On Friday's Good Morning America, Rick Perry agreed with his wife Anita's remarks on the reasons for why his opponents are picking on him: his faith and his true conservatism. "I'll stand by my wife. I think she's right on both cases. My understanding is that she said I'm the most conservative candidate in the race and 'he's a Christian.' So I haven't got anything I can add to that and she's hit me on my mark both times there," he told George Stephanopoulos. Yesterday, Anita Perry was quoted by First Read saying:

"We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party. So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith. He is the only true conservative – well, there are some true conservatives. And they're there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose." 

So, to recap: it's not poor debating skills, swaggering rhetoric, inconsistent approach to illegal immigration or even his unwillingness to quickly condemn a backing Pastor that picked on Mitt Romney's religion as "a cult" that are the reasons he's been criticized. 

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Erik Hayden