Posted on 11/13/2011 5:24:29 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Taking a page from Ronald Reagan, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Saturday sought to use humor to rebound from his much-noted debate flub earlier in the week. That flub, a 53-second brain freeze that was replayed endlessly on news shows, had him forgetting the name of the Department of Energy, the third federal agency he pledges to eliminate.
So Perry was quick to cut off CBS’ Scott Pelley, one of the debate moderators in South Carolina, when he began a question, saying, “Governor Perry, you advocate the elimination of the Department of Energy. If you eliminate the Department of Energy...”
“I'm glad you remembered it,” interjected Perry with a big smile as the audience broke into applause and laughter. Pelley responded, “I've had some time to think about it, sir.” And Perry shot back again to even more laughter, “Me, too.”
Far from being uptight after his earlier stumble, Perry was loose even before the debate. Backstage before the TV lights came on, Perry said to fellow candidate Rick Santorum, “So tonight if I need a lifeline, I'm just gonna look to you, OK?”
Santorum laughed and offered to “fill in the blanks” for the Texan. The two men then high-fived each other. At that point, they laughed about Rep. Ron Paul telling Perry after the Michigan debate that “everybody has that happen, most people just don't do it in front of four million people.” In South Carolina, Paul laughed and told Santorum, “I was trying to make him feel better.”
Perry’s use of humor was reminiscent of Reagan’s rebound in 1984 after the then-president's performance in that year's first presidential debate with Democratic nominee Walter F. Mondale raised questions about whether age had dulled Reagan's mental quickness. At the second debate, Reagan was ready when he question came up. “I will not make age an issue in this campaign," he said. "I'm not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience.” The lasting image from that debate is Mondale laughing heartily at the joke at his expense. And the question of Reagan’s age was put to rest for the campaign.
I received this email today (see below) and I am truly not surprised that Rick Perry would make a personal call to a Gold Star Father. I say that because I had my own personal encounter with Rick Perry and, I've got to tell you, he warmed my heart on a cold day in October, here in Illinois.
I had the honor and privilege of meeting Rick Perry in Carpentersville, Illinois, at Otto Engineering, hosted by Jack Roser. As someone who has made countless trips up to the hill in DC on behalf of our Soldiers in Leavenworth, something told me that meeting Rick Perry would be a worthy endeavor in this cause. Just a feeling I had.
After his speech, it looked like he was heading out the door. Well, I didn't come all this way for nothing, and I wasn't going home empty handed! I rushed to the front and, God forgive me, I was pushing and pushy. A friend came behind me (I don't mention other names in my work) and kept the folks back, and I dove in. I thanked him for his service and, as I was wearing my Son's wings, he immediately asked whose they were and expressed his appreciation for my Son's service.
I asked him if he knew we had Soldiers in Leavenworth and his response was, “Is it 10 or 11?” Once he said that I knew I did not need to clarify anything else and simply asked him, if he makes it to the White House, will he take every one of these cases and put them under a magnifying glass, and release those who shouldn't be there. He took me by the shoulders, bent down and looked in my eyes and said, “I promise you that is exactly what I will do.”
He might have forgotten a Department, but he has not forgotten our Soldiers. Our Soldiers matter to him and I pray he makes it to the White House. His heart is with them.
Beverly Perlson
The Band of Mothers
http://www.burkslaw.blogspot.com/2010/02/haskell.html
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Haskell
It is an uncommon word.
And a more uncommon name.
It's my dad's first name.
Why? I asked my grandmother that question.
“I heard it one day, and I just liked it. So that's what we named him.”
Pops has been called Hershcel, Hashmill, and a thousand other twisted versions over the years.
When Pete was born, he was named for his two grandfathers. Peter Haskell Burks.
The day after Pete was killed, I was sitting at the dining room table with Hardtail, just trying to make sense of all that was going on.
My cell phone rang. “Unknown” said the caller ID.
Thought about letting it pass, but I answered it.
“Alan, this is Rick Perry.”
Rick Perry was and is the Governor of Texas.
I had never met him, never made a contribution, never known anything about him.
Governor Perry, or Rick as he insisted, talked to me for 35 minutes that day.
He is the Governor of a state of 25 million people.
But he talked to me that day as one father to another.
He wanted to know about Pete, his family, his time at Texas A&M, his fiancee.
There are over 400 Gold Star families in Texas from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
I don't know for sure, but I suspect Governor Perry has talked to them all.
I was invited to a fundraiser tonight for Governor Perry. He is in a competitive primary facing Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
I'm not real polically active, but I went because I wanted to meet Rick Perry and thank him for that phone call.
The function was at a mansion in Highland Park.
There were at least 400 people there.
I got in the greeting line.
When it was my turn, I put out my hand.
“Governor, we've not met personally, but we have talked before. You called me the day after my son was killed in Iraq.”
“Alan, it is so good to meet you. Pete's middle name is Haskell. Named after his grandfather. Thank you for coming tonight.”
“Governor, I just wanted to come say thanks for that phone call. It meant a lot.”
With a greeting line of hundreds of young Republicans eager to shake his hand and have a photo taken, he took me by the arm and we walked to a far corner of the room. I could see the security guy and his aides eyes open wide.
We talked for about ten minutes. He expressed his appreciation for Pete's sacrifice. He was aware of the Unsung Hero Fund and our shipments to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. He wanted to know how everyone was doing.
As we ended the chat, I noticed a tear in his eye.
“Alan, I want you to know you and your family have been and will be in my prayers.”
He went back to the greeting line and gripping and grinning.
He didn't have to call me that day.
He didn't have to spend the time with me he did tonight.
But he did.
That says something to me about the character of the man.
I'm sure that Kay Bailey Hutchison is a fine person.
But I do know that when I went to Washington, D.C. last year, she was the only Texan in Congress that didn't meet with me personally.
And for whatever reason, her letter of condolence about Pete arrived almost a year after his death.
I don't know Rick Perry from sic em.
But I do know he took time out of his life to console me and to express his interest and concern for my family.
Interestingly, Rick Perry was born and raised in Haskell, Texas.
Posted by Alan Burks at 8:20 PM
Anybody can drop bucks or bombs, Jack. So don’t colour me impressed if you stress how much your country has done on either point anywhere.
I’m looking for either acts that have successfully shaped enemy countries to a better state of mind.
I’m sure there might be some, but I can’t think of any place, since South Korea.
What a beautiful letter about a man with a heart as big as Texas!
Thank you for posting that letter. Gives some nice insight into a good man’s heart.
But! But.. Slick Rick is an evil Crony Capitalist, Illegal Lovin Rube *** Texan!!
It is so good to see this kind of edgy sarcasm on FR. To spoof on the joke that is Perry by point an entire thread that pretends to support his moribund campaign is wickedly clever. Kudos!
Of course with Perry basically reduced to being a punchline, he is becoming almost satire proof. At some point he's just too pitiful to mock.
The anti-Perry posters who jump on these threads are just plain nasty.
That added to their mindless drivel and name calling makes a pretty picture.
They cannot seem to post praise for their candidate without trashing someone else’s.
Perrywinkle, fangirl, .... How would these babies like it if we used similarly derogatory names for them?
But we are too nice for that.
Perry Krishna is my fave. LoL
And they say pretty much the same, lame, tired old garbage every thread and think they're being clever.
I wish they could see themselves as rational people do...
Then you've probably missed the ones that "Classy Green Eyed Liz" has had removed in the past. A couple of them have been exceptionally vile.
However, I agree that the comparison to Sandusky is way over the line and uncalled for.
Oh I agree that Liz does not do her side any good.
And then they try to say that Ricardo Kahn is a christian.
_____________________________________________________________
If you wouldn’t make statements like that, people would not know just how ignorant you are. He didn’t say that the Imam was a believer in a “true religion”. He did not give him a “pass to heaven”. He just welcomed him as a humanitarian. What would you have had him do? Say: “Get the hell outa Texas you damn heretic.”
It’s not what one thinks about a “religious” leader, of any ilk, that makes them a Christian. It’s what one thinks about and professes about Jesus Christ. And, I can’t believe I’m sitting here taking up for Rick Perry. But to set in judgment of one’s Christianity just ruffles my feathers.
Ricardo Kahn?
BTW Christian is written with a capital C.
This denotes respect.
LIKE
Pass my comment to editor~surveyor.
I didnt mean to come down on you.
I see that I have stepped in it and opened up a maelstrom.
LoL
I am ducking out now prior to the theological debate.
Perry had worked up a slew of issues that he thought would carry him forward----together with millon and millions of campaign dollars raised BEFORE he entered the race.
Unfortunately for him, his groundwork did not fly with the voters. Perry's sucking up to Islam and Mexico....... flaunted as his foreign credentials................bombed bigtime.
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