Posted on 11/01/2011 2:56:27 AM PDT by iowamark
Texas Gov. Rick Perry raised some eyebrows — and questions about his sobriety — with an unusually expressive speech to a conservative group in Manchester, N.H., on Friday. In the speech, Perry ditched his typically reserved style and instead employed "the sort of tics, facial contortions, mimes, and muggings that one would expect from a comic performer," says Thomas Lane at Talking Points Memo. The media scuttlebutt is largely based on an anonymously posted YouTube compilation of "highlights" from the speech (watch the clip below), but even some in attendance were perplexed. "It was different," Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas said. Another GOP operative said it reminded him of Democrat Howard Dean's race-ending "scream" in 2004. Perry's campaign's response? The speech simply proves that Perry is "passionate about the issues he talks about."
The reaction: Perry's performance was "truly bizarre," says Libby Spencer at The Impolitic. "He comes off as pretty well drunk. Or drugged." Yes, and though it's not a crime to be "pretty publicly lit," it's almost certainly bad politics for a presidential hopeful, says Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast. Well, I doubt he's drunk, says Josh Feldman at Mediaite. But his exuberance is "fun to watch." I bet "Alec Baldwin will appreciate the material for his next Perry impersonation. Look, "we're not saying that he's definitely drunk," says Max Read at Gawker, "we're just saying, watch the whole thing" and judge for yourself. Have a look:
Furthermore, if Perry had a serious issue with drink/drugs I am certain it would have come up by now.
Please note I am not saying this as a Perry fan (I actually consider the man a RINO), but I strongly believe that for the United States to prosper a strong leader needs to be selected at the primaries, and then elected as president. The people need to make a proper and logical decision, and that decision needs to be based on fact and stringent analysis, thorough evaluation and proper judgement.
This means that all candidates need to be vetted and vetted well, and that way whatever decision is made will be the proper one. This is the only way Obama can be defeated, and it is also the only way a candidate like Romney (who is the father of RINOS) can be prevented from being the nominee. To this effect, I wish evaluation of the candidates (be it Perry, Cain, Newt, Santorum, etc) could be evaluated on cold hard logic and facts, on policies and issues, on truth and evidence. I also believe that doing it in such a manner would avoid a lot of the bad blood that has been bubbling up. We laughed at the PUMAs that afflicted the Democrats some years back, but it is very possible to see the same effect take hold on our side whereby supporters of one candidate refuse to support another, when all that would accomplish is a Romney nomination followed by the re-election of Obama.
I accept the video posted shows Perry in a bad light, and he does seem 'off,' but I also think it needs to be looked at in the proper context. I think the FReeper who said he was amongst friends (e.g. donors) may be right, and thus the tone of the meeting is very different. I think the candidates need to be judged by their ideas and policies and what they can deliver and where they stand in the Conservativeness spectrum. I do not support Perry, but he deserves to be accepted or rejected based on the weight (or lack of) of his principles and policies, rather than on a YouTube video with no context provided.
I saw the video and it seems out-of-character for Perry. However, I have not seen enough Perry speeches to know if this is another side of him we do not know on the national stage. Perhaps Texas FReepers can help.
There are things that I do not like about Perry... drinking is NOT one of them.
LLS
I was thinking he was on prescription drugs during some of those debates. An hour in, he was always crashing and often incoherent.
I could live with Gingrich.
Perry mistook the “who would you rather have a beer with?” political adage for “who would you rather do a night of tequila shots with?”
What? If this kills Cain, Gingrich has worse! Cain was looking and talking. Newt was Doing!
LLS
No, he’s not drunk, he’s clowning around, maybe trying a little too hard to be amusing. No, this non-story will not hurt him in any way. Yes, you Perry haters and Cainiacs are way off base and trying to make something out of nothing and doing your candidate no favors.
Exactly. If anything, he may have been trying a little too hard to be jovial and friendly. But he wasn’t drunk. The media and the left view him as a threat because he has the positive record of the great state of Texas to stand on. I would hope that in light of the smear campaigns going on against Perry and Cain, that both of them take off the gloves, forget PC and go after obama in detail with everything from Wright to Ayers to the sealed records to his hidden past.
Agreed, I’ve really been impressed by Newt, he’s really never attacked anyone, he has stood up to the media at these debates, he has more knowledge than all put together and I feel he is the only one who can beat bozo the clown in a debate.
I’d love to see if this is Romney, the white house or the media working with the white house to raise the 2 sexual harassment cases up.
No doubt the white house now will be getting women together to say they were molested, harassed etc by Cain.
Who cares?
Elect him as POTUS, what harm will it do for the country?
The Anita talking points are so off the mark and really they never stuck but a week ago we had a 2 day Freeper claiming to be a Cain supporter posting multiple stories about Anita and Perry and his minions began the PW routine.
Yesterday the "Perry's a drunk" started coming out and today this is supposed to be the sinker.
If you remember a few days ago there was a story "Romney goes for the quick kill on Perry"
If you watch these guys you will see a pattern in even the words they use. Maybe they are from the Cain camp, who knows.
Did you also notice the same guys tried to pin the Cain sexual harrassment leak on the Perry camp?
Certainly a pattern.
Your observations match what I saw, but it was still a very odd performance.
I’m beginning to think that you post while drunk. You must have a lot of alpha females around you, poor thing.
I don’t know where all the meanness about Governor Perry has come from. The worst seems to be from the ones who were disappointed by Sarah Palin and that all started with a few bloggers early this summer
But the personal attacks aren’t just on this board. I still haven’t figured out why on earth Cain singled Perry out as the one Republican he wouldn’t support 100%.
We’re all going to have to come together soon, to defeat Obama and to prepare for the threats of a possible third party, Paul campaign.
He’s said that he “does” caffeine. The time line would be right for caffeine withdrawal.
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