In presidential campaign news, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is trying to distance himself from views he expressed in a book that he published just nine months ago. In his book, “Fed Up: Our Fight to Save America from Washington,” Perry attacks Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as “fraudulent systems designed to take in a lot of money at the front and pay out none in the end.” Perry also called Social Security “a crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal,” which was implemented “at the expense of respect for the Constitution.” Perry’s campaign is now backing away from the comments. His communications director says the book is “a look back, not a path forward,” and that it is “not in any way as a 2012 campaign blueprint or manifesto.”