Rick Perry's Damage Control Strategy: Have a Sense of Humor

By facing the issue and joking about it, Perry frames his gaffe as a funny moment rather than a serious, and seriously stupid, one. He takes control of the discussion. Every minute he's on the air being interviewed about it is one more minute his moment isn't being replayed, one more minute some panel of pundits isn't fretfully analyzing its stupendous terribleness. By allowing his memory glitch to be the topic of discussion and owning up to it, he helps exhaust the subject.

Most of all, Perry is being humanized, albeit not in the way any politician would wish.

For all the talk about the Republican field's lack of a credible conservative to take on Mitt Romney, there's another, just as glaring void: the humanity gap. Romney's woodenness and lack of approachability are arguably just as much of an issue as his ideological heresies and lack of consistency. He's just not relatable. A little personality goes a long way in a politician -- just look at Herman Cain.

Perry's reputation in Texas is as a folksy charmer, but it's a persona he seems to have left back in Austin for most of this campaign. He's been stilted and spacey and unsure by turns, with flashes of a better politician occasionally showing through.

Now, though it may be too late, Perry is seizing the chance to show he's just like us. He, too, saw what happened on that stage and groaned. He, too, thought he looked awfully dumb. But in refusing to let it get him down, he can show forthrightness and sincerity, two traits voters are surely wishing they saw more of from this field of Republican candidates.

Palin isn't running so any mention of her is meaningless.

As for Cain's supporters, I have never seen anyone sink to the level I have seen your fellow Perry supporters go. How is this for low?

What I can’t understand is why you hate Texan females and want them to die from cancer?

I don't care what candidate someone supports I would never stoop so low as to say such a thing. Obviously, that's not the case with Perry supporters.

And yes, I would vote to defeat Obama regardless who the Republican nominee may be. Defeating Obama is the goal but we should do it with the best conservative candidate possible.

There is a difference between a momentary lapse of judgment, and some who isn’t very intelligent forcing his agenda by executive order. I reserve the term “moron” only for the inept. Perry is an utter failure as a leader, but borders on cliche’ as a Napoleonic dictator. Anyone willing to try and force someone to do something he deems “healthy” against their will is not only a moron, but something more insidious. Subsidizing illegal aliens shows that he’s not a patriot either. To attempt to rule the American people and to sell them out, and lie about running, while trying to convince people to help get you to hold the most powerful office in the world...is stupid. You may pussyfoot around the topic, but I won’t. But I respect your decision to be congenial to Perry, who has no such regard for anyone else. Have a good evening!

Newt led the revolution that saw the 2nd-largest congressional victory in history. He was then judged by his peers to be an outstanding leader in the public sphere, and was elected by them to be the leader of the house of representatives, and 3rd in line to the Presidency.

In that position, he led the house to several major victories, and also some failures. But he was clearly a leader who could persuade others to do his bidding.

Cain was a middle manager who was good at cost-cutting and problem solving. He was appointed to run a small subsidiary of Pillsbury that they had obtained in a multi-million dollar deal, a subsidiary worth possibly $150 million.

He abandoned a growth policy, and adopted a slash-and-hold strategy, cutting all franchises that were not profitable. He also cut the management staff, although in a smaller proportion to the number of franchises they had left to manage. By favoring immediate returns over growth, he managed to turn a small loss into an even smaller profit, around $2 million, or about 1% gross margin.

After the two+ years he worked to turn it around for Pillsbury, they gave up and sold the company at a loss to Cain, for somewhere between $30 million and $100 million.

He then managed the company for 8 more years, competently keeping the company at a steady earnings rate, while not growing at all. Other pizza companies took a more agressive policy, and Godfather's went from the 5th largest company to the 8th largest. He remained on the board for a half-dozen more years -- when he left, they were the 11th-largest.

Yes, he can manage an organization, and execute. In Godfather's, he had complete control of the company. He had to reach no consensus, he would make a decision and people would execute it. It is a totally different thing than being a governor, or a president, where you have to build consensus and cajole people into doing your bidding.

There is no evidence that Cain has that kind of leadership qualities. Time and again this election cycle he has gone off half-cocked, making declaratory statements without getting the facts, and looking foolish. It's just a campaign, so he was able to correct his statements each time, eventually.

But as President, you make a decision and things happen. If you mistakenly conclude that a country was behind a terror attack, and you send in the marines, it's not enough to send out your campaign chief to blame the internet for giving you the wrong information.

Most of the people who show the most rabid animosity toward Gov Perry are typical seminar posters IMHO.
They must have a bell that rings every time a Perry article is posted because within seconds after it is posted
one or two or three of them are already on here with their cut and paste ‘opinions’ and hatred oozing out of
every word. If you follow any other blogs or boards the same cut and paste words and phrases are used on all of them.
The posters have somewhat different names but the same ‘opinions’ and buzzwords.

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