He's not running for governor now, he's running for President. Somehow, the state's rights spin doesn't quite work in this instance.
He could have come out and said that he went along because it had strong support from the people of Texas, but he understands where national critics are coming from and he would re-examine his state policy stances from a national perspective.
But he didn't. Instead he showed where his heart was. On the wrong side of this issue for millions of conservatives. And it shows in his slide in the polls. Like I said, he had one shot to try and present himself as being willing to migrate his views on this subject to a national level. Not only did he fail to do that, but he also gave a strong impression that he would be unable personally to do that, and any subsequent stated shift in position would be pandering or flip-flopping.
First impressions are lasting impressions, and Perry made a horrible first impression with that comment. One that is going to be exceedingly difficult to overcome.
Like Cain, who enjoyed a bump when the first debate started, then went to the near bottom and almost quit his campaign twice. Then all of a sudden, an obscure Straw Poll came out in Florida, the MSM went nuts and now Cain is supposedly the “One to beat”.
Perry is at his best when he is down and his strongest area that suits his ability best has yet to come. I am holding out judgment until then. There is lots of time yet to pass and underdogs seem to do well in America these days.
Rick Perry is not Mitt Romney.
Perry believes the policy is right for Texas and that it is a Texas decision. But you want him to walk a fine, politically expedient line like all the other candidates so you'll what? Feel better? Vote for him? Be able to call him a flip-flopper like Romney? What?
You badly need some perspective here. Do you really think this election is going to be about finding a candidate who will be mean to illegals? With the array of challenges we face, you think that will, or should, play a significant part in the voters’ choice?
You should also pause to consider that Governor Perry may have been right and you may be wrong on the tuition issue. Federal law requires Texas to care for the children of illegals from the time they are five until they turn 18 (and sometimes a bit beyond). The state has to be concerned with their nutrition, health care and education.
The law requires, in sum, that the children of illegals be treated as Texans until they graduate from high school. And you expect that Texas, having brought these people into their community under federal compulsion and nurtured them, in many cases, for more than a decade, should just cast them out as soon as they have a high school diploma.
Maybe it’s just plain accurate to suggest that this expectation is heartless. If you adopted a five-year-old child would you feel that all your obligations to that child ended when that child reached 18? Common decency doesn’t permit us to shift others in and out of communities as easily as that, which is all the Governor was saying. You may not want to hear it, but it’s true and it’s way past time for conservatives to get over their ridiculous tantrum on the subject.
Rome is burning and we haven’t got time for playing the instate tuition fiddle. A little perspective, please.