Florida House speaker Dean Cannon doesn’t think that Rick Perry’s position on Social Security will alienate Florida voters — and he’s confident that Mitt Romney’s attacks are backfiring.

“It’s helping [Perry] now that those attacks are ringing more and more hollow when what Governor Perry has always said is if you are getting Social Security benefits or if you are even near retirement, that is a sacrosanct benefit,” Cannon said of Romney’s comments about Perry’s Social Security views. “The more that Romney tries to harp on that when he himself compared it a criminal enterprise . . . frankly, I thought tonight Romney sounded like a liberal in defending Social Security.”

Cannon believes that Floridians are hearing Perry’s message, not just the criticisms.

“I think it’s absolutely getting through,” he remarked. “[Social Security] is broken. It isn’t sustainable. It’s not actuarially sound. The Cato Institute said that, Jeb Bush said that, Marco Rubio said that, and Gov. Perry said that. He’s in good company.”