Oh Lucy ... You can keep your doctor if you want to.
Posted on 03/26/2014 11:58:54 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Republican starlets Rick Perry and Sarah Palin are both known for their personalities, love of guns, sexiness, and moments of TV humiliation, but only one of them is doing something to avoid forever being labelled an idiot. After his intellectual humiliation during the last presidential election cycle — during which he was unable to remember his own policy points — Perry is becoming considerably more wonkish than we’ve previously known him, fashioning himself as something of an elder statesman, in stark contrast to Palin.
The Texas governor, a pair of smart-person glasses now permanently attached to his face, has been busy recasting himself as an mild intellectual and business expert. On Monday, Perry discussed the job-creating potential of Tesla in Texas, condemning the "antiquated" rule that prohibits carmakers from selling directly to customers. On Tuesday, he appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe to declare an issue in the Texas governor's race, equal pay, "nonsense" and suggested candidates turn to more “substantive issues,” as Politico reports. He's waded into the debate over Internet gaming, Politico notes. And he's embraced prison sentencing reform.
Meanwhile, we're about to see Palin prance around on yet another reality TV show. Following the debacle of the 2008 campaign, the advice to Palin from Washington was largely as follows: go back to Alaska, buckle down, and learn things to prevent similar disaster next time. She did not do that. Writing in Commentary in 2011, John Podhoretz lamented, "She embarrassed herself in two interviews, and decided the blame lay not with her own ill-preparedness but with the media that had come after her..." and eventually "came to embrace her status as a kind of martyr for the social-conservative views that had not been the truly distinguishing features of her meteoric political career." The New York Times' Ross Douthat agreed, writing, "Palin was caricatured viciously, but in response she decided to essentially become the caricature, giving her enemies exactly the kind of Spiro Agnew-in-heels performance they expected, and then chasing celebrity in destructive (if lucrative) ways once the initial firestorm around her subsided." A few years later, that's still true: Palin is set to launch a TV channel, Rogue TV, and star in Amazing America with Sarah Palin, a show about to put the Sportsman Channel on the cable TV map.
Like Palin, Perry was caught unprepared, or tired, or something, and was painfully inarticulate during a Republican primary debate. But it's as if Perry listened to all the advice Palin got, and actually followed it.
Compare what the two did at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this month. Palin delivered a speech in which she pretended to read aloud from Green Eggs and Ham, to rousing applause. Young Republicans passed out free posters of her riding a horse, and there were red tote bags promoting her new show. Perry, on the other hand, sat on a lengthy panel about prison sentencing reform, alongside Grover Norquist and former New York City Police Chief Bernie Kerik, a veritable expert on the criminal justice system.
Perhaps Perry was chosen for presiding over more executions than anyone in American history, but the point is this: while Palin gave the people what the wanted, a caricature forever spouting quotable gems of Alaskan wisdom, Perry spoke about “real conservative governance”: shutting down prisons, lowering recidivism rates, and saving money. It was well-received.
Neither Perry or Palin have officially announced decisions to run in 2016 — Palin merely flirted with a campaign in 2011, to Karl Rove's frustration. When asked about his presidential ambitions this week, Perry said, "I'm keeping the option open, absolutely." So who knows, it's possible they could face off at the podium.
In terms of success, we doubt Perry is going to get his own TV channel, let alone a reality show, anytime soon. But while Palin maintains the glamour, its Perry's political career that's not dead yet.
Oh Lucy ... You can keep your doctor if you want to.
You are confused. Palin is old news. Lucy Wescott nailed it; Palin might was well go back to DWTS.
Perry - on the other hand - has potential.
Who is Lucy Wescott and why do we care what her opinion is?
Watch Rick and see what happens. He is really good and would make a great President.
Umm...
Glad to see your flak vest still fits. ;-)
There is at least one similarity: I would have voted for either.
There sure is a difference between Palin and Perry.
From the Houston Chronicle:
The Tea Party favorite admitted that many have referred to his victory as “improbable.” He told Allen that the reason why Palin’s endorsement has had such an enormous impact is because voters consider her a true barometer of conservatism.
“In a Republican primary, everyone claims to be conservative and voters are pretty cynical. They are tired of these candidates that sounds great on the stump. They say they are going to cut spending, they get into the office and they become spineless jellyfish,” Cruz said. “I think conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is a real deal.”
He has explosive RINOism, so I’m not so sure he’d be a “great” president, but he’d probably more effective than Bush was.
If it came down to Jeb, Perry or Christie, I’d hold my nose and vote for Perry
I think you are right because she is someone I could vote “for” as opposed to voting “against” a presidential candidate.
Her daughter was on DWTS, not her. If Wescott made that distinction, then her research skills a poor
In some ways there is a truth about them being opposites. When Perry first became governor here in Texas, he was the biggest “hack” in politics I’ve ever seen, totally beholden to his big-money donors and to hell with anyone else. He actually got better over the years, one of the ONLY examples I’ve ever encountered of a politician going in the ‘right’ direction while in office. However, I still have my doubts about him reverted back to norm if he obtained higher office. And he’s rotten on border/amnesty issues, to boot.
Palin was the total opposite when she was governor... incredibly independent from outside forces, and starkly NOT beholden to special interests, party machinery, corporate pressures, the media, nor just about anything else beyond the people and her state’s constitution. Quite the anomaly in the sleazoid world of politics, and why I still hold her in highest regard.
Didn't Ronald Reagan have a television show?
AUTHOR PROFILE
LUCY WESTCOTT
Lucy Westcott is a politics and culture reporter. Born in Swindon, U.K., she was partly raised in suburban Chicago, where her love for all things America started after a steady diet of early 2000s Saturday Night Live. A recent graduate of University of Maryland, College Park, she has yet to hear an American master a English accent. Send over comments, tips, questions and ideas to lucywestcott6@gmail.com.
Great comments. I also think people outside of Texas don’t have any real idea how politics in our state is actually run. I’ve been here since 1985 and although involved in politics for the last ten years, just really began to understand who it is that makes the key decisions during the last two or three years. If we can get Dewhurst totally out of Austin I suspect that there will be some surprises in store for who calls the shots in the future.
Palin had a whole lot more power as governor of Alaska than Perry has as governor of Texas.
So does the Pope.
https://www.catholictv.com/shows/papal-programming
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