Posted on 11/30/2011 9:11:54 AM PST by shield
. . . from a couple of months ago somehow escaped my notice (and perhaps not coincidentally,Jennifer Rubin’s) until today. It’s the highest, most unreserved praise for a politician I’ve ever read from the formidable mind of Ferguson in which he extols Rick Perry’s accomplishments in reforming the Texas higher education system. No other candidate in the field comes close to being as effective in taking on an entrenched establishment in the interest of taxpayers.
Perry’s admirers praise his sure-footedness—his ability to sense cultural trends before others do and turn them to his political advantage. He was the first national politician to ally himself to the Tea Party movement in 2009, a move that’s just now paying off. He caught the mounting anxiety among middle-income parents about college costs early on. Most American parents now say that a college degree will be essential for their children’s future success; at the same time, according to a new Pew Foundation poll, only 22 percent of Americans believe that most people can afford to send their kids to college. And 57 percent describe the quality of American higher education as “only fair” or “poor.” To address this anxiety Perry’s opponents offer more government subsidies, which in turn provide an incentive for schools to raise their prices—an attempt to douse the fire with gasoline. Perry’s ideas are cheaper, more comprehensive, more imaginative, and more likely to work.
It is simply mystifying that conservative voters are even countenancing the notion of sending Newt Gingrich — one of the primary architects of the status quo in DC today — to uproot the system that’s strangling the nation to death. And the idea that a political Slinky like Mitt Romney is going to do anything to upset the powers that be is laughable given his penchant for compromise.
Perry stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by the two current front-runners. As Ferguson points out, he has demonstrated an innate sense of what issues he can seize on in order to successfully institute badly needed reforms and he takes decisive action. Where he doesn’t succeed completely, he manages to make dramatic improvements that create momentum for further successful reforms down the road. Unlike Romney, Perry acknowledges the elephant in the room. And unlike Gingrich, he knows that you have to eat the elephant one bite at a time.
The challenges facing this country — fiscal and cultural — are going to require the kind of unapologetic leadership Mitt Romney has never shown the stomach for, and a steady, measured approach that the erratic and mercurial Gingrich is temperamentally incapable of applying. And while Romney and Gingrich may be better at articulating polished soundbites and meticulously crafted applause lines, Rick Perry can actually point to accomplishments as a man of deeds rather than words.
Now that Herman Cain seems to have finally dealt the coup de grâce to his own campaign, there’s still hope that the GOP primary electorate will give Rick Perry a second look as he steadily regains his footing. There’s still a month before the first votes are cast in the Iowa caucuses, and the complexion of the race can change dramatically in a very short period of time. Rick Perry has a great deal to point to in the way of accomplishment and has improved remarkably in his debate performances.
And maybe now that Cain has demonstrated beyond any doubt that it takes more than glibness and skillful presentation to be a successful presidential candidate, GOP primary voters will be able to place Rick Perry’s early struggles into their proper perspective and examine his undeniably successful stewardship over the state that managed to create millions of jobs and balance its budgets even as the nation as a whole remained locked in a spiral of debt and unemployment.
It's easy to get discouraged, but when the voting starts we will find out where we really are. The race will get down to Perry, Gingrich, Romney pretty quick. I don't know how much of the sex stuff is true with Cain, but that's not why he should be rejected. He's just terrible on the issues.
Yes, I agree. President isn’t an entry level job. Cain just does not have the ability to be POTUS. Character is also a big issue. 3 women? Why haven’t the others had women step forward, if that is what happens when you are running for president? As many of us have said, where there is smoke there is fire.
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