Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry remains one of the front-runners for the Republican Presidential Nomination, and depending on who you ask, many think he'll get it. John Sharp, the recently confirmed Chancellor of Texas A&M University who ran against Perry in the 1998 general election for Lieutenant Governor, gave his take on the race while visiting Texas A&M- San Antonio on Tuesday. "It's a full time deal running against Rick Perry, and anybody who sells him short is an idiot, because it will be a tough campaign," Sharp said. Sharp has known Perry since his college days, where...

COLLEGE STATION — When Rick Perry arrived at Texas A&M University in 1968, it was at the end of a summer in which Soviet troops crushed the Prague Spring, protesters at the Democratic National Convention were met by a police riot and the United States reeled from the twin assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. With its conservative culture, military tradition and focus on agriculture, few places in the U.S. might have seemed more insulated from the prevailing currents of the age. But A&M was in the midst of its own political awakening. Facing falling enrollment,...

Jul 20, 2011 — Will the Texas governor elbow his way into the crowded presidential race? Longtime Perry watcher Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune talks about why he thinks Perry will run and what kind of candidate he'd be. [snip] We spoke with the Texas Tribune's Evan Smith about the man he has followed since the early 1990s. A former editor of Texas Monthly magazine, Smith says he's convinced Perry will make a run at the White House, and tells us why other Republican hopefuls should be worried.

Donald Matocha balked when his sister Linda asked him to be godfather to her soon-to-be-born son. He was being ordered to Vietnam with a reconnaissance unit, Matocha warned, and his chances of returning home to Smithville were not good. Unfazed, his sister stuck with her decision. Months later, on April 5, 1968, the young Marine was killed in action. Thus, Wayne Masur never met his uncle. But even after death, the Marine fulfilled the mentoring obligations of a godfather. The stories family members told made it seem Matocha never had died. "He was very caring of others," Masur, now 36,...

Ag wins Jeopardy! College Championship By MARGOT DENNEY Eagle Staff Writer Jeopardy! College Champion winner Kyle Hale poses after winning the special edition of the gameshow. The answer was: one of the two planets not represented in composer Gustav Holst’s 1916 work The Planets. If you’re Texas A&M University senior Kyle Hale, who works as music director at Aggie student radio station KANM, the question was easy: “What is Pluto?” And with that, the 20-year-old political science major from Katy won the 2002 Jeopardy! College Championship in an episode of the popular game show that aired Friday. The final round...