Posted on 09/06/2011 2:13:54 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A thousand homes and 100,000 acres have burned in just a week. A friend of mine who lives just outside Austin was forced to flee with her family last night as the flames encroached, and not until this afternoon did she learn whether her home had survived. (It had.) Go figure that this guy thinks he should do his job rather than gladhand people on the trail for a few days.
Presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he does not yet know whether he will attend Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate…
“I don’t know. That’s a fluid situation at the moment. Again I go back to we’re going to be taking care of the folks here … We’re really focused on the events at hand and the other side of that is we’re pretty good at multitasking,” said Perry on CBS’s “The Early Show” Tuesday…
“This is not the time to be talking about politics. There’s another 14 months ahead to talk politics. Right now I’m substantially more focused on making sure that these people … folks all across this state are being taken care of. Getting out of harms way, saving lives is the big issue for me right now,” Perry told CBS.
Serious question: Is there a single person whining at him for missing DeMint’s forum who wouldn’t also be whining if he had attended the forum that he had shirked his duties as governor?
“It’s obvious that Rick Perry is skipping the DeMint forum because he knew he was going to be asked tough questions about his previous support for gay marriage in New York, as well as his policies in Texas in favor of illegal immigration,” says one representative of a rival camp. “He’s looking for a reason to not actually be compared to the other candidates,” says an official in another camp. “He was grasping for a reason not to show.”
There are eight more debates scheduled before the Iowa caucuses, three of which will be held within the next 15 days. Plenty of opportunities left to quiz him about immigration, an issue on which he is in fact very vulnerable, and on gay marriage and the Tenth Amendment, which won’t hurt him at all given his appeal to evangelical leaders. Ultimately he’s the only one who suffers from having to miss these things since every absence gives Romney and Bachmann a chance to shine unhindered and to attack him without fear of retort. They may have no choice tomorrow night: According to NBC’s new poll, Perry leads Romney by fully 15 points, 38/23, with Bachmann a distant fourth (behind Ron Paul) at eight percent.
“Those fires have been burning for weeks and absences of a half day amount to nothing.”
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I’m insulted by your ignorance.
I was going to say - Hey - I heard he was attending.
And it came from his campaign staff.
Sound like he was looking for an out on the Demint event.
But it is early in the season, and there are plenty more debates to come.
Jenny Granholm did the right thing with our fires last summer. She took a look, declared it to be a job for the pros and went right back to screwing us.
I’m sorry but I don’t buy this sudden victim mentality coming out of Texas.
If Perry follows through on this EXCUSE and dodges the debate and look at him as a man who is not there because he is WEAK/AFRAID, because he is not prepared and because HE CAN NOT HANDLE A DEBATE.
Mark my words if Perry BAILS on the debate HE IS DONE. MULTITUDES of voters will simply write him off as a viable candidate for President because a PRESIDENT is capable of doing more than two things at once: handling an ongoing crisis while maintaining enough STRENGTH, MATURITY, SMARTS/WISDOM and COMPOSURE to also hold a debate, press conference, meetings dealing with other matters. The MSM will also use this EXCUSE to drum out the mantra that Perry is WEAK and not capable of being the president and Obama's reelection campaign will magnify this into a cacophony: Perry is not a prime time player.
Someone here on FR who is acquainted with Perry and his campaign staff had better pass the above along to him ASAP or he is TOAST should he decide to bail on the debate. No matter how bad the crisis is, Perry must be at the debate at all costs.
I agree. Not really a clear choice on this one.
It is tough right now in parts of Texas. I have a large fire 12 miles from where I live. It is 0% contained...lots of piney woods in it’s path. Has started jumping highways...my neighbor has been gone since yesterday fighting this fire. It is TOUGH...so for Perry to be in a debate with fires like this...I don’t think it is a good idea.
They weren’t burning for weeks. They got out of control over this past weekend due to Lee’s winds kicking things up.
That’s smart in more ways than one.
Do you guys read or listen?
He’s going to the debate. This is the 3rd or 4th time I have posted this.
Thank you for that. As you Palin backers continue to remind us - there's plenty of time.
He’s been overseeing requests for additional fire and emergency support, neighboring 911 units, and inter agency hot shot groups (specially trained and advanced wildfire containment crews) from all around the country to help the overburdened firefighters in Central Texas. I think he was too busy to care what people thought about him not going to the Palmetto Freedom Forum yesterday. However, it sounds like he has the extra support going now to give the fire fighters the opportunity to do their work effectively and win their battles with the flames which, in turn, gives him the opportunity to participate in the upcoming debate then.
If you are interested in what hot shot groups are, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotshot_crew (Kind of like special ops groups! LOL Really interesting!)
No, those fires hadn’t been burning for weeks. They were brand new ones not contained affecting residential areas.
And if he wasn’t that important why are all the people supporting people LOSING to him so eager to act like the Democrats do when a crisis arises in an attempt to score political points?
Here’s the reality. He’ll be at he debate if the fires are contained...NOT put out but contained.
If they are contained and he attends you’ll all whine about how he should have attended deMint’s forum (even though if he had you would have bashed him for not being home doing his job) and you’ll whine about how he shouldn’t leave Texas at all until they are extinguished then you’ll whine that he shoudn’t run for President at all unless he resigns his post because that worked soooo well for someone else. Once you complete all of these points you’ll then do your best to spin his performance at the debate as a failure at all levels even if he does well.
If he doesn’t attend you’ll say he’s ducking the debates, he’s a failure at a leader because he evidently doesn’t trust the Lt Gov to handle it and his ego is so big he thinks he needs to be there even though Governors really don’t play an important role in dissters they are just there for photo ops.
Have I about covered it? Oh, and don’t worry...I’m not taking it personally. This is the kind of sniping I expect from partisans but it’s still not going to push your favorite into the lead.
If you read this thread, you can see that there are going to be people who slam Perry if he skips the debate, and those who slam him if he goes - and those who will slam him either way. I think Perry will assess the situation tomorrow, and if there is nothing that demands his physical presence in Texas, he will go to the debate while keeping in touch with his staff. If things get worse overnight, or if there are some decisions that require his direct involvement (National Guard deployment, etc), then he might have to miss the debate. Too soon to tell, but the latest word is that he is planning to be at the debate.
No matter how bad the crisis is, Perry must be at the debate at all costs.
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Seriously? What if (God forbid) his (close family member) died?
Rick should skip the funeral and go off on a debate?
As a Texan, I submit to you that you do not understand the intensity of these fires that are still out of control.
If I were a Texan, I’d appreciate very much his decision to (maybe) not go. He is needed at home.
>>>Texas has no Lt Gov?
I’m sure they do - but now is not the time for this Governor to be away from home.
six months before the primary and his state is really suffering. Sounds like the right call.
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