Posted on 09/17/2011 12:46:44 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
ATLANTIC, Iowa — There are only a few things voters here say they know about Rick Perry.
They know he’s been governor for a while.
They know Texas is a big state with a lot of jobs.
They know Perry has a reputation for being brash and talking frankly.
And, after casting about for just the right Republican to take on President Obama, they know, for now, that he may be the one.
“I can’t quite explain it,” said Steve Bennett, 59, who sized up Perry the other night over a plate of roasted turkey and green beans. “He’s thick-skinned, he’s already run a big state. Whatever his beliefs are, which I don’t know yet, I think he actually believes them and has convictions. He’s the only one who can sit with Obama at the debate — when Obama’s in full campaign mode he’ll be tough to beat — and maybe beat him.”
So it is that Republican voters, at least those Iowans who took stock of Perry this week, are turning conventional wisdom on its head.
The thinking goes that the more measured and moderate Mitt Romney can appeal to a broader swath of independent voters. But Republicans here say it’s Perry who can best challenge Obama, expose him for the fraud they believe the president to be. They see Perry’s fed-up-with-Washington message as theirs and one that can take him straight to the White House.
....Carole Doane, 55, who is unemployed, arrived at a Newton coffee shop Friday morning hoping to see another Ronald Reagan — “sunny and uplifting and personable and dignified, somebody who’s experienced and has humility.”..
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
bump.
Thick skinned, a conservative with convictions and a great retail politician to boot.
Looking back over the list of major GOP candidates we’ve had to choose from, compared to the list of moderates like GHWB, Bob Dole, Dubya, McCain and now Romney, Perry is a nice change of pace.
Other than the jobs record of TX, which he can point to, what are Perry’s strengths that will get the independents to vote for him?
While his jobs record is a major plus, what other accomplishments can he list? I ask this as a tentative Perry supporter whose primary concern is that the GOP wins in 2012.
Bingo! That's exactly why Perry has this in the bag, when I saw the entire focus group after the 2nd debate basically same that same thing, nearly verbatim, I knew Perry had this.
I see you’re still pimping St. Rick...
actually, that’s quite easy.
When you are a big states rights supporter, you can be perceived as more moderate on any issue you wish, just by saying that particular decision should be left to the people of such and such state to decide.
Pick nearly any issue, and you can use the states rights argument to make yourself look more moderate (this also works for libertarians, like Paul)
Perry wants personal savings accounts, which is the basically the same platform Bush won on 2 times, but was never able to push through.
Correcting the typos:
But that’s the problem. Perry has argued this about SS but it’s not going to wash with the Indies. If SS was administered by the states, what would happen to pensioners in say, Mississippi, if that state decided it didn’t have enough money to pay SS? Would they move to CA? I think Perry dug himself a hole on this argument, and it’s going to be used against him.
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Rick is no Saint. correct.
But Rick is a Texan.
I live 15 miles from his parents, and know both of them. Both his family and my family have lived/farmed in this county for well over 100 years.
I was a delegate to the Texas State Republican Convention when he ran for the first time on his own (without W). I cast my ballot for him then and each time since.
He has taken a couple of bone headed positions, but overall has been a good Governor of Texas.
I have never met Rick (he is a few years younger than I am). But yesterday I bought his book “Fed Up” and have barely started reading it. I am not one of his cheer leaders, but he was a yell leader at A&M and I suspect he does not need a cheer leader.
That was because of RINO Karl Rove....now I wish he’d had the same trump up charges against him as whats his name did. Maybe, if he’d had some jail time he’d not turned into such a RINO.
The article is full of positive adjectives from Iowans that
reinforce the tough , unafraid of a fight,
kind of guy Perry is.
He doesn’t back down.
This week’s Time magazine interview had the media and no doubt the Republican establishment all agitated.
Because Perry..gasp..repeated his charges
“ that Obama’s policies are socialist.”
Romney on the other hand, went all Mr Rogers
and rejected Perry’s charge,
telling Wolf Blitzer that
“I don’t use the word socialism and I haven’t so far,” Romney said.
MSNBC found something Romney had written previously
in which he did say that Obama’s policies
were taking the country towards socialism.
Geez.
I don’t have faith that if Romney is the nominee ,
he won’t cave
whenever it comes to criticizing Obama.
Just like McCain.
Perry calls a spade a spade.
Romney will dance around and say it’s a garden tool used to move earth.
Sometimes it’s small, sometimes it has a handle.
And it’s ok if someone prefers to use a shovel, instead.
The country is starving for someone to speak the truth plainly and loudly...even brusquely. Enough of the PC baloney.
America is hungry for a real American as President!
I'll drop a few links for you to look over. And thanks for asking.
Rick Perry’s Air War (with the EPA)...........>>>Texas alone opted for the unfriendly approach. It’s the only state that did not issue a plan for compliance—and Perry has made it clear that Texas has no intention of complying. The move was a blatant slap to the Obama administration—and once again gave Perry the national spotlight. Defying the climate rules offered him the perfect opportunity to loudly decry the science of global warming—which in his book Fed Up! he calls a “contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight”—and to slam EPA as a “rogue agency” with an “activist mind-set” that has “targeted Texas.” Such rhetoric is viral catnip to the tea party voters who could help catapult Perry to the 2012 presidential nomination.<<<..............
In Texas Schools, Perry Shuns Federal Influence ………>>>When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan jabbed Mr. Perry on public schools in mid-August, it was only the latest skirmish between the governor and the Obama administration since late 2009, when Mr. Perry announced that the state would not sign on to common core-curriculum standards.<<<...
The Left is signaling that they hope a President Perry will fix education and get the inner cities out from under the impossible mess they've created.
Will Rick Perry Unravel the Strange Consensus on Public Education?
Trial lawyers prep for war on Perry America’s trial lawyers are getting ready to make the case against one of their biggest targets in years: Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Among litigators, there is no presidential candidate who inspires the same level of hatred – and fear – as Perry, an avowed opponent of the plaintiffs’ bar who has presided over several rounds of tort reform as governor.
And if Perry ends up as the Republican nominee for president, deep-pocketed trial lawyers intend to play a central role in the campaign to defeat him.
That’s a potential financial boon to a president who has unsettled trial lawyers with his own rhetorical gestures in the direction of tort reform. A general election pitting Barack Obama and Perry could turn otherwise apathetic trial lawyers into a phalanx of pro-Obama bundlers and super PAC donors. …..”
Did Perry Blow It on Social Security? (Marco Rubio and Ron Johnson certainly didn't)There is a brand of Republican who looks at President Obama’s vulnerability on the economy and says, “Go for it!” They argue that the overriding issue of the campaign should be jobs — and that everything else should be a distant second.
There is another kind of Republican who sees the election of 2012 as a tipping point for the nation — a do-or-die moment when we will either pull back from the precipice of debt and national decline or fall off the edge. This second brand of Republican is hoping that a candidate will emerge who can lay before the American people the nature of the challenge we face in a direct and forthright way. If a campaign is run and won on the need to reform our obese government, the new president will have a mandate to take the necessary steps once in office.
After Wednesday’s Republican debate, it seems that Mitt Romney represents the first group, and Rick Perry stands for the second. ………………”
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