Posted on 10/01/2011 3:28:03 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
If Texas Gov. Rick Perry isn’t the un-Romney that the Republican base craves, who, oh who, will it be?
If Perry cedes the un-Romney label – and the nomination – you can carbon-date the moment when his campaign’s decomposition began: Sept. 22, 2011, between 9-11 p.m. EDT. That’s when the Texas governor stumbled through one of the worst debate performances in memory.
Weekly Standard editor William Kristol called Perry’s flubs close to “disqualifying.” Red State blogger Erick Erickson said he was a “train wreck.” The New York Post’s John Podhoretz deemed Perry’s performance: “Awful. Just awful.” Brit Hume of Fox News went the gross-out route, saying Perry “really did throw up all over himself.” And those are his friends speaking.
Talk of Perry’s debate fiasco jumped from the tiny world of political insiders into the mainstream of late-night television comedy, generating ridicule, including an appearance on David Letterman’s Top 10 list.
Yet even before the latest debate, Perry was fodder for jokes. Watching him over the past three weeks, party operatives in Washington had begun either praying for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to enter the race or reconciling themselves to the view that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the best the party can muster in 2012.
Perry didn’t just insert his foot in his mouth; he inserted a wedge between his candidacy and the Republican base. Defending his policy of allowing children of illegal immigrants to attend state colleges at the cheaper, in-state tuition rate, Perry sounded as if he thought his party is still home to George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatives.
“If you say that we should not educate children who come into our state for no other reason than that they’ve been brought there through no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart,” Perry said.
Republican pollster Frank Luntz said Republicans he assembled for a focus group responded so viscerally to Perry’s immigration talk that they couldn’t turn their dials to negative fast enough.
Iowa kingmaker Bob Vander Plaats, who helped former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee win the Iowa Republican caucuses last time around, said he was sure Perry would take the opportunity to clarify his stance at an appearance the next day before the Florida Conservative Political Action Convention.
Perry didn’t. As a result, Vander Plaats told Time, a lot of conservatives who once ran toward Perry are now “running to somebody else.”
As if to confirm Vander Plaats’ assessment, the Florida CPAC straw poll last weekend was won by pizza entrepreneur Herman Cain, who received 37 percent of the 2,600 votes cast by party activists. Perry, who was expected to win or at least make a strong showing, had 15 percent; Romney received 14 percent.
Immigration is not an issue Perry can finesse; if he holds to his position on in-state tuition, he will alienate much of the Republican base. If he retreats, he opens himself up to charges that he lacks conviction.
A pattern may already be established. At the last debate, Perry tried to wiggle away from his claim that Social Security is “unconstitutional.” Romney, the flip-flop king, gleefully clobbered the Texan for shifting his views.
Perry’s vulnerabilities extend beyond the border he so regularly invokes. When the debate turned to foreign policy, Perry looked far out at sea. Responding to a predictable question about the proverbial 3 a.m. phone call – in this scenario the Taliban had gained control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons – Perry was positively Palinesque.
He began by mumbling about a terrorist group in Afghanistan, mentioned building a “relationship in the region” and then said something about selling more arms to India. By the time Perry’s meandering had concluded, he found himself 3,000 miles east of Islamabad – in Taiwan.
After three debates in which parts of the country not named Texas have been exposed to him, Perry’s appeal has diminished and the quality of his performance has declined. The debates have revealed that Perry is neither consistently conservative enough to satisfy the tea party activists driving the nomination from below, nor sufficiently presidential to mollify the establishment hovering nervously above. And his mind is a muddle.
Yet there is no one waiting in the wings. Those begging Christie to jump in will almost certainly be disappointed – in part because Christie is self-aware and observant enough to know that his path to the nomination would probably prove no easier than Perry’s.
Sarah Palin? It’s not clear that even the base is interested in her.
Still, there must be an un-Romney. Until Republicans find one, Romney remains the only electable Republican in sight.
She had to get two digs in on Gov. Palin in an article about Governors Perry and Romney. Hmmmmmmmm.....
trashing Perry is not limited to the Left.
Hello media! Anybody out there?
CAN YOU HEAR ME KNOW!!!!!!!!
CAIN/RUBIO 2012
Weak losing RINOs?
NO MORE RINOs.
Works for me.
Margaret Carlson as a good leftist probably thinks she’s helping Perry by dissing him, thinking Republicans will rally around him to defend him from the left.
Don’t worry Margaret, Rick isn’t going away anytime soon. There are powerful financial interests in favor of cheap Mexican labor and open borders and they will ensure that Rick’s campaign is flush with cash even if the grass roots abhors his position.
It was a bad debate for Rick but if Sarah doesnt get in, who is better?
Perry- bad on illigration, thinks like a liberal
Newt- great conservative debater (plays one on TV at least) but global warming, dedee, etc
Romney- Obamnycare, flipflopper, chameleon
Cain is really the best choice now, but we need Sarah to get in there
Or, how about someone whose conservative creds have already been tested; who knows his way around the traps and snares; and who should have your respect already. Haven’t we seen enough of OJT?
I’m supporting Santorum, I know what he stands for, I know how he rolls.
ITEM Perry was anticipating the triumphal moment when he would be able to nail flip-flopper Romney ---and had prepared for the moment. This was Perry's response: “I think Americans just don’t know sometimes which Mitt Romney they’re dealing with. Is it the Mitt Romney that was on the side of — against the Second Amendment before he was for the Second Amendment? Was it — was before — he was before the social programs from the standpoint of — he was for standing up for Roe versus Wade before he was against first — Roe versus Wade? Him — he was for Race to the Top. He’s for Obamacare and now he’s against it. I mean, we’ll wait until tomorrow and — and — and see which Mitt Romney we’re really talking to tonight.”
ITEM Perry’s response to what he’d do if the White House phone rang at 3 AM informing him that the Taliban had gotten control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons was equally inchoherent.
PERRY: “Well, obviously, before you ever get to that point, you have to build a relationship in that region. And that’s one of the things that this administration has not done. Just yesterday we found out through Admiral Mullen that Haqqani has been involved with — and that’s the terrorist group directly associated with the Pakistani country — so to have a relationship with India, to make sure that India knows that they are an ally of the United States.”
Perry went on to tell a story about how the Obama administration wouldn’t sell upgraded F-16 fighters to India, which n-e-v-e-r happened.
ITEM Perry's candidacy-ending response was when he thumbed his nose at his country and its citizenry, saying those who disagreed with him on in-state tuition are "heartless." The inference was that only Perry was Truly Worthy (b/c only he had sucked up to Mexico).
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Summing up......it's likely Perry derailed b/c serious questions have been raised WRT whether he has the intellect to be president.
Perry has a complete lack of presidential gravitas — he has an odd way of ending his responses, cocking his head in an almost mechanical way, posing with a smug, self-satisfied grin (as if he had just paged through the vast holdings he's accumulated in Texas politics).
He is known for skipping debates in Texas and Texans let him get away with it time and time again. Perry's contempt for 2012 voters was complete when he could not even bother to present himself as an electable candidate.
Yeah, Perry had a bad debate performance. So I guess its time we toss aside the best conservative candidate with the best conservative executive governing record on the GOP side in a generation and settle for the establishment choice or one of the second tier wannabees.
Guess some think it makes sense to choose the ultimate two-faced, unprincipled political chameleon of all time. The liberal RINO, Mitt Romney. Or may be we need to choose a well intentioned businessman who likes affirmative action and quotas, but who lost his first and only race for public office in 2004. Perhaps we need to pick a half baked Minnesota Congresswoman who went from being the darling of so many, to a mean spirited demagogue now falling like a rock. May be we should all coalesce around the has-beens, Newt or Santorum. We could watch them every other night on Greta's Fox show, On the Record.
Decisions, decisions.
Pa leeez! Rick Perry has merely demonstrated that he’s just not ready for prime time.
If Perry isn’t ready for prime time then neither is Willard, Herman, Michelle, Newty, Ricky and JonnyBoy or the other wannabee’s, libertarian kooks, Gary and Ronpaul.
Please everyone, ignore the elephant in the room which is Perry’s own record.
Nice write-up. I do pretty good myself...but you outclassed me.
Your post makes perfect sense to me. I’m just not gettin’ this whole anti-Perry thing. People here treat him worse than they treat obama. They guy governed the most conservative sate in the country for a decade for heaven’s sake.
Glad you liked it.
“Your post makes perfect sense to me. I’m just not gettin’ this whole anti-Perry thing. People here treat him worse than they treat obama. They guy governed the most conservative sate in the country for a decade for heaven’s sake.”
Yes, he has governed the most conservative state in the nation...but as a MODERATE, and border-line liberal when it comes to immigration. That’s why we’re so mad at him...I’ve been here in Texas and he hasn’t lifted a finger on immigration (i.e., E-Verify, Sanctuary Cities, and lots more)...and has just made things worse (Dream Act).
If we had a conservative as governor, Alabama and Arizona wouldn’t be running circles around us when it comes to dealing with illegals. What has gotten us angry is that people from elsewhere in the country automatically assume that since he’s governor of Texas, and a Republican, then he MUST be conservative. Not true in our case.
ditto.
Clinton plays golf with obama. Clinton comes out strong today defending obama. Biden blames economy on obama, not Bush. What that tells me is that a desperate obama is going to throw Biden under the bus and put Hillary on the ticket for 2012. In just three years he’s changed military policy on gays, changed the definition of marriage and ruined our economy. Imagine what he can do with four more years? My gut tells me Perry is the man to beat them.
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