Posted on 09/18/2011 1:29:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CORPUS CHRISTI — Gov. Rick Perry is under attack for trying to prevent a cancer whose yearly death toll exceeds this nation’s 9/11 losses by more than a thousand. On this issue, we are compelled to defend him — an unfamiliar role — and to wonder whether the master politician hand-picked his attackers.
We speak, of course, of the other Republican presidential candidates and their assault on Perry’s 2007 executive order that all sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts. The order was soon overturned in a hail of criticism that it usurped parental control (though it included an opt-out), encouraged promiscuity and returned a favor to Perry contributor Merck.
Texans had pretty much put this episode behind them — even the ones who were most angry about it, perhaps because those predisposed to anger on this issue are predisposed to back Perry on most others. But along came the Republican presidential primary campaign, then later came Perry into that campaign after an extended theatrical hemming and hawing, only to snatch instant frontrunner-hood. The HPV issue is the best opportunity for the other candidates, especially extreme-right Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, to nip at Perry’s heels.
The governor’s connection to Merck and to the lobbyist who sought his support is undeniable. Perry’s opponents can charge cronyism with a degree of accuracy. He responded to a pitch for a commercial product, delivered by someone who had fast-track access to him. But since the product’s widespread use would be in the public’s best interest, it appears that Perry has chosen his cronies wisely.
As for the notion that the HPV vaccine would promote promiscuity, it’s hard to imagine a teenager deciding to have sex because she was vaccinated against HPV, or deciding against it because she hasn’t been.
Bachmann took it a step further, suggesting that the vaccine can cause mental retardation. She bases this on her account of a weeping mother telling her it happened to her daughter. The American Academy of Pediatrics responded that the HPV vaccine is safe and doesn’t cause mental retardation, based on science.
Now Perry is in the unfamiliar position of having both science and us on his side. He has said, repeatedly, that his method was wrong but his purpose — preventing cancer and saving lives — was right.
The attacks on Perry play well before a right-wing audience focused on limited-government principles. When the focus shifts to daughters — which at some point it will — this family-first audience will stop paying only lip service to putting family first, even if it means joining a science-believing audience on this one issue.
The HPV attacks, while appearing to hurt Perry’s chances of winning the nomination, will do much to dispel concerns that he’s too far right to win the general election. We have to wonder if Bachmann is part of a plan to enhance Perry’s electability.
His most viable opponent, Mitt Romney, did his part to help that cause.
While Romney agreed that Perry should have gone about the HPV issue differently, “I think his heart was in the right place.” This confirms the disputable theory that Perry has a heart. No other issue addressed by Perry thus far in the campaign suggests that he does. His nonchalant comment about the many executions under his watch, chillingly applauded during the California debate, suggested that he doesn’t.
So, in the long run, Perry’s HPV mistake will do him more good than harm. He looks manly, defiant and compassionate defending it. It lures people into his corner who usually aren’t, including us, and ultimately won’t chase away those who usually are.
This is the silliest liberal article I’ve ever read.
Glad to help.
Oh liberals will be a whole lot harder on the Governor than Bachmann if he gets the nomination. Even if they agree with him they will use whatever they can to make him sound like that sob TEA PARTY. Liberals in both parties feed off their abilities to TAX/Mandate US without representation.
(though it included an opt-out),
This was the end of this retarded ‘issue’ for me.
It seems that Perry is actually doing something the others in the race aren’t—he’s running a general campaign while the others are running a primary. Instead of the Nixon “run to the right in the primary and to the left in the general” Perry is positioning himself as someone who’s a lot more conservative than Obama, but he’s not one of ‘those wackos on the far-right’.
Bachmann is playing that role, and Perry is saying, “Hey, I’m on the right, but not THAT far right.”
Of course, this is where his immigration position comes in, and where my enthusiasm for him suddenly drops like a rock.
I should have included the sarcasm tag. Aw, shucks; I thought you were smart enough I didn’t need to do that.
So I guess I will have to be blunt. You keep pushing a governor for President who is corrupt. He plays politics to Power and frankly has a ‘For Sale’ sign hung around his neck.
It isn’t the fact he was pushing for vaccinations: it was the fact he was paid like whore to force it on Texas.
One can always find a good excuse for overextending the reach of government.
And Gov. Perry can use this article and all the others like it in the General Election to show his good sense and wide appeal to the electorate.
This paper is no friend to Rick Perry. It has a long and storied past of opposing conservatives and Governor Perry.
Government by good intentions. All is well,admirable, excusable and praiseworthy--even the crony capitalism--because it was intended for "the good". (It's for children. It's against cancer.) It is the core rationale of Leftist governing philosophy in a nutshell.
I don't know which is sadder--the argument itself, or the fact that this is posted on a conservative web site by a conservative with the intent to defend a supposedly conservative candidate.
And the idea that a Gardasil vaccination promotes promiscuity defies logic. If the only way you think you can keep your children from having pre-marital sex is by scaring them about diseases and then refusing to inoculate them against those diseases, your parent card should be revoked.
DID you forget what the liberals said the next election was going to be to do... Hoffa in Detroit? They are in a fit of rage NOT over a Governor executing a mandate. They are in a fit of rage over the sob TEA PARTY. AND do you fully comprehend what the TEA PARTY represents. Stop 'taxation without representation'. The most they can do with this story is to demonstrate Perry's commitment to that idea.
This is not, despite what Saint Sarah says, an example of crony capitalism. If, at the time, there had been two companies offering the same vaccine, and Perry had chosen the one represented by a close acquaintence, the accusation might be accurate.
But that wasn't the case. Merck was the only provider. The mere fact of doing business with someone you know is not always "crony capitalism". The term implies showing favoritism to one company over another.
Gardasil stops many prominent strains of HPV, but has not been proven to stop all of them. It still might be possible through indiscriminate sexual behavior to get a cancer-causing strain of HPV in spite of Gardasil. And Gardasil can’t put a condom on anybody’s heart.
Gardasil ought to be something left to the choice of parents, and not used to inflate insurance premiums. No matter how nice or well intended, a nanny state is still a nanny state.
I rather agree; this sort of vaccine should only come up when the kids hit high school and only then after a long and serious discussion and research. There is no way that little kids should get injected while they’re in middle school anyway. Besides, if some FREepers homeschool, their kids won’t be exposed to the dangers of sexual promicuity will they?
Gov. Perry is the top executive of a border state that has a 1250 mile INTERNATIONAL border that he's repeatedly asked help to secure (even tried to personally hand Obama a letter detailing the problem and asking for federal help as Obama exited Air Force One on a fundraiser to Austin, TX. A letter that he would not take and that Valerie Jarret accepted in a dismissive gesture on the tarmac).
The state of Texas spends $100M yearly from state funds, using among other things an elite Texas Ranger force to try to secure our long border with Mexico. Rick Perry wants and has asked for drones in the air and boots on the ground (but not a fence except in urban areas where it helps).
The Federal government with it's social engineering, it's public school "don't ask for a child's U.S. citizen status" dictate, and their continued inaction on this, have put Texas in the position of resorting to working the problem as it relates to the state. So the children of illegal immigrants who have attended a minimum 3 years of high school in Texas and graduated (who want go on the college) - who are working toward citizenship, they are allowed to pay in-state tuition. This makes them more likely to contribute to the state economy than take from it. This is a big help because Texas pays a lot of money on education and health care costs due to the current federal inaction of securing the border.
I think a President Perry would have the brains and fortitude and the credibility, to finally do something about this -- no one else will. Gov. Perry has said that the border MUST BE SEALED before any talk of "where do we go next" will take place -- he said he will not repeat the cycle that keeps occurring.
[excerpt] .....The science shows that in order for this vaccine to work it needs to be administered before a person becomes sexually active. According to a statement released by the American Academy of Pediatrics following the media uproar after Bachmann’s comments, they “recommend that girls receive [the] HPV vaccine around age 11 or 12. That’s because this is the age at which the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body, and because it’s important to protect girls well before the onset of sexual activity.”
That recommendation was echoed by the CDC and American Academy of Family Physicians.
Please note, it was me who italicized the statement’s words “well before” to emphasize that science isn’t encouraging little girls to start being sexually active earlier. Knowing that’s been the objection for some opposed to this vaccine, I wanted to make the demarcation between science and morality even clearer.
Let’s continue with the facts, especially with regard to Bachmann’s baseless assertion about the effects of giving the vaccine, and add what the AAP [American Academy of Pediatrics] had to say:..........[end excerpt]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2779729/posts
Yes. It’s a manufactured “outrage.”
If I might ask, who is your candidate?
And, are you against childhood vaccines in general?
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