Free Republic

Texas Gov. Rick Perry originally endorsed Newt Gingrich as the top candidate after dropping out of the Republican presidential race. But with Gingrich set to quit the campaign trail, Perry on Wednesday evening gave his support to the probable nominee, Mitt Romney. "Mitt Romney has earned the Republican presidential nomination through hard work, a strong organization, and [a] disciplined message of restoring America after nearly four years of failed job-killing policies from President [Barack] Obama and his administration," Perry said in a statement provided to FOX News Channel. "So today I join the many conservative Republicans across the nation in...

[Snip] ...He whined that the debate audience wouldn’t be able to cheer him. He then grumped that audience was stacked against him when it didn’t cheer him. He spends endless hours complaining about Mitt Romney’s ads and debate triumph — lies, lies, all lies, he tells us. His spokesperson R.C. Hammond, like his boss, labels opponents “liars.” Gingrich complains that he failed in his debate because his principal opponent — you guessed it — was telling untruths. (Not a very good debater then, is he?) He says that he’ll trail President Obama demanding his Lincoln-Douglas-style debate, but his campaign flunky...

He should have delayed a month, or a month and a half. Was it the decision to schedule back surgery on July 1, putting Perry’s physical recovery on a collision course with a grueling schedule of fundraisers and campaign events? Was it the failure to prepare better for debates that soon turned disastrous? Was it simply a matter of getting in the race too late? Perry’s own string of verbal goofs, probably some of the worst in modern American political history, were so crippling that it is questionable whether any paid professionals could have pulled him out of the ditch....

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Rick Perry’s withdrawal and perfectly timed endorsement of Newt Gingrich on Thursday probably will help the former House speaker pick up a percentage point or two in South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday, political analysts predict. The Perry endorsement, coupled with the news that the final count in Iowa showed Mitt Romney actually lost the Jan. 3 caucuses to Rick Santorum, brightened what could have been a much tougher day on the campaign trail for Mr. Gingrich, who is again facing questions about his personal history of marital infidelity. But the Texas governor’s carefully chosen words of...

Everyone of the candidates except Mitt Romney is getting the Drudge Report Treatment.

I’m told reliably that Governor Perry will head up a 10th Amendment project for Speaker Gingrich to rally Governors and state legislators toward a plan of devolving power from Washington. This project will include helping shape the Republican platform for the general election. Governor Perry will also campaign for Speaker Gingrich in Texas.

Waiting on Perry to take podium any moment! He will endorse Newt!

Perry to End Bid for Presidency By JEFF ZELENY 9:51 a.m. | Updated CHARLESTON, S.C. — Gov. Rick Perry of Texas will end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich, two campaign officials confirmed, a decision that could influence the South Carolina primary on Saturday

Rick Perry is, by most accounts, a good governor of Texas. He was elected first in 2002 and has been re-elected twice, since. That is no small feat and is a good indication that he is a capable administrator of a complex state with a population about three-quarters that of Canada’s. But as a Republican candidate for president, the man has been a doofus.

You hear that sound? Of course you do. It’s a dog whistle. I’m told that we conservatives (read: racists) use dog whistles all the time to clandestinely run down members of minority groups and others with whom we disagree. It is fascinating, I will concede, that the people we use these coded messages to badmouth—blacks, Latinos, etc.—often seem more adept at hearing the high-frequency whistles than we do. Why, just today, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee became the latest member of the Congressional Black Caucus to call out Newt Gingrich for the “underlying suggestions” in his reference to Barack Obama as...

.............."People are very frightened, not just about current conditions, but the future of this country for their children, grandchildren and the $15 trillion worth of debt. I ask people if you were better off today than you were $4 trillion ago … and people get it." Snip VIDEO -- discusses Tax System. “We can’t fire the nominee in September, because by then it will be too late,” he said, adding, “If we’ve got a flawed candidate that’s going forward and someone who is gonna get eaten alive, either because of business practices or because of their taxes or the system...

..."It doesn't surprise me but it's again -- the president's focused more on the next election than on the next generation. "Getting this country independent of foreign sources of crude from countries that are not our friends is really problematic. So this Canadian oil, there's a possibility we could lose it to China with that decision so I hope Americans will really become unhinged with that decision because it is a really bad decision for our country, for energy independence and sends a horrible message at a time that were headed to $4 and $5 oil or excuse me $4...

[snip] "Here’s the quotation that’s getting the most attention: “Rick Santorum is a good man. He is a good father. He is a good Catholic. But he hasn’t always been a good conservative. And I make exceptions with his vote for Sonya Sotomayor as a for instance. That is a really liberal jurist that he helped put on track to become a Supreme Court jurist back when he voted to allow her to be on the Appellate Court. I mean, she is pro-abortion, would be my estimation of that. I mean, Obama is a very liberal president and she is...

A federal appeals court in Virginia today denied an emergency request by Republican presidential hopefuls Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich to be placed on the ballot for the Virginia primary. After failing to get the required 10,000 signatures necessary to be placed on the ballot, the two candidates argued that Virginia’s strict ballot law was unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed with a lower court and ruled today that the candidates had waited too long to file their suit. The court ruled unanimously that Perry and the other candidates “had every...

From Public Policy Polling, this is really bad news for Rick Perry -- although at this point it cannot be unexpected: Rick Perry's Presidential campaign is doing about as bad in Texas now as it is everywhere else in the country. When PPP last polled the state in September he was at 49%, leading Mitt Romney by 39 points. Now Perry's support has declined by 31 points, leaving him in 3rd place at 18%. Mitt Romney at 24% and Newt Gingrich at 23% lead the way with Rick Santorum at 15%, Ron Paul at 12%, and Buddy Roemer at 0%...

For Turkey, busy riding an economic boom and preoccupied with soccer scandals and revolutionary shifts across its borders, the race for the U.S. Republican nomination hasn’t exactly been a box office draw. Until Tuesday, that is … Late Monday, Texas governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry said that Turkey was governed by “what many perceive to be Islamic terrorists,” and should be booted out of NATO. The governor’s remarks, made during the Fox News Channel and Wall Street Journal GOP debate in South Carolina, came in response to a question from the moderator over whether Turkey still belonged in...

Austin to get $11.7M in sales tax revenue Austin will collect $11.7 million in sales tax revenue from the state this month for sales that took place in November, up 6.2 percent from the same period last year, according to data released by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. State sales tax revenue was $1.98 billion, up 9.5 percent compared to November 2010 sales. “Sales tax revenue continues to grow in almost all major economic categories and revenue has now increased for 21 consecutive months,” Combs said. Sales taxes from retail trade and restaurant activity continue to improve and tax revenue from...

....[Gov. Rick] Perry's comments put him at odds with Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said the images could damage the war effort. "The Marine Corps prides itself that we don't lower ourselves to the level of the enemy," McCain said when asked about Perry's position. "So it makes me sad more than anything else, because ... I can't tell you how wonderful these people (Marines) are. And it hurts their reputation and their image." No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for...

An exclusive InsiderAdvantage poll released Sunday night shows GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney gaining in his lead in the South Carolina primary while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is holding steady in second place. In the poll of 720 likely registered voters in South Carolina GOP Primary, Romney was leading with 32 percent of the vote. Gingrich was second with 21 percent followed by Ron Paul with 14 percent. The rundown: * Romney: 32% * Gingrich: 21% * Paul: 14% * Santorum: 13% * Huntsman: 6% * Perry: 5% * Other: 2% * Undecided/ No opinion: 7% “The poll is among...

AUSTIN - Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Sunday that he is undaunted by his failure to win the backing of leading social conservatives and expressed confidence that he can still rally conservative voters in Saturday's South Carolina primary with his message of job creation and economic recovery. ....Perry was unapologetic about describing front-runner Mitt Romney's business activities as "vulture" capitalism, despite criticism from a number of leading Republicans, who warned that Democrats could exploit Perry's use of the term if Romney becomes the nominee. Perry said the issue of job creation and Romney's record at Bain Capital is certain to...