Thanks, Jim and thanks for the defense earlier in the thread.
In spite of the Perry pushers’ efforts to glibly dismiss these legitimate concerns, everyone now knows that Rick Perry is not a conservative. Mitt Romney is not a conservative. They will be fighting over maybe 30% of the GOP primary vote.
Bachmann has a conservative voting record but no executive experience and lacks the ability to raise money and to really inspire her troops the way Palin does. Palin will overwhelm her in the conservative “mini-primary” and then dispatch whichever of the RINOs (Romney or Perry) is left standing).
Isn’t it just a little bit surreal to see the pundit class proclaiming a guy like Perry (who needed help to get renominated and reelected just last year) over the person (Palin) who provided the help that he himself crowed about as being so crucial. How dumb does can the chattering class be?
Dumb enough to stand and "does can" cheer for someone who isn't running.
“...everyone now knows that Rick Perry is not a conservative...”
Sarah Palin: “He (Perry) does what is right regardless of whether it is popular. He walks the walk of a true conservative...”
So either Sarah is a liar or an imbecile or you are. I’ll choose the latter.
I usually avoid getting into pissing match threads on FR about potential R candidates since I don't personally like to fight with FRiends, and I think it doesn't help the overall cause much to garner hostility within the ranks. I have my candidate that I wish to support, and once she decides to announce her candidacy I will do just that to the best of my abilities.
I've seen quite a bit of intramural hostilities in the past week or so over Governor Perry. I have to say that I am not that surprised. Here's why:
- we all agree that zero has been the absolute worst POTUS in our history
- we all agree that he needs to be removed from office in 2012 (or this country will be finished, never to be restored until a cataclysmic re-set occurs)
- out of all the announced R candidates to date, Perry seems to be the one that has come out with both guns blazing, taking the FIGHT directly to the target (un-apologetically)
- Perry has a lot of admirable qualities and a very admirable record (for the most part)
- Perry has some questionable positions and actions that raise the concern of a lot of Conservatives.
- we all know (at the same time) the danger of “holding your nose to vote for the rINO served up” and the danger of letting the “perfect be the enemy of the good.” (Heck, just setting a bit alone and trying to rationalize those two can give me a damn headache!)
Therefore, I can fully understand the zeal to get behind him and support him whole hog right from the start. At this point in time, he certainly appears to be the candidate with the best shot at unseating the evil that is currently in place. Hence, I believe a lot of folks are more than willing to “overlook” some of the question marks in his background record, that is natural (given the horrible situation that we have at the present). However, there is still a lot of time between now and election day 2012. There is no rush (at least to me) to declare 100% support to the bitter end of Perry, nor any other candidate. I think it would be wise for all of us to take a collective breath, and let all of the candidates be vetted as thoroughly as possible. (Sure, I know, easier said than done; I get it.)
To me, the root cause of why we have so much intramural hostility is because we have such EVIL in place now. (Let's face it and call a spade a spade, we are in the midst of an existential crisis right now!) We all want to be SURE that it gets removed, our collective lives depend on it! However, in doing so we need to be sure that OUR replacement is the CORRECT replacement; for this time, for this country's dire circumstance!