TAMPA, FL -- The morning after a sometimes-rocky appearance in front of a Tea Party debate audience, Gov. Rick Perry said he was "taken aback" by cheers from some crowd members on a hypothetical question of whether a young man who decides not to buy health insurance should be refused care if he develops a life-threatening illness and be left to die. 
 
 "I was a bit taken aback by that myself," Perry told NBC News and the Miami Herald after appearing at a breakfast fundraiser in Tampa. 
 
 "We're the party of life. We ought to be coming up with ways to save lives." 
 
 Perry distinguished from that the issue of "justice," reiterating his strong support and "respect" for the death penalty on a state-by-state basis. "But the Republican party ought to be about life and protecting, particularly, innocent life," he added. 
 
 Perry also responded to the crowd's negative reaction to his support for allowing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, saying his campaign has "the right message" on opportunities for children who were brought to the United States illegally "by no fault of their own." 
 
 "This issue is about education, it's not about immigration," he said. 
 
 "These kids showed up in our state by no fault of their own, some 2-3 years of age. And they've been in our schools, they've done their work, they've prepared themselves good, they want to be contributing members of society. So it would be I think the wrong message to say somehow or another that you can't go to our colleges, or we've going to punish you because of the sound of your last name." 
 
 "When people really think about it, I think they'll understand what we did in Texas was the right thing for Texas," he said. 
 
 Last night's debate also featured shots at Perry from both Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum on the issue of Gardasil, a vaccine that Perry mandated to be given to 12-year-old girls to prevent HPV - a disease linked to cervical cancer. 
 
 Bachmann said on NBC's TODAY Show this morning that she was approached by a woman after the debate whose daughter had suffered mental retardation as a result of getting the vaccine. 
 
 Perry dismissed that idea as similar to debunked theories linking vaccinations to autism. 
 
 "You heard the same arguments about giving our children protections from some of the childhood diseases, and they were, autism was part of that. Now we've subsequently found out that was generated and not true." 
 
 "I would suggest to you that this issue about Gardasil and making it available was about saving people's lives," he added. ||||| Texas Gov. Rick Perry is being asked to stop Thursday's scheduled execution of an African American murderer who was sentenced to die after jurors were told that blacks are more likely to pose a future danger to the public.Duane Edward Buck faces execution for shooting two people near Houston in 1995 while under the influence of drugs, but his attorneys say the racially charged testimony calls for a new sentencing hearing."No one should be executed based on a process tainted by considerations of race," Kate Black, a lawyer for Buck, said Tuesday. "The decision as to whether Mr. Buck's execution will go forward now lies squarely with Gov. Perry, who has the power to issue a 30-day reprieve."Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, was asked during a GOP debate last week about Texas' 234 executions during his nearly 11 years as governor. He said he "never struggled" with the issue because "the state of Texas has a very thoughtful, very clear process in place."Buck's guilt is not in doubt. At issue is the sentencing hearing, at which jurors were called upon to decide whether to condemn him to death or to life in prison. Under Texas law, the jury must weigh whether the defendant poses a "future danger."Dr. Walter Quijano, a psychologist and defense witness, testified that Buck was not likely to be dangerous because he had no previous history of violence.But a prosecutor cited the "the race factor" and asked whether Buck's being black "increases the future dangerousness." Yes, the psychologist replied. Prosecutors cited that testimony in their closing argument.More than a decade ago, Texas state attorneys admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court that Quijano had wrongly injected race into the sentencing hearings for seven Texas death row inmates, including Buck."It is inappropriate to allow race to be considered as a factor in our criminal justice system," then-Texas Atty. Gen. John Cornyn said in 2000. "The people of Texas want and deserve a system that affords the same fairness to everyone."Cornyn, a Republican and now a U.S. senator, said state prosecutors recognized the mistake and agreed on the need for new hearings. The other six inmates got them. But several years later, new state attorneys refused to give Buck a new hearing, and courts upheld his death sentence.Last week, however, a prosecutor in Buck's case wrote to Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and called for clemency or a new hearing."Mr. Buck committed a terrible crime, and he must be punished," said Linda Geffin, a former Harris County assistant district attorney. But, she added, "I felt compelled to step forward" because of "the improper injection of race in the sentencing hearing in Mr. Buck's case."But Tuesday, the board recommended against clemency. The governor has limited authority over death cases, but can order a temporary reprieve.Buck's attorney said she would ask the U.S. Court of Appeals to grant an emergency stay of execution. If that fails, she said, she will seek a stay from the Supreme Court.
– Count Rick Perry among those "taken aback" at the reaction of some in the crowd during a debate question about health insurance last night. (A handful shouted "Yeah!" and cheered to a hypothetical question about whether someone who forgoes insurance should be allowed to die. See the video here.) Asked about it today, the Texas governor replied, "I was a bit taken aback by that myself," reports NBC News. "We're the party of life. We ought to be coming up with ways to save lives." He made clear, however, to draw a distinction with the death penalty, which he supports as a matter of "justice," he said. "But the Republican party ought to be about life and protecting, particularly, innocent life," he added.