Posted on 10/09/2011 5:21:04 AM PDT by BarnacleCenturion
He is the latest Tea Party favourite to burst through in the increasingly heated race for the Republican presidential nomination and see their poll numbers rocket them to frontrunner status.
However, unlike previous rightwing darlings such as Texas governor Rick Perry and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, wealthy businessman Herman Cain, 65, can claim to be cut from a very different sort of cloth from the average Republican candidate.
First, he is not actually a politician. Cain, whose CV includes being a radio show host, a navy ballistics expert, a Baptist minister and a Federal Reserve official, has never held elected office in his life. His most famous job was as chief executive of the fast-food firm Godfather's Pizza.
Yet none of that seemed to matter to the cheering crowds at the Values Voter Summit in a Washington DC hotel late last week. There was much to celebrate. A Zogby opinion poll had just boosted Cain into first place in the race, with 38% of the vote, compared with 18% for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Perry trailed in third place with 12%. The study even showed Cain beating President Barack Obama in a match-up by 46% to 44%.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I don't live in a ghetto and don't know of a single conservative that does. So who the hell is he pandering to here?
“Individual Flat Tax – 9%.
Gross income less charitable deductions.
Empowerment Zones will offer additional deductions for those living and/or working in the zone.”
Is Cain also "great" on Romney?
This Romney?
VIDEO clips of Romney/Kennedy Debates: Liberals For Romney - More Liberal than Ted Kennedy
The same Romney that Cain supported in 2008?
But, Cain's support of Romney in 2008 was ancient history.
How does Cain stand, today, in 2011?
Cain is on constant attack against Perry but treats Romney with kid gloves. Cain will not even support Perry, in the GENERAL ELECTION if Perry were the GOP nominee ....... EVEN AGAINST BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.
But, guess what?
Cain WILL support his old buddy, Mitt Romney.
"But, that's alright. The Great Cain is fighting hard to defeat Romney!"
Not really.
Cain was not taking winning the Iowa Caucuses very seriously.
Cain is not taking the campaign very seriously right now as he hawks his book instead.
Cain has left his old pal, Romney, to lock up key donors while he locks up his book sales at Barnes & Nobles.
Romney Rounds Up Backing Among Key G.O.P. Donors
Cain is a "great" Stalking Horse for Mitt Romney.
Guess I missed that first time through. MK, we don't have to play the race card on this guy. His record speaks for himself.
FYI, my skin color is white (actually a bit off white, cream color?)
Guess I missed that first time through. MK, we don't have to play the race card on this guy. His record speaks for himself.
FYI, my skin color is white (actually a bit off white, cream color?)
Guess I missed that first time through. MK, we don't have to play the race card on this guy. His record speaks for himself.
FYI, my skin color is white (actually a bit off white, cream color?)
Guess I missed that first time through. MK, we don't have to play the race card on this guy. His record speaks for himself.
FYI, my skin color is white (actually a bit off white, cream color?)
Yep. Cain is "great" on everything.
Take, for example, the issue of killing al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki. No matter what your position is on the matter, Cain agrees with you.
======================
Cain, May 5, 2011, Regarding the killing of al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki
"He should be charged. And since he's an American citizen, he should be tried in our courts," Cain said of al-Awlaki. When asked if he considered it legal for President Obama to order al-Awlaki killed, Cain said, "In his case, no, because he's an American citizen. If he's an American citizen, which is the big difference, then he should be charged, and he should be arrested and brought to justice."
======================
Cain, October, 2011, Regarding the killing of al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki
"Asked why he had backed off his opposition to the U.S. military's targeting Anwar Awlaki, the al Qaeda terrorist and American citizen who was killed Friday by a drone strike in Yemen, Cain denied that he had ever opposed taking out Awlaki. “I never said that [President Obama] should not have ordered [the killing]. I don’t recall saying that. I think you’ve got some misinformation," Cain said. "Keep in mind that there are a lot of people out there trying to make me sound as if I am indecisive."
I would guess that a ceo running a corporation has to make decisions, not just sit back and coast along in congress by voting “present” because your afraid your vote will show what you what you stand for.
The black vote? Not saying it's right...just saying.
It's all starting to come into focus now.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/274042/perry-and-giuliani-katrina-trinko
Rick Perry is a Texan who boasts about how he shot a coyote during a morning jog. Rudy Giuliani is a New Yorker who has appeared before crowds in full drag as “Rudia.”
When it comes to political “romances,” Perry and Giuliani rank high on the list of odd couples. Perry’s endorsement of Giuliani’s 2008 presidential run came as shock to many in the GOP, who wondered why such a robust social conservative was the first (and ultimately, only) Republican governor to endorse a candidate who is openly pro-abortion and favors gay rights. But that endorsement was no one-time incident, nor a flash in the pan. For over a decade, Perry and Giuliani have supported one another through a series of races, with endorsements, public statements, and fundraising assistance. Different they may be, but they are nothing if not committed
s far back as 1999, Perry served as the honorary Texas chairman of Giuliani’s New York senatorial campaign. (The Texans for Giuliani invitation to a $1,000 per plate luncheon that Perry hosted employed this message: “We Texans need to ask ourselves how helpful do we think Hillary Rodham Clinton would be to the Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush if he were to become president?”) In both 2002 and 2006, Giuliani returned the favor, endorsing Perry’s gubernatorial runs. In the 2006 race — a difficult one for Perry, who would ultimately eke out a win with 39 percent of the vote, just enough to catapult him over the other candidates in the four-person race — Giuliani’s endorsement was well-utilized and undoubtedly useful. In addition to a radio spot featuring America’s mayor, the Perry campaign sent out a fundraising letter touting Giuliani’s endorsement of Perry as a “strong and determined leader.”
In 2005, Giuliani joined Texas law firm Bracewell & Patterson (re-named Bracewell & Giuliani), strengthening his ties to the Lone Star State — and to affluent Texas Republicans ripe for fundraising appeals. Two years later, he sought out Perry’s endorsement for his 2008 presidential run. He got it.
A Perry aide paraphrased how Perry explained his support for Giuliani this way: “We don’t agree on social issues, but Mayor Giuliani provided leadership during a time of crisis for the country.” To Perry, Giuliani was a figure who had stellar national-security credentials, a key issue for him.
After citing the importance of the War on Terror, Perry publicly explained his Giuliani endorsement by pointing to the former mayor of New York’s track record: “What I look for is results, and Rudy Giuliani is the individual who will give us the results that will make America safer, that will move our economy forward, that will put strict constructionists on the Supreme Court, that covers a host of issues that are important to me and I think a lot of my colleagues and Americans as well,” he enthusiastically told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in fall, 2007.
In that interview, Perry brushed off the ideological differences between the two men. He noted that he and Giuliani had discussed some of the issues that divided them, and spent an “inordinate amount of time together over the course of the last six weeks talking about issues both on the phone and face to face.” Those discussion satisfied Perry. According to the Dallas Morning News, Perry told reporters that Giuliani had “assured [Perry] that in nominating Supreme Court justices and on other important issues, a Giuliani administration would serve the conservative cause.”
Perry’s pre-emptive attempt to acknowledge that — and explain why — he had endorsed a candidate whose views on social issues differed so markedly from his own did not soften the surprise. In the aftermath of the announcement, much of the media coverage centered on speculation that Perry was aiming at the second slot on the ticket. Perry shot that down forcefully, saying bluntly he wouldn’t consider the vice presidency, but rumors abounded nonetheless. The Dallas Morning News reported that the Perry political camp saw little choice other than Giuliani since “Mr. Thompson’s campaign has sputtered and Sen. John McCain of Arizona is a long-shot.” (The relationship between Romney and Perry, if not outright hostile, had been at least complicated since an incident at the 2002 Olympics where the Boy Scouts were not allowed to participate, something for which Perry criticized Romney.) But the disbelief persisted: In comparison to Perry, “Giuliani comes across like Michael Moore,” wrote Austin American-Statesman columnist John Kelso, comparing the duo to “Dick Cheney touring with the Dixie Chicks.”
Despite the controversy, Perry did not downplay his endorsement but instead became a more vocal supporter of Giuliani. He campaigned for him in South Carolina, and that fall went on a four-day sweep through Iowa. Talking to voters at a roundtable in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Perry made his pitch for Giuliani by striking a pragmatic tone: “ You can have your purist candidate,” he argued. But “if they can’t win, you just wasted your time.” The voters were not convinced. A Dallas Morning News headline summed up Perry’s success in Iowa: “Perry Wins over Voters — But Not for Giuliani. Iowans Like Messenger More than His Message.”
In December, Perry added to the tension with a slip of the tongue. Defending Giuliani’s pro-abortion stance by citing his promise to support strict constructionist judges, the Houston Chronicle reported Perry saying, “Then the issue becomes very, very clear to me from the standpoint of who I want to support, and it is Mike Huckabee.” When questioned about what he had just said, Perry immediately called the Huckabee mention an “error.” But it lead to another round of publicity: The Austin American-Statesman headline said Perry had “defended” his Huckabee mention as “un-Freudian,” planting an idea in voters’ minds unlikely to cheer the Giuliani campaign.
As Giuliani’s campaign fell into disarray, Perry kept fighting, doing a five-stop sweep in January through Florida introducing Giuliani at rallies. But it wasn’t enough, and, when the Guiliani campaign impoloded at the height of the 2008 primary season, Perry found himself without a candidate. In February, he endorsed McCain, employing unsentimental language: “He and I may not agree on every issue,” Perry said when announcing the new endorsement, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Guiliani’s presidential ambitions may have evaporated in the Florida sunshine, but his friendship with Rick Perry continues to this day. In the 2010 gubernatorial primary, Giuliani backed Perry over the more socially moderate Kay Bailey Hutchinson, even going so far as to go to Texas to campaign for his friend. And the two don’t limit their conversation exclusively to politics: Perry told a Dallas audience last year that Giuliani had offered to bet him a pair of Texas cowboy boots that the New York Yankees would beat the Texas Rangers in the upcoming round of playoffs leading up to the World Series. (Perry must have received his boots: The Rangers won the series, 4–2.)
Now, with the 2012 primary drawing near, and both men considered possible candidates, their comity remains. “Rick has got a great record, probably one of the strongest records of any governor in America, and one of the longest running governorships. Rick is a good friend,” Giuliani told CNN this July. Dave Carney, a top political adviser to Perry, told the Washington Post that same month that “Rudy would be an awesome asset to any campaign. Of course candidates matter to voters, but folks of the mayor’s stature bring lot of value added to any effort.”
And so the bromance continues.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/274042/perry-and-giuliani-katrina-trinko
Rick Perry is a Texan who boasts about how he shot a coyote during a morning jog. Rudy Giuliani is a New Yorker who has appeared before crowds in full drag as “Rudia.”
When it comes to political “romances,” Perry and Giuliani rank high on the list of odd couples. Perry’s endorsement of Giuliani’s 2008 presidential run came as shock to many in the GOP, who wondered why such a robust social conservative was the first (and ultimately, only) Republican governor to endorse a candidate who is openly pro-abortion and favors gay rights. But that endorsement was no one-time incident, nor a flash in the pan. For over a decade, Perry and Giuliani have supported one another through a series of races, with endorsements, public statements, and fundraising assistance. Different they may be, but they are nothing if not committed
s far back as 1999, Perry served as the honorary Texas chairman of Giuliani’s New York senatorial campaign. (The Texans for Giuliani invitation to a $1,000 per plate luncheon that Perry hosted employed this message: “We Texans need to ask ourselves how helpful do we think Hillary Rodham Clinton would be to the Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush if he were to become president?”) In both 2002 and 2006, Giuliani returned the favor, endorsing Perry’s gubernatorial runs. In the 2006 race — a difficult one for Perry, who would ultimately eke out a win with 39 percent of the vote, just enough to catapult him over the other candidates in the four-person race — Giuliani’s endorsement was well-utilized and undoubtedly useful. In addition to a radio spot featuring America’s mayor, the Perry campaign sent out a fundraising letter touting Giuliani’s endorsement of Perry as a “strong and determined leader.”
In 2005, Giuliani joined Texas law firm Bracewell & Patterson (re-named Bracewell & Giuliani), strengthening his ties to the Lone Star State — and to affluent Texas Republicans ripe for fundraising appeals. Two years later, he sought out Perry’s endorsement for his 2008 presidential run. He got it.
A Perry aide paraphrased how Perry explained his support for Giuliani this way: “We don’t agree on social issues, but Mayor Giuliani provided leadership during a time of crisis for the country.” To Perry, Giuliani was a figure who had stellar national-security credentials, a key issue for him.
After citing the importance of the War on Terror, Perry publicly explained his Giuliani endorsement by pointing to the former mayor of New York’s track record: “What I look for is results, and Rudy Giuliani is the individual who will give us the results that will make America safer, that will move our economy forward, that will put strict constructionists on the Supreme Court, that covers a host of issues that are important to me and I think a lot of my colleagues and Americans as well,” he enthusiastically told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in fall, 2007.
In that interview, Perry brushed off the ideological differences between the two men. He noted that he and Giuliani had discussed some of the issues that divided them, and spent an “inordinate amount of time together over the course of the last six weeks talking about issues both on the phone and face to face.” Those discussion satisfied Perry. According to the Dallas Morning News, Perry told reporters that Giuliani had “assured [Perry] that in nominating Supreme Court justices and on other important issues, a Giuliani administration would serve the conservative cause.”
Perry’s pre-emptive attempt to acknowledge that — and explain why — he had endorsed a candidate whose views on social issues differed so markedly from his own did not soften the surprise. In the aftermath of the announcement, much of the media coverage centered on speculation that Perry was aiming at the second slot on the ticket. Perry shot that down forcefully, saying bluntly he wouldn’t consider the vice presidency, but rumors abounded nonetheless. The Dallas Morning News reported that the Perry political camp saw little choice other than Giuliani since “Mr. Thompson’s campaign has sputtered and Sen. John McCain of Arizona is a long-shot.” (The relationship between Romney and Perry, if not outright hostile, had been at least complicated since an incident at the 2002 Olympics where the Boy Scouts were not allowed to participate, something for which Perry criticized Romney.) But the disbelief persisted: In comparison to Perry, “Giuliani comes across like Michael Moore,” wrote Austin American-Statesman columnist John Kelso, comparing the duo to “Dick Cheney touring with the Dixie Chicks.”
Despite the controversy, Perry did not downplay his endorsement but instead became a more vocal supporter of Giuliani. He campaigned for him in South Carolina, and that fall went on a four-day sweep through Iowa. Talking to voters at a roundtable in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Perry made his pitch for Giuliani by striking a pragmatic tone: “ You can have your purist candidate,” he argued. But “if they can’t win, you just wasted your time.” The voters were not convinced. A Dallas Morning News headline summed up Perry’s success in Iowa: “Perry Wins over Voters — But Not for Giuliani. Iowans Like Messenger More than His Message.”
In December, Perry added to the tension with a slip of the tongue. Defending Giuliani’s pro-abortion stance by citing his promise to support strict constructionist judges, the Houston Chronicle reported Perry saying, “Then the issue becomes very, very clear to me from the standpoint of who I want to support, and it is Mike Huckabee.” When questioned about what he had just said, Perry immediately called the Huckabee mention an “error.” But it lead to another round of publicity: The Austin American-Statesman headline said Perry had “defended” his Huckabee mention as “un-Freudian,” planting an idea in voters’ minds unlikely to cheer the Giuliani campaign.
As Giuliani’s campaign fell into disarray, Perry kept fighting, doing a five-stop sweep in January through Florida introducing Giuliani at rallies. But it wasn’t enough, and, when the Guiliani campaign impoloded at the height of the 2008 primary season, Perry found himself without a candidate. In February, he endorsed McCain, employing unsentimental language: “He and I may not agree on every issue,” Perry said when announcing the new endorsement, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Guiliani’s presidential ambitions may have evaporated in the Florida sunshine, but his friendship with Rick Perry continues to this day. In the 2010 gubernatorial primary, Giuliani backed Perry over the more socially moderate Kay Bailey Hutchinson, even going so far as to go to Texas to campaign for his friend. And the two don’t limit their conversation exclusively to politics: Perry told a Dallas audience last year that Giuliani had offered to bet him a pair of Texas cowboy boots that the New York Yankees would beat the Texas Rangers in the upcoming round of playoffs leading up to the World Series. (Perry must have received his boots: The Rangers won the series, 4–2.)
Now, with the 2012 primary drawing near, and both men considered possible candidates, their comity remains. “Rick has got a great record, probably one of the strongest records of any governor in America, and one of the longest running governorships. Rick is a good friend,” Giuliani told CNN this July. Dave Carney, a top political adviser to Perry, told the Washington Post that same month that “Rudy would be an awesome asset to any campaign. Of course candidates matter to voters, but folks of the mayor’s stature bring lot of value added to any effort.”
And so the bromance continues.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/274042/perry-and-giuliani-katrina-trinko
Rick Perry is a Texan who boasts about how he shot a coyote during a morning jog. Rudy Giuliani is a New Yorker who has appeared before crowds in full drag as “Rudia.”
When it comes to political “romances,” Perry and Giuliani rank high on the list of odd couples. Perry’s endorsement of Giuliani’s 2008 presidential run came as shock to many in the GOP, who wondered why such a robust social conservative was the first (and ultimately, only) Republican governor to endorse a candidate who is openly pro-abortion and favors gay rights. But that endorsement was no one-time incident, nor a flash in the pan. For over a decade, Perry and Giuliani have supported one another through a series of races, with endorsements, public statements, and fundraising assistance. Different they may be, but they are nothing if not committed
s far back as 1999, Perry served as the honorary Texas chairman of Giuliani’s New York senatorial campaign. (The Texans for Giuliani invitation to a $1,000 per plate luncheon that Perry hosted employed this message: “We Texans need to ask ourselves how helpful do we think Hillary Rodham Clinton would be to the Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush if he were to become president?”) In both 2002 and 2006, Giuliani returned the favor, endorsing Perry’s gubernatorial runs. In the 2006 race — a difficult one for Perry, who would ultimately eke out a win with 39 percent of the vote, just enough to catapult him over the other candidates in the four-person race — Giuliani’s endorsement was well-utilized and undoubtedly useful. In addition to a radio spot featuring America’s mayor, the Perry campaign sent out a fundraising letter touting Giuliani’s endorsement of Perry as a “strong and determined leader.”
In 2005, Giuliani joined Texas law firm Bracewell & Patterson (re-named Bracewell & Giuliani), strengthening his ties to the Lone Star State — and to affluent Texas Republicans ripe for fundraising appeals. Two years later, he sought out Perry’s endorsement for his 2008 presidential run. He got it.
A Perry aide paraphrased how Perry explained his support for Giuliani this way: “We don’t agree on social issues, but Mayor Giuliani provided leadership during a time of crisis for the country.” To Perry, Giuliani was a figure who had stellar national-security credentials, a key issue for him.
After citing the importance of the War on Terror, Perry publicly explained his Giuliani endorsement by pointing to the former mayor of New York’s track record: “What I look for is results, and Rudy Giuliani is the individual who will give us the results that will make America safer, that will move our economy forward, that will put strict constructionists on the Supreme Court, that covers a host of issues that are important to me and I think a lot of my colleagues and Americans as well,” he enthusiastically told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in fall, 2007.
In that interview, Perry brushed off the ideological differences between the two men. He noted that he and Giuliani had discussed some of the issues that divided them, and spent an “inordinate amount of time together over the course of the last six weeks talking about issues both on the phone and face to face.” Those discussion satisfied Perry. According to the Dallas Morning News, Perry told reporters that Giuliani had “assured [Perry] that in nominating Supreme Court justices and on other important issues, a Giuliani administration would serve the conservative cause.”
Perry’s pre-emptive attempt to acknowledge that — and explain why — he had endorsed a candidate whose views on social issues differed so markedly from his own did not soften the surprise. In the aftermath of the announcement, much of the media coverage centered on speculation that Perry was aiming at the second slot on the ticket. Perry shot that down forcefully, saying bluntly he wouldn’t consider the vice presidency, but rumors abounded nonetheless. The Dallas Morning News reported that the Perry political camp saw little choice other than Giuliani since “Mr. Thompson’s campaign has sputtered and Sen. John McCain of Arizona is a long-shot.” (The relationship between Romney and Perry, if not outright hostile, had been at least complicated since an incident at the 2002 Olympics where the Boy Scouts were not allowed to participate, something for which Perry criticized Romney.) But the disbelief persisted: In comparison to Perry, “Giuliani comes across like Michael Moore,” wrote Austin American-Statesman columnist John Kelso, comparing the duo to “Dick Cheney touring with the Dixie Chicks.”
Despite the controversy, Perry did not downplay his endorsement but instead became a more vocal supporter of Giuliani. He campaigned for him in South Carolina, and that fall went on a four-day sweep through Iowa. Talking to voters at a roundtable in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Perry made his pitch for Giuliani by striking a pragmatic tone: “ You can have your purist candidate,” he argued. But “if they can’t win, you just wasted your time.” The voters were not convinced. A Dallas Morning News headline summed up Perry’s success in Iowa: “Perry Wins over Voters — But Not for Giuliani. Iowans Like Messenger More than His Message.”
In December, Perry added to the tension with a slip of the tongue. Defending Giuliani’s pro-abortion stance by citing his promise to support strict constructionist judges, the Houston Chronicle reported Perry saying, “Then the issue becomes very, very clear to me from the standpoint of who I want to support, and it is Mike Huckabee.” When questioned about what he had just said, Perry immediately called the Huckabee mention an “error.” But it lead to another round of publicity: The Austin American-Statesman headline said Perry had “defended” his Huckabee mention as “un-Freudian,” planting an idea in voters’ minds unlikely to cheer the Giuliani campaign.
As Giuliani’s campaign fell into disarray, Perry kept fighting, doing a five-stop sweep in January through Florida introducing Giuliani at rallies. But it wasn’t enough, and, when the Guiliani campaign impoloded at the height of the 2008 primary season, Perry found himself without a candidate. In February, he endorsed McCain, employing unsentimental language: “He and I may not agree on every issue,” Perry said when announcing the new endorsement, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Guiliani’s presidential ambitions may have evaporated in the Florida sunshine, but his friendship with Rick Perry continues to this day. In the 2010 gubernatorial primary, Giuliani backed Perry over the more socially moderate Kay Bailey Hutchinson, even going so far as to go to Texas to campaign for his friend. And the two don’t limit their conversation exclusively to politics: Perry told a Dallas audience last year that Giuliani had offered to bet him a pair of Texas cowboy boots that the New York Yankees would beat the Texas Rangers in the upcoming round of playoffs leading up to the World Series. (Perry must have received his boots: The Rangers won the series, 4–2.)
Now, with the 2012 primary drawing near, and both men considered possible candidates, their comity remains. “Rick has got a great record, probably one of the strongest records of any governor in America, and one of the longest running governorships. Rick is a good friend,” Giuliani told CNN this July. Dave Carney, a top political adviser to Perry, told the Washington Post that same month that “Rudy would be an awesome asset to any campaign. Of course candidates matter to voters, but folks of the mayor’s stature bring lot of value added to any effort.”
And so the bromance continues.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/274042/perry-and-giuliani-katrina-trinko
Rick Perry is a Texan who boasts about how he shot a coyote during a morning jog. Rudy Giuliani is a New Yorker who has appeared before crowds in full drag as “Rudia.”
When it comes to political “romances,” Perry and Giuliani rank high on the list of odd couples. Perry’s endorsement of Giuliani’s 2008 presidential run came as shock to many in the GOP, who wondered why such a robust social conservative was the first (and ultimately, only) Republican governor to endorse a candidate who is openly pro-abortion and favors gay rights. But that endorsement was no one-time incident, nor a flash in the pan. For over a decade, Perry and Giuliani have supported one another through a series of races, with endorsements, public statements, and fundraising assistance. Different they may be, but they are nothing if not committed
s far back as 1999, Perry served as the honorary Texas chairman of Giuliani’s New York senatorial campaign. (The Texans for Giuliani invitation to a $1,000 per plate luncheon that Perry hosted employed this message: “We Texans need to ask ourselves how helpful do we think Hillary Rodham Clinton would be to the Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush if he were to become president?”) In both 2002 and 2006, Giuliani returned the favor, endorsing Perry’s gubernatorial runs. In the 2006 race — a difficult one for Perry, who would ultimately eke out a win with 39 percent of the vote, just enough to catapult him over the other candidates in the four-person race — Giuliani’s endorsement was well-utilized and undoubtedly useful. In addition to a radio spot featuring America’s mayor, the Perry campaign sent out a fundraising letter touting Giuliani’s endorsement of Perry as a “strong and determined leader.”
In 2005, Giuliani joined Texas law firm Bracewell & Patterson (re-named Bracewell & Giuliani), strengthening his ties to the Lone Star State — and to affluent Texas Republicans ripe for fundraising appeals. Two years later, he sought out Perry’s endorsement for his 2008 presidential run. He got it.
A Perry aide paraphrased how Perry explained his support for Giuliani this way: “We don’t agree on social issues, but Mayor Giuliani provided leadership during a time of crisis for the country.” To Perry, Giuliani was a figure who had stellar national-security credentials, a key issue for him.
After citing the importance of the War on Terror, Perry publicly explained his Giuliani endorsement by pointing to the former mayor of New York’s track record: “What I look for is results, and Rudy Giuliani is the individual who will give us the results that will make America safer, that will move our economy forward, that will put strict constructionists on the Supreme Court, that covers a host of issues that are important to me and I think a lot of my colleagues and Americans as well,” he enthusiastically told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in fall, 2007.
In that interview, Perry brushed off the ideological differences between the two men. He noted that he and Giuliani had discussed some of the issues that divided them, and spent an “inordinate amount of time together over the course of the last six weeks talking about issues both on the phone and face to face.” Those discussion satisfied Perry. According to the Dallas Morning News, Perry told reporters that Giuliani had “assured [Perry] that in nominating Supreme Court justices and on other important issues, a Giuliani administration would serve the conservative cause.”
Perry’s pre-emptive attempt to acknowledge that — and explain why — he had endorsed a candidate whose views on social issues differed so markedly from his own did not soften the surprise. In the aftermath of the announcement, much of the media coverage centered on speculation that Perry was aiming at the second slot on the ticket. Perry shot that down forcefully, saying bluntly he wouldn’t consider the vice presidency, but rumors abounded nonetheless. The Dallas Morning News reported that the Perry political camp saw little choice other than Giuliani since “Mr. Thompson’s campaign has sputtered and Sen. John McCain of Arizona is a long-shot.” (The relationship between Romney and Perry, if not outright hostile, had been at least complicated since an incident at the 2002 Olympics where the Boy Scouts were not allowed to participate, something for which Perry criticized Romney.) But the disbelief persisted: In comparison to Perry, “Giuliani comes across like Michael Moore,” wrote Austin American-Statesman columnist John Kelso, comparing the duo to “Dick Cheney touring with the Dixie Chicks.”
Despite the controversy, Perry did not downplay his endorsement but instead became a more vocal supporter of Giuliani. He campaigned for him in South Carolina, and that fall went on a four-day sweep through Iowa. Talking to voters at a roundtable in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Perry made his pitch for Giuliani by striking a pragmatic tone: “ You can have your purist candidate,” he argued. But “if they can’t win, you just wasted your time.” The voters were not convinced. A Dallas Morning News headline summed up Perry’s success in Iowa: “Perry Wins over Voters — But Not for Giuliani. Iowans Like Messenger More than His Message.”
In December, Perry added to the tension with a slip of the tongue. Defending Giuliani’s pro-abortion stance by citing his promise to support strict constructionist judges, the Houston Chronicle reported Perry saying, “Then the issue becomes very, very clear to me from the standpoint of who I want to support, and it is Mike Huckabee.” When questioned about what he had just said, Perry immediately called the Huckabee mention an “error.” But it lead to another round of publicity: The Austin American-Statesman headline said Perry had “defended” his Huckabee mention as “un-Freudian,” planting an idea in voters’ minds unlikely to cheer the Giuliani campaign.
As Giuliani’s campaign fell into disarray, Perry kept fighting, doing a five-stop sweep in January through Florida introducing Giuliani at rallies. But it wasn’t enough, and, when the Guiliani campaign impoloded at the height of the 2008 primary season, Perry found himself without a candidate. In February, he endorsed McCain, employing unsentimental language: “He and I may not agree on every issue,” Perry said when announcing the new endorsement, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Guiliani’s presidential ambitions may have evaporated in the Florida sunshine, but his friendship with Rick Perry continues to this day. In the 2010 gubernatorial primary, Giuliani backed Perry over the more socially moderate Kay Bailey Hutchinson, even going so far as to go to Texas to campaign for his friend. And the two don’t limit their conversation exclusively to politics: Perry told a Dallas audience last year that Giuliani had offered to bet him a pair of Texas cowboy boots that the New York Yankees would beat the Texas Rangers in the upcoming round of playoffs leading up to the World Series. (Perry must have received his boots: The Rangers won the series, 4–2.)
Now, with the 2012 primary drawing near, and both men considered possible candidates, their comity remains. “Rick has got a great record, probably one of the strongest records of any governor in America, and one of the longest running governorships. Rick is a good friend,” Giuliani told CNN this July. Dave Carney, a top political adviser to Perry, told the Washington Post that same month that “Rudy would be an awesome asset to any campaign. Of course candidates matter to voters, but folks of the mayor’s stature bring lot of value added to any effort.”
And so the bromance continues.
wrong...we are living in extreme times now and Americans, right minded ones, are ready for a successful non politician!
wrong...we are living in extreme times now and Americans, right minded ones, are ready for a successful non politician!
You have never been anything a welded shut mind about Cain. Your posting history here proves it. You have never even bothered to listen to Cain due to your mindless loyalty to your candidate of choice.
Lying about your background in the vain hope it will give you some fake gloss of intellectually credibility is childish and shameful.
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