The Hill News

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) began sparring over their respective jobs records after no less than 10 minutes into Wednesday's Republican presidential debate.

Both Romney and Perry, the two front-runners for the GOP 2012 nod, were given the first two questions at the NBC News/Politico debate at the Reagan presidential library. Each answered their questions amicably, but dropped the gloves once given a chance to engage with each other.

"While he had a good private sector record, his public sector record did not match that," Perry said of Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts.

Republican and Democratic critics alike point to the Bay State's ranking as 47th-best of 50 states in job creation during Romney's time in office.

Romney responded by saying that he inherited a situation as governor that involved a turnaround. Romney said he would have been grateful to have the advantages â! €" a wealth of natural resources, a friendly state legislature, and so on â€" that Perry has had as governor.

"But Gov. Perry doesn't believe he created those things. Saying that would be like saying Al Gore created the internet," Romney said. "The reality is there are differences between states. I came into a state that was in real trouble."

Perry responded: "Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt."

Romney retorted by saying that George W. Bush, as governor of Texas before Perry, had created jobs even more quickly than Perry had.

Perry also threw an elbow during a question of Romney about the Massachusetts healthcare plan Romney had pioneered as governor.

"It was a great opportunity for us, as a people, to see which will not work," Perry interjected.

The early fireworks seemed inevitable heading into the highly-anticipated debate, the first of three in September, in the crucia! l post-Labor Day period of the campaign.

Perry's t! aken the lead in most national polls since having launched his campaign in August, dethroning Romney as the campaign's initial frontrunner.