Posted on 09/02/2011 10:53:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Sure, he polls well, but can he debate?
The polls keep looking better and better for Rick Perry, despite this week’s provocative headline in Politico, “Is Rick Perry Dumb?” Dumb or not, it sure seems to be working.
On Monday, a CNN/ORC International poll of Republicans and independent voters who lean Republican found that Perry’s still on top, with 27 percent of Republicans nationwide supporting him for the nomination. Romney’s in second with 14 percent. A poll released Tuesday from Public Policy Polling showed Perry leading among likely Republican primary voters in South Carolina with 36 percent, a full 20 points ahead of Mitt Romney. This shouldn’t be too surprising considering that Perry chose the Palmetto State to announce his official candidacy. I bet Romney’s ahead in Utah.
Not to be outdone by the furious polling conducted by CNN and PPP of every Republican-leaning household in the world, Quinnipiac University released its own national poll Wednesday showing that Perry is the first choice for 26 percent of Republican voters, followed by Romney at 20 percent. But there is some good news for Romney. He has a favorability rating of 57 percent compared to Perry’s 44 percent. Both candidates are running about even with President Obama, although on Thursday Rasmussen Reports showed Perry with a small edge over Obama, 44 to 41 percent. Likeability is clearly not a factor here.
So what should we make of Perry’s strong showing in the polls? Is he unstoppable? Or will he crack during next Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate? The debate, hosted by NBC News and Politico, will be held (naturally) at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. If you’ve ever seen Perry debate (a rare treat, as he avoids them at all costs), you’ll know this isn’t his strongest forum. There will be no bales of hay to casually place his cowboy boot upon. There will be no tea party crowd to whisper sweet nothings of secession and deportation to. There won’t be any snubbing of the media, since this is sponsored by the media and that would just be awkward. The governor is actually going to have to answer questions and acknowledge the other candidates. Perry doesn’t like sharing the stage, unless it’s with Ted Nugent.
Baby Got Backers
Fresh on the heels of receiving the coveted endorsement of one-time semi-celebrity gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, who was apparently trying to remind people of his existence, Perry got another key endorsement this week—that of influential evangelical leader Rick Scarborough. Scarborough, the founder of Vision America, told TIME that he would be making his case to other social conservatives. “That’s not to say Rick Perry is Jesus because he is not,” Scarborough said. “But when you look at his full body of work, he’s been the best governor we’ve ever had.” So, kind of like Jesus.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) also endorsed Perry, the first U.S. senator to do so in the 2012 primary. Inhofe told NBC News that Perry’s “gubernatorial experience, personal profile, and good looks” make him the candidate to beat. At least until Sarah Palin enters the race. She’s much better looking.
False Security
Meanwhile Perry is doing his best to piss off those already-cranky seniors by taking even more shots at Social Security. On a campaign stop in Iowa Saturday, he repeated accusations in his book, Fed Up!, that the program is unconstitutional and amounts to a “Ponzi scheme” for young people. “The idea that they’re working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie,” he said. Later Perry reasserted that he hadn’t backed off any of the claims in his book. “So read the book again and get it right,” he told the crowd, thereby assuming that anyone read it in the first place.
How to Ruin Perry’s Day…
…take away his sonogram law.
This week a federal judge in Austin found that several portions of the law, which requires sonograms for any woman seeking to obtain an abortion, were “unconstitutionally vague” and violate the First Amendment. The preliminary injunction issued by the court blocks the state from enforcing penalties against either the doctor or the woman. The law was to take effect on September 1. Of course, Perry can always blame it on that activist judge and the pesky First Amendment that got in the way. Nothing like red meat for the base.
I laughed reading it.
She likes a night of heavy drinking too and still getting to work. LOL
And writes like a Valley Girl.
How or why should we fear these nuts?
Good quote, but as usual the problem with Perry is the gulf between what he says and what he does.
He says he is tall and strong on border issues. Bull hockey, and posters to FR have proved it.
He says he is foursquare for the family. Oh, really?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/2771851/posts
The basic problem with Rick Perry as a popular choice for conservatives is that he's working for someone else: a very short list of someone else. He is an unflawed, unexcelled example of access-capitalist, Pigs at the Trough Republicanism as opposed to Main Street Republicanism:
http://www.followthemoney.org/press/ReportView.phtml?r=451
If Perry were a solid MOR centrist RiNOsceroid Republican but did what he said he was going to do, he would be a better candidate than what he is: A candidate who performs for a small "audience" of multimillionaires exclusively, to transact their agenda in return for campaign money, while hiding behind fig leaves of policy statements and articulating high principles that have nothing to do with his real reasons for supporting this or that real measure, law, or program.
IF you'd rather NOT be pinged FReepmail me.
IF you'd like to be added FReepmail me. Thanks.
You-are-exactly-right bump.
It's always been about an Article IV attack on the Constitution. Six hundred homosexual lawyers have been working on this attack since the early 80's, when the Texas law was first attacked in a north Texas courtroom forum-shopped by gay NGO's because it was presided over by Carter-appointed uberliberal judge Jerry Buchmeyer.
Evan Wolfson, then of Lambda Legal, laid it all out in an interview article with a gay e-zine ten years ago, after Lambda and all the gay NGO's lost a big lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America, the James Dale case, which Lambda had brought in New Jersey, forum-shopping again because their state (McGreevey, e.g.) was known to have lots of power gays and their supreme court was intellectually and morally "available". Sure enough, New Jersey fell their way, but the Supreme Court clubbed down the gays, ruling that the BSA is a private organization entitled to free association, which may or may not include homosexual, ephebophile perverts as the BSA sees fit.
Wolfson laid it out: Get homosexual marriage transacted "somehow" in one State, and the door would then be open to the Supreme Court for a Full Faith and Credit Clause (Article IV) attack on the marriage laws of the other 49 States of the Union.
In short, the gays always planned to beat down the other 97% of the People with court decisions, never asking them through the legislative process. To date, no election or referendum has ever sustained the gay activists, and they don't care. Their way or the highway, they're taking everybody to court.
Everything from Texas is big....The problem is the last to “big” texans have been BIG piles of cow dung.....
Immigration:
Advocated for and eventually signed a stringent voter ID law
Pushed for anti-sanctuary city law
August, 2010: Perry asks Obama for 1,000 additional National Guard troops on border
Perry sends Whitehouse $350 million bill for cost of illegal immigration
Advocates the use of unmanned drones to patrol border
Gay Marriage:
One leg or two, she sure is a snarky b*tch.
No. She did not. In fact, her speech tomorrow is supposed to rip him a new one, without naming him directly. That is, if you believe leaks...
See? The problem with all of that is like Romney, it is the words of the moment when the actions of the past do not jive.
Perry: "President Fox’s vision for an open border is a vision I embrace."
What I like about Perry is that antilife people are calling him antichoice.
What I don’t like about Perry is his tuition for illegals’ position.
There are more likes, and dislikes, but that’s enough at this late hour.
He seems a lot like Bush 43, but I do think he will spend less, and be tougher than Bush.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.