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The weekend revelation that Rick Perry and his father once leased a Texas hunting camp known by a racist term has further hurt his already troubled bid for the presidency, and is a reminder that the glare of scrutiny at the presidential level is much more severe than in the Lone Star State.

Though he rapidly became the GOP front-runner after entering the race just six weeks ago, Perry has played catch-up with his rivals in terms of presidential campaign experience and, perhaps as a consequence, his performance suffered in a trio of candidate debates. The fallout from his missteps was just one challenge associated with moving to the national stage late in a campaign. Perry has served as Texas governor for nearly 11 years, but in the short time between now and primary balloting early next year, the national media will turn the microscope on him in a way he has never experienced.

When the Washington Post reported over the weekend that a rock placed near the entrance of the West Texas hunting camp was at one time painted with the word “Niggerhead,” it surprised several political operatives who worked against Perry in his 2010 re-election primary against Kay Bailey Hutchison.

The reason?

Through all of the digging Hutchison supporters had done on Perry during the lengthy primary battle waged against him last year, no one learned of the racially insensitive term on the rock. And one GOP operative who supported Hutchison said of the new disclosure, “Honestly, it wouldn’t have hurt him in a Texas primary.”

But that’s the rub: This time, Perry isn’t running just in Texas; he’s in a national GOP primary for the opportunity to face off against the first black president.

In addressing the issue, Perry provided written responses to a series of questions from the Post. He said the word is an “offensive name that has no place in the modern world.” He also offered two, slightly differing, explanations as to when the word on the rock was covered up with paint.

Following the story’s publication, Perry’s communications director issued a statement taking issue with some of the claims in the story, and he pointed out that a West Texas charity owns the campgrounds -- not the Perrys.

But for a number of players in the political sphere -- including many Republicans who could support Perry -- that was an inadequate response.

Republican strategists unaligned with any of the campaigns vacillated Monday over how damaging the episode is to Perry, and each one contacted by RealClearPolitics insisted that their still-developing thoughts remain anonymous.

“The ‘hope and pray it goes away’ strategy is the best one available to the Perry campaign. No good can come of further response or discussion,” one veteran GOP presidential operative said. “However, that's unlikely, and if this currently contained insider story pierces the frontal lobe of the GOP primary voter -- and frankly swing independents -- it could become a disqualifying issue very fast.”