The top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, have squared off for the first time in a debate, both claiming to be the party's best choice to fix the US economy and defeat President Barack Obama.
Michele Bachmann and other struggling presidential hopefuls tried to use the debate and two others this month to prevent the campaign from becoming a two way race between Perry, the governor of Texas, and Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.
With the US unemployment rate stuck at 9.1 per cent, Perry and Romney quickly challenged each others' record creating jobs.
Perry said that Michael Dukakis, a liberal predecessor of Romney and former presidential candidate who is widely disparaged by Republicans, created jobs more quickly than Romney.
Romney responded that Perry's predecessor in Texas - former President George W Bush - created jobs more rapidly than Perry had.
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While taking on each other, the candidates agreed on one thing: Obama is doing a poor job and must be defeated.
Perry slammed Romney's health care plan and talked about his plan to try to turn over the purse strings of Medicaid to the states, but he carefully avoided the word "Medicare," which he also has proposed handing to the states, which could have the potential to alarm senior voters.
He also skirted around the question about why Texas has the highest rate of the uninsured.
The debate, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, comes one day before Obama delivers a major address on creating jobs before a joint session of Congress.
Perry, who cut short his campaign appearances this week to deal with wildfires raging in Texas, flew to California for the debate even though the flames weren't extinguished. It was his first national debate appearance.
He was going up against Romney, who ran for president in 2008 and has honed his debate skills since then.
Romney turned in strong performances in the three previous debates - all held before Perry entered the race and overtook Romney in national and early state polls.
The stakes also were high for the others on stage - particularly for Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman looking look to keep her name near the top of a pile that also includes former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, businessman Herman Cain, Texas Representative Ron Paul and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who was Obama's ambassador to China.
Bachmann's standing rose quickly this summer... she won a key test vote in Iowa on August 13, which was featured in a profile of her on SBS's Dateline.
But Perry's entrance into the race eclipsed her, and she's seen staff upheaval this week, losing her campaign manager and her deputy campaign manager.
Huntsman, for his part, was looking to prove he's still relevant - a goal made more difficult by a sinus infection that has affected his voice and that kept him from planned television appearances on Wednesday.
Huntsman aides said he still would debate.
The debate started at 10am AESTon Thursday, Wednesday night local time.
