Posted on 09/23/2011 4:42:52 PM PDT by Kaslin
Politics: Despite the "gotcha" sniping at Thursday's debate, Republicans need to keep their eyes on the prize. The target for 2012 is not Santorum, Cain, Bachmann, Romney or Perry. It's the current White House occupant.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry must have felt a bit like Gen. Custer at Little Big Horn at the Orlando debate, a made-for-TV contrivance in which those who have a real chance to be president must take pokes and jabs from those who don't.
We appreciate this may be a necessary evil in which front-runners without stamina — the Ed Muskies and Rudy Giulianis, for example — are weeded out.
Still, we must understand that while the goal is the nomination, the prize is the White House. Lost in the brouhaha over tuition for illegal aliens and mandated vaccines is the fact we simply can't afford four more years of President Obama.
Perry has given awkward responses. How can he debate the president, the whispers ask. Sound-bite debates in which you thrust and parry (no pun intended) with eight other candidates, as well as the pundits, are one thing. Comparing your job-creating pro-growth record in a booming state to the record of the arguably worst president in American history is something else.
Those former and nongovernors without a 1,200-mile border with Mexico may criticize, and perhaps justifiably, Perry's embrace of a college tuition break for illegal aliens. We've opposed it too in the past.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I swear to vote for whoever the GOP puts on the ticket for Nov 2012. Until then, I will listen and learn all I can about the candidates so I can give my input by way of my vote in the primaries. Unfortunately, objective and logical discussions about the current GOP candidates is no longer found at FR (at least in all the posts I've read lately).
Stop giving DUmmies and KOSers forum fodder!
It (the fence/wall) is anything but “river side”. Come on down to Brownsville and I will take you on an eye opening tour of “the Wall”.
I have long felt that a triple strand concertina wire fence followed by a posted, in multiple languages, mine field followed by another triple strand concertina wire fence would get the job done much better and cheaper than “The Wall”!
Your premise: there is no legitimate criticism of Perry's candidacy.
Dismissing the motives of critics will make you feel better, but only temporarily.
We’ll , we need a nominee who can win before we can do anything about Obama and Perry clearly will lose. Reagan won by killing Carter in the debates. From watching last nights debate , Perry sucks big time. Obama will kill him and I am not saying that because I think Obama is a good debater , just that Perry is one of the worst I have ever seen.
so does that make you a Perrywinkle???
AMEN Moses!
We’d expect Paul to say he didn’t care, but any realistic Republican is going to have to keep up with geopolitics. If the Taliban gets nukes, Israel will stomp those installations flat and if the US can’t help them do so then it should stand out of the way.
What they gonna' do? Run around hollering "Hey, he wants to let in the undocumented workers"? So do they!
Get real. This is the one place we can deal with our candidate's character free of Leftwingtard interference.
By the time you get your pen name, Free Republic, and the question itself logged in so many times that the combo gets you the number one position on Google.com, there's simply no gotcha' left in it.
I may be the Democrat's number one target in their new "Google.com neutrality rule" proposal.
If it weren't for Hannity glossing over Bachmann’s screw ups, she'd be out by now.
I am more than amazed by Santorim’s antics, does this twirp actually think he could get the nomination in a thousand years?
Obviously both Santorim and Bachmann are pitting for Mutt's VP. What neither understands about human nature, after Mutt witnesses their pettiness, lack of civility and lack honesty, they will be on the bottom of the list.
Cain and Newt probably are not so delusional to think they have a real shot, but are gentlemen enough to be gentlemen. They both have much intelligence to add to any GOP run.
I like Palin, I used to REALLY like Palin, but enough of the waiting game! I still get a gut feeling that her and Perry have something cooking up. PP Team would make Mutt melt and we'd have our best shot at 2012.
The good thing about all the Perry beating going on, not just here on FR, is that once its out its out. His standing ground on the issues he's getting beat on about, could very well end up being what it takes to pull in more of the Indies and certainly some of the Hispanics.
So let the Perry bashing keep on, he's seen tougher.
Everybody will go "AWWWWWW!!!!!!!", do huggies all around, and Perry becomes a winner instead of a jerk.
If you're an Ivy League trust-fund baby with a permanent mooring slip in the New York Yacht Club marina, the latter is what you want. You want an unbroken phalanx of well-to-do Republican attorneys, with Porcellian pigs stuck in their ties, advancing in a phalanx singing orisons of well-modulated praise for their champion in perfect Standard English with a Connecticut accent, choreographed by the alpha scion of the most socially-prominent Beacon Hill family.
That's how to impress the unwashed out there in Stickland!
Back in the 50’s I had several uncles who were what was known as Border Patrol River Riders. They rode the Rio Grande in very remote areas. They were effective because their ROE allowed them to use whatever force necessary.
Now days a lone rider on horseback may have a bit of a problem with the druggies and Mex troops assisting them, but this way is still possible with more feet on the ground.
One other thing Ike (Operation Wetback) did was to outlaw illegals working in legitimate jobs. Of course in the 50’s we didn’t have free welfare either, blacks and whitetrash worked or starved, the result no jobs for the illegals.
Last point, I hear something about it being impossible to build a fence, due to an International Treaty we have with Mexico concerning the river.
I still get a gut feeling that her and Perry have something cooking up. PP Team would make Mutt melt and we'd have our best shot at 2012.Interesting thought. You've got a dynamic there that can go into a yin-yang swirling vortex.
Not the toilet of Bachmann kissing Romney along with their Merck Syrup of Ipecac.
Romney is death in a latex rictus grin.
Bachmann with Rollins and Gardisil is a saccharine and glutinous back-stabber.
You can definitely wield the words. Good show.
Yes.
And, as the saying goes, THIS IS WHY YOU PLAY THE GAME.
There's nothing remotely wrong or off-putting about the candidates' challenging each other's positions and record. I've watched the debates and have not seen a predominance of low blows, cheap shots or ad hominen attacks.
When we start boo-hooing that we shouldn't be challenging ourselves and our own candidates, we play into the Left's drumbeat that we shouldn't be challenging their guy either.
FReepers, please don't be part of the problem.
Perry — indeed, each of the candidates — should be grateful for this opportunity to sharpen their points and their skills.
If they can’t make it through this basically civil setting, forget about the general election.
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