitor surging to the lead in the important first primary state of New Hampshire.

Was this the end of his short presidential campaign? Or the end of the beginning in a very long presidential campaign for the White House?

No, this isn't the story of Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign, which turns 45 days old today.

This is a cautionary tale about reading too much into the early debate showings of any party's candidates, no matter how good or bad. Our esteemed and shall we say very veteran colleague Mark Barabak, calls our attention to a news story written almost 12 years ago, by him, as a matter of fact:

After his less-than-commanding performance in two presidential debates, George W. Bush faces a tougher race than expected amid growing signs of Republican discontent--including a new poll that shows major slippage in the key primary state of New Hampshire.

As it turned out, of course, John McCain did stay ahead of Bush in New Hampshire that cycle and whomped him good on primary day by about 15 points. The next morning, with aides vowing to get serious, the Bush campaign moved on to South Carolina, where the Texan won.

And the rest, as they say, is history that Barack Obama reminds us all about every few hours.

These campaigns are long and grueling, as they should be to determine the minds and mettle of the wannabes. John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy on Jan. 3 of that 1960 election year. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama announced in February, 21 months before the election.

Just as the substantial early TV audiences watch and study the 2011 debates, so do the candidates and their advisors. Besides the content, they're advised on how not to look bored, how and when to move a hand, when to point, how one particular expression dangerously resembles a sneer. (Remember Al Gore's infamous sighs from 2000?)

Watch Romney. This is his second rodeo. He's always paying attention to the others, often graciously grants part of their point and then moves to drive his home. Another respected colleague, Robin Abcarian, examined Perry's studied motions apparently mimicking Reaganesque movements.

Who's got a big enough DVR memory? But if anyone compared these early Republican debates to ones coming next winter, they'd see radically improved performances by the surviving candidates.

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 --Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Mike Carlson / Associated Press (Romney and Perry joust in Sept. 12 debate); Tannen Maury / AFP (Bush and Gore debate, Oct. 18, 2000).

Ron Paul wins California Republican straw poll

  

This weekend, the California Republican Party had its 2011 Fall Convention at the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. One presidential candidate, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, spoke at a dinner on Friday night, and Saturday morning's breakfast featured two more contenders: Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Paul's fans were out in force both outside the hotel -- awaiting his arrival -- and inside the ticketed Lincoln Clubs Breakfast. He spoke last and was late, allowing McCotter to add a question-and-answer period to his prepared remarks (more on that later, check back).

McCotter is also on the roster of speakers for Sunday's Beverly Hills Tea Party, to be held from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Beverly Hills Park on Santa Monica Blvd.

Raucous cheers and whistles and whoops and screams -- one could be forgiven for wondering....

Ponzi schmonzi: Republicans not really bothered by Rick Perry's Social Security phrasing

Despite all the feigned handwringing by his GOP presidential opponents, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's favorite descriptive phrase for the troubled Social Security system as a "Ponzi scheme" isn't really bothering fellow Republicans at all.

A Ponzi scheme is an eventually doomed plan where people pay money in and then get it out with dividends. But all the money paid out is coming, not from any actual investments, but simply from more gullible people putting their money in. The scheme is eventually doomed, of course, because inevitably the latest Charles Ponzi runs out of gullible newcomers with money.

Sounds a lot like Social Security to many non-Democrats, including Perry, who's 61. Let's see, Social Security involves a dwindling number of younger Americans paying some of every paycheck into government's Social Security as a growing number of healthier Baby Boom seniors draw the money out while declining to die in time to keep the system's fiscal merry-go-round going around.

The eminent Charles Krauthammer says, in fact, the only difference between the two schemes is that Social Security is mandatory.

Mitt Romney, who seems to have enough money to run his own private Social Security system, says Perry's Ponzi scheme phrase is "over the top" of something.

And Romney worries that his stubborn Texas opponent (Did you know he might be a career politician?) could be scaring seniors sufficiently to spill their Ensure over carefully clipped grocery coupons.

But there's a problem with that convenient concern: "Ponzi scheme" is a political wash. A new Gallup Poll out this morning documents this lack of concern; outside the media it's a major non-issue among those folks who'll be picking the Republican to watch the inaugural parade on Jan. 20, 2013.

Nineteen percent of Republicans say the Ponzi hoo-hah makes them less likely to support Perry and 19% of Republicans say it makes them more likely to support the guy in boots. Nearly a quarter (24%) say it matters not. And 38% are too dumb or uninterested to have an opinion.

Now, if Perry makes it through the next 11 months of rhetorical jousting and money-raising and comes out as the party's nominee and hasn't already convinced people that Social Security is a swell thing that can be fixed, then he might have a problem.

Right now, 32% of those crucial independents say the Ponzi business makes them less likely to like Perry; 12% support his talk. And nearly a quarter (21%) say No Difference. (Another 36% are dummies.)

But, there's so much to happen in the next four months, let alone 11. And look! Even so, Perry remains the sudden GOP frontrunner talking Texas-straight. For him to trim his Ponzi sails now is like those other Texans, the  Dallas Cowboys, fretting over their Thanksgiving game scheduled for next year.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Steve Helber / Associated Press (Perry speaks in Virginia, Sept. 14).

CNN/Tea Party GOP debate ratings don't get better over time

  
Monday's GOP presidential debate faced stiff competition from the season debut of "Monday Night Football" on ESPN. It's possible that people put the debate on the DVR and checked into it later ... or not.

On Tuesday, CNN -- which partnered with the Tea Party Express for the Sept. 12 debate, in Tampa, Fla. -- released the Nielsen Fast National Data (quick, preliminary numbers) for the 5-7 p.m. Pacific time slot, showing it on top of the cable-news ratings race for the night, with 3.6 million total viewers. That included 1.1 million in the advertiser-approved Adults 24-54 demographic.

CNN topped its own numbers for its GOP debate in New Hampshire in June. It fell behind those for Fox News' Aug. 11 debate in Iowa, which got 5.1 million viewers, and 1.4 in the target demo. It also lagged behind the GOP debate last week on MSNBC -- from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley -- which got 5.4 million viewers, with 1.7 million in the demo.

Today, we got the final numbers from CNN, and they didn't budge much: 3.163 million total viewers, and 1.132 million in the demographic.

Interestingly, there is much less daylight among CNN's most recent demographic numbers and those for the last two debates than there is in numbers of total viewers. That means that either far more older or younger viewers -- or large numbers of both -- bailed on Monday night.

That could be a testament to the major ratings draw of the NFL, which offered back-to-back games on Monday. The New England Patriots' 38-24 road victory over the Miami Dolphins, which began at 4 p.m. Pacific, attracted roughly 14.6 million viewers, giving it the fourth-largest audience for any program on cable television for the year 2011.

The second game -- in which the Denver Broncos lost at home to the Oakland Raiders, 23-20 -- got 11.1 million viewers. It started about 7:15 p.m. Pacific time.

And, there was likely a big curiosity factor last week for the first debate appearance of Rick Perry. He's the governor of Texas, famous for its devotion to high school football (after all, the book "Friday Night Lights" became both a movie and an NBC TV series). There's no reason to expect Texans don't love the pros just as much (and are already pretty familiar with Perry's record, since he's been the state's chief executive for a decade).

Or it could mean that there are roughly 1-ish million people between the ages of 25 and 54 that will tune in for just about every GOP debate.

No doubt the Republican National Committee would like to know who they are, where they live and whether they've maxed out their legally permissible donations.

Fox News, Google and the Republican Party of Florida sponsor the next debate, taking place Sept. 22 in Orlando, Fla.

The moderator is FNC anchor Bret Baier. Also on the panel are "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace -- who has participated in the previous FNC debates this year -- and daytime anchor Megyn Kelly, making her debate debut.

Kelly, who practiced law before eventually turning to full-time broadcast journalism, returned recently from maternity leave after giving birth to her second child.

Viewers can submit text and video questions for the debate via Google's "Fox News/Google Debate" page, which also allows users to give thumbs-up/down to questions.

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-- Kate O'Hare

Media critic Kate O’Hare is a regular Ticket contributor. She also blogs about TV at Hot Cuppa TV and is a frequent contributor at entertainment news site Zap2it. Also follow O'Hare on Twitter @KateOH.

Speaking of 2012, follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle.Use the retweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photos: CNN/Tea Party GOP Debate stage; Megyn Kelly (screenshot). Credits: Win McNamee / Getty Images; Fox News Channel.

New numbers find real Perry-Romney race developing

Initial signs now of a real two-man race developing in the unfolding marathon struggle for the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nomination.

Rick Perry, the Texas governor who strode on stage so confidently to announce his candidacy 31 days ago, still holds the numerical lead over former Gov. Mitt Romney, who hasn't not been running for years.

What the Gallup organization calls the Positive Intensity Score shows Perry holding strong at 24. However, for the first time since Perry surged to the front of the GOP field, Romney's score has increased significantly.

In a new rating just released Gallup shows that now with a month to compare the two men, Romney's score has surged from 11 just two weeks ago to 16 now.

At the same time the scores for two GOP women have faded. With Perry in the race Michele Bachmann's score has dropped from 13 to 10. And the train appears to be leaving the station for Sarah Palin's hypothetical candiacy; her score plunged from 16 to 10. The 10 for both women are new lows for 2011.

Gallup's Positive Intensity Scores are devised by subtracting the percentage of Republicans with highly unfavorable views of each candidate from the percentage with highly favorable views among those who know the candidate.

Perry's first debate performance at the Reagan Library last week was workmanlike. He held his own standing next to the ever-polite, ever-attentive Romney. no big Perry mistakes.

Monday night's CNN/Tea Party Express debate was a different affair with six of the other seven candidates attacking Perry somehow. Newt Gingrich has reserved virtually all of his ammo for President Obama -- and the media.

Bachmann was particularly aggressive on Perry's later-revoked executive order to immunize sixth grade girls against the human papilloma virus and, Bachmann suggested, possible fundraising ties between the drug's maker and the Perry campaign.

Romney zeroed in on what he called Perry's "over-the-top" description of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, saying the Texan should not be frightening seniors but rather working to fix the system's problems. Perry, in turn, guaranteed current recipients their Social Security provisions would remain avaiulable.

the Gallup surbvey was taken before the Tea Party debate.

Herman Cain's intensity score of 22 remains above Romney but has fallen five points in two weeks. Rudy Giuliani, like Palin unannounced, is up one point to 18.

Others in the Republican field are Rick Santorum (down from 10 to 8), Gingrich steady at 7, Ron Paul up to 7 from 6 and Jon Huntsman down from one to minus-one.

Next debate Sept. 22.

(UPDATE: A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds Romney leading Obama, 43-40, in a head-to-head matchup.)

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Photo: Mike Carlson / Associated Press

This week's GOP debate: Rick Perry vs everyone else

As a former Air Force pilot, Rick Perry knows what happens to the leading plane in any dogfight. It's the target for the ones behind.

And so it was Monday night in Tampa as the unlikely partnership of CNN and the Tea Party Express produced another early Republican primary debate.

It was a good debate for moderator Wolf Blitzer, who kept the pace brisk and worked hard to get everyone involved with 30-second rebuttals.

It was also a good debate for beleaguered President Obama, who sent his doomed jobs bill to Congress in the morning with yet another Rose Garden photo op. Obamacare came in for the usual bashing. Just about everyone in the GOP field will repeal the legislative abomination as soon as they walk into the Oval Office after the parade on Jan. 20, 2013.

Perry wondered last week if he'd become the pinata. But this debate the forceful Mitt Romney, the game Jon Huntsman, the irascible Ron Paul, the earnest son of an Italian immigrant Rick Santorum and the increasingly aggressive Michele Bachmann aimed their fire at the tall Texan whose 30 short days in the race have changed everything and vaulted him into a substantial lead.

Which maintains the appearance of an ongoing race but means absolutely nothing this early. just ask Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson, who lead at this time four years ago.

Bachmann, who rode her tea party leadership to victory in the Ames Straw Poll, was virtually invisible in last week's Reagan Library debate, rhetorically and sartorially. This time she came back in red and went after fellow tea party fave Perry at every chance, mainly over his admitted and aborted mistake of seeking to vaccinate sixth grade girls against the human papilloma virus.

Santorum hit Perry's government mandated vaccination too. And they hit Perry for championing in-state college tuition for children of illegal immigrants and for opposing a border fence with Mexico as not realistic.

Perry, as usual did not back down, but he needs to get smoother in his answers, whose pauses suggest uncertainty. "We were clearly sending a message to young people regardless of what the sound of their last name is that we believe in you," the governor said, adding it's the American way.

Marc Antony, oh, no, it was Mitt Romney actually, was full of praise for Perry's job creation record that grew employment just like his predecessors Democrat Ann Richards and Republican George W. Bush, only fewer, and with the help of oil reserves, Republican courts and Republican legislators.

Asked what he would bring to the White House, pizza exec Herman Cain said a sense of humor, which brought the evening's lone laughter. Along, of course, with his 9-9-9 plan--9% business, income and national sales taxes.

Newt Gingrich kept his criticism aimed at Obama, the main target in previous GOP debates.

Ron Paul again showed why his disciples love him and why he can never win this party's nomination. He is very consistent and firm in his strict constitutionalism themes and isolationism, which earned him boos from the audience of 1,000 conservatives. As he did with Giuliani last cycle, Paul lured Santorum into a fight by suggesting the United States invited the 9/11 attacks by aggression against other lands.

Romney pursued Perry like a prosecutor on Social Security, calling the Texan's Ponzi scheme comment over the top. Bachmann was relentless. She's seized on the inoculation of "little girls" as a violation of freedoms, parental rights and suggested a connection among a drug company, a former Perry aide there, campaign contributions and Perry's executive order.

It's a theme she carried into the post-debate interviews and a somewhat puzzling fundraising email immediately after titled "I'm offended."

Bachmann may also have set a modern debate record for mixed metaphors, talking about the Federal Reserve Bank:"They have got to be shrunk back down to such a tight leash that they're going to squeak."

There are some signs of desperation in the Bachmann camp since Perry's entry and her poll slump. She's cutting back South Carolina campaigning to focus on Iowa and her email solicitation asked for "a special emergency donation" without explaining what the emergency is. Money?

Earlier in the day, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal endorsed Perry and ex-candidate Tim Pawlenty endorsed Romney. Coincidentally, Romney will help pay down Pawlenty's campaign debts.

Speaking of campaign dropouts, the GOP field will winnow in coming weeks from the surviving eight. The next Republican set-to isn't for another nine days, which is about how long it will take you to read Monday's full CNN transcript over here.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images

Rick Perry grins, shrugs and swings away at Reagan Library GOP debate

 
Texas Gov. Rick Perry came under fire as Republican aspirants to Ronald Reagan's old job gathered under the wings of his former Air Force One tonight, for another debate aired on national TV.

Fresh from surveying wildfires in his home state, Perry was the shiny new toy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. It was his first presidential debate, and moderators Brian Williams of "NBC Nightly News" and Politico editor-in-chief John Harris called on him at most every opportunity.

And he didn't disappoint, particularly in pointed exchanges with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who was the presumptive front-runner until Perry entered the race on Aug. 13, the day of the Ames straw poll in Iowa.

Consider this exchange on the question of job creation:

Perry: "Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt." (A grin and a "whaddya gonna do?" sort of shrug followed.)

Romney: "George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor."

Perry: "That's not correct."

Romney: "That is correct."

Williams: "Nice to see that everybody came prepared for tonight's conversation."

Or, when Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said Perry wrote a letter in the '90s "supporting Hillarycare."

Perry countered that he was his state's agriculture commissioner during the Clinton administration and that he was urging Hillary Rodham Clinton, then the first lady, not to forget rural healthcare in her proposal to overhaul healthcare policy. Then he looked at Paul and said, "I was more interested in the one you wrote to Ronald Reagan, saying, 'I'm going to quit the party because of the things you believe in.' "

"Oh," said Paul, "I need an answer on that!"

He went on to explain how he'd supported Reagan in 1976, and supported his....

Tonight's Republican debate may really be between 2 Texans, Rick Perry and Ron Paul

Eight Republicans will line up for the debate in the shadow of Ronald Reagan's Air Force One in his presidential library this evening.

But the most interesting debate dynamic will likely be between the two Texans onstage with the same pair of initials -- Rick Perry, the governor, and Ron Paul, the representative.

This was supposed to be the second GOP panel for Perry, the late-comer and new front-runner. But he pulled out of Sen. Jim DeMint's values forum in South Carolina Monday to fly home and be governor during the giant state's wild wildfires.

Tonight, everyone will pay verbal tribute to Ronald Reagan, who might have some trouble winning the presidential nomination of the new Grand Old Party these days. The debate will be carried live on MSNBC at 5 p.m. Pacific.

Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman will be asked about their jobs plans. Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich will chime in. For an interesting look at the surviving GOP field, check out Chris Stirewalt's perceptive rundown here.

Obama will be a certain target but less so because Republican House Speaker John Boehner saved the Democrat from himself. Obama wanted to talk jobs tonight too to a joint session of Congress. Boehner suggested Thursday was better and the president acquiesced.

Cross-state rivals Perry and Paul have already been sniping at each other. The 11-term congressman has criticized the nation's longest-serving governor as not a real conservative and dismissing him as more of the status quo.

Tuesday Perry's surprisingly well-organized camp fired a salvo at Paul, citing his 1987 resignation letter from the Republican Party in which he criticized the president now entombed just steps from tonight's debate site.

"There is no credibility left for the Republican Party as a force to reduce the size of government," Paul wrote near the end of Reagan's second term before Paul ran for president on the Libertarian ticket. "That is the message of the Reagan years."

“It will be interesting," a Perry spokesman suggestively suggested, "to hear Rep. Paul explain why Reagan drove him from the party at tomorrow’s debate on the grounds of the Reagan Library."

Recent polls have confirmed Perry's rapid surge to the front of the Republican field. He appears to have most hurt Bachmann, another tea party favorite who can be expected to attack. A Gallup Poll this week found Perry and Romney to be about equally well-liked among Republicans (seven-out-of-ten).

But Gallup's intensity score gives Perry twice the rating of Romney, 25-12.

A larger question many ask is how good is Perry at debating? Put another way, how bad can he be? He's never lost an election.

It's still almost a year out from the GOP convention in Tampa. Ahh, Florida in August. Who wouldn't want to wear funny hats in that weather?

But this month is already crucial. It's the last in the second quarter of campaign fundraising. We'll soon see how big a money bump Bachmann got for winning the Ames Straw Poll. If Paul's $1.6 money-bomb was a one-day explosion?

And how big are the bundles being assembled by Perry's reputed hundreds of newly-recruited, enthusiastic bundlers, including some well-connected folks in California, where Perry will forage for cash all day Thursday.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: David J. Phillip / Associated Press (Perry, left); Mary Ann Chastain / Associated Press (Paul); Alberto Martinez / Associated Press (Perry listens to wildfire victim Cindy Cruz in Bastrop, Sept. 5).

Mitt Romney: 'We can't lead the world by hoping our enemies will hate us less'

Coincidence or not, President Obama and a Republican frontrunner who would replace him, Mitt Romney, gave dueling speeches to American veterans today. Romney to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in San Antonio, Obama to the American Legion in Minneapolis.

As we often do, we are publishing the full texts of both addresses so that Ticket readers can see for themselves the scope and nuance of the men's spoken words.

First, some Romney excerpts:

Today we are united not only by our faith in America. We are united also by our concern for America....

Have we ever had a president who was so eager to address the world with an apology on his lips and doubt in his heart? He seems truly confused not only about America’s past but our future....

We stand near a threshold of profound economic misery. Four more years on the same political path could prove disastrous...

This is the first time in my memory that massive defense cuts were proposed without any reference to the missions that would be foreclosed and the risks to which our country and its men and women in uniform would be exposed. Cuts of this magnitude can only be the product of one of two mistaken beliefs.

On the one hand is wishful thinking that the world is becoming a safer place. The opposite is true.  Consider simply the Jihadists, a near-nuclear Iran, a turbulent Middle East, an unstable Pakistan, a delusional North Korea, an assertive Russia, and an emerging global power called China.  No, the world is not becoming safer.

And so, on the other hand, that leaves us with the belief that America should become a lesser power. It flows from the conviction that if we are weak, tyrants will choose to be weak as well; that if we could just talk more, engage more, pass more U.N. resolutions, that peace will break out.  That may be what they think in that Harvard faculty lounge, but it’s not what they know on the battlefield!

But American leadership is more than a budget fight. America must lead with clarity of intent, a commitment of purpose and unlimited resolve....

Our Air Force is now older and smaller than it has been for decades. Our Navy has fewer ships than it is has had since World War One. The Navy says it needs 313 ships to fulfill its missions around the world.  It only has 284 ships and we’re on track to drop down to the low 200s....

During World War Two, we built 1,000 ships per year with 1,000 people in the Bureau of Ships – the purchasing department, if you will. In the 1980’s we built 17 ships per year, with 4,000 people in purchasing. Today, for 9 ships a year, it takes 25,000 people!

We’ve lost a couple of years, but we haven’t lost our way....

Now, here is the full Romney text:

Gov. Mitt Romney's Address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, as provided by his office

It’s a privilege to be addressing the veterans who defended our liberty in the past, and who defend the memory and dignity of every veteran today.

I was born in 1947 – a quintessential baby boomer. I grew up in the shadow of....

Michele Bachmann's campaign is now complete: She'll publish a book

To run for president in these United States, you need to have a book published, preferably a memoir or autobiography sharing personal stories that just happen to reinforce whatever your political narrative is.

Now, Michele Bachmann will have her own.

As yet untitled, the book's November publication was announced Monday by Sentinel, an 8-year-old conservative publishing imprint of Penguin (USA) that previously published books by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The publisher said the manuscript is already completed and that the 55-year-old congresswoman shares "previously untold" stories from her private life, including her career as a tax attorney, biological mother of five and foster mother of 23.

Bachmann's political career began relatively late and inauspiciously when, in her mid-40s, she lost a local school board race in Minnesota. The following year, she won a state Senate spot. And then she won her seat in the House in 2006, a tough year for Republicans nationally.

In a prepared statement released by Sentinel, Bachmann said:

People are the most important ingredient in life. I love people, and I care deeply that our nation's economy turns around so they can realize their American dream.

This book will help to share my enthusiasm for an energized, pro-growth economy, and the life experiences that inform my optimism for the American people and for American greatness.

The founder of the congressional "tea party" caucus and a successful House fundraiser, Bachmann launched her presidential campaign during a June GOP debate.

Earlier this month, she won the over-covered Ames Straw Poll, but her standing in the real polls has faded somewhat since the entry into the Republican contest of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now the party front-runner by double digits.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

Follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: Michele Bachmann campaigns in Florida on Monday. Credit: Carl Juste / MCT