Type?
“Rove-type RINO, Perry is.”
Posted on 07/21/2011 1:56:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
In the Russell Senate Office Building Caucus Room, Fred McClure was watching the crowd. It was March 1978, and the American Agriculture Movement — a pressure group for government support of farm prices — was meeting with Texan congressmen.
A legislative aide to Sen. John Tower (R.), McClure was leaning on a door when a rancher from Paint Creek, Texas, named Rick Perry walked past. Newly retired from the Air Force, Perry held a degree in animal science from Texas A&M. His class ring gave him away.
Spotting the ring, McClure, a fellow Texas A&M grad, introduced himself, and the two hit it off. Thirteen years later McClure, a notary public, would swear Perry into office as Texas’s agriculture commissioner, his first statewide office.
[snip]
Ken Luce, who managed Perry’s campaign for agriculture commissioner in 1990, believes the advantage extends beyond Iowa. “The agriculture economy is very important from Florida all the way to California and in between,” he says. As agriculture commissioner, Perry felt comfortable getting into the weeds of agriculture policy, such as inspecting gas pumps and determining funding for fire-ant programs. And, perhaps most importantly, the skills Perry sharpened in winning his first statewide race could be useful if he runs for president.
In 1990, Perry was an obscure state legislator running against one of the most popular Texas politicians of the 1980s: Jim Hightower. Although Hightower had the advantage of incumbency, Perry rallied several important constituencies to his side. Farmers were livid with Hightower over his opposition to pesticides and his favoritism toward niche markets such as organic foods. Perry argued that Texas should support its mainstays, such as cotton and wheat. When the European Community temporarily banned imports of hormone-treated beef, Perry urged Hightower to stick up for Texas ranchers (instead, Hightower suggested they could sell hormone-free beef to Europe).
“Hightower ignored mainstream agriculture for years, so they were riled up and Rick got them to cross over,” Luce says. Perry beat the well-liked incumbent, 49 percent to 47 percent, even while the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Clayton Williams, lost to Democrat Ann Richards.
[snip]
Perry also won his election the old-fashioned way, outspending his opponent by about $400,000. And many of Perry’s attacks on Hightower hit less on his agricultural incompetence and more on his unabashed liberalism (especially his endorsement of Jesse Jackson for president in 1988). Perry took the personality contest to such an extreme that when Hightower cut his finger in a lawnmower accident a few days before the election, Perry told reporters the event showed Hightower’s “total lack of common sense.”
[snip]
And as for Perry’s retail skills, Luce says they’re Grade A. “Rick campaigned in all 256 counties in the state,” he says. “He went to rural and urban areas; he did small and big events. Rick is a campaigner.”
Perry may be a latecomer to the Iowa race, but he is an old hand at face-to-face politics. This former Texas agriculture commissioner knows a thing or two about grass roots.
Who would take an Alaskan seriously?
BTW, I’m NOT in Australia, I am at this very moment in Wasilla, AK.
That’s nice.
Type?
“Rove-type RINO, Perry is.”
Agreed. I watched the clip and saw no “seething”, and it also appears as you say that when he took Palin’s arm he was moving her back to the microphone.
Nor did I sense that he “cut short” the presser; they were at a conference, had another session to get to, and the presser was over.
We don’t need to be creating unnecessary conflicts between two people who both could be strong candidates for the presidency. I hope both, if both get in, remember Reagan’s 11th commandment, and run against Obama, not the other Republicans.
It’ll never happen, but it would be an interesting “out of the box” approach to retaking the White House for Palin and Perry to jointly announce their candidacies, with the proviso that whoever came in second would occupy the vice-presidential slot. I could enthusiasticlly support either Palin/Perry or Perry/Palin, and would love to watch elitist heads explode as University of Idaho and Texas A & M grads bury Obama in an historic landslide and started sweeping failed ivy’s out of every nook and cranny of our government.
And when watching the video you can see they both know someone off camera is signaling for them to wrap it up, yet Perry let’s Palin take more questions and even moves her back to the podium.
I think posters need to read your comments and reflect.
Hate to say it but I would pass on voting for him, maybe it is the Texas thing, but then it could be his flip flops.
Who is your candidate?
If you are saying the crab fishing people are from Alaska you would be wrong, most of them live in Seattle Washington. And a large, very large percentage of people in Alaska live off welfare as does the state.
Ted Stevens
Perry did not retire from the Air Force. He served 72-77 and was a C13 pilot
I pray for the day I can afford to leave Alaska and live in a warmer climate during the winter, summers ares short, sweet, cool and totally awesome. Jobs are balls to the wall right now, I work 10 or more hours a day 6 days a week.
But it gets to be a drag when it gets really cold. And when I get laid off from november to april or even may.
A lot of jobs are seasonal, a lot of workers are seasonally from out of state, its the way it is here. The smart and successful ones have homes elsewhere like Hawaii or Arizona, I have plans on working in Australia myself.
Not a lot of people work year round, sure they do like at the stores, Walmart, Home Depot but those jobs are not the seasonal dangerous, skilled or high rewarding ones.
C 130
There is almost no factory jobs up here, hardly any place for unskilled workers. There are places like the big box stores and of course the slime lines of the fish factories but hardly any year round assembly jobs that you are accustomed to seeing in the lower 48.
But with the right skill a person can make out like a bandit and should only have to really work just a couple of months a year.
Kinda makes a real knock against a socialist society in a way because you just cannot force or introduce a peoples work force in Alaska, unless its a prison. And even that project has recently failed.
That is why so many people run up there work during tourists season and then back to the lower 48. Brother said the owner of the boat he went fishing on lived in North Carolina . Very telling!!!!
Its quite normal for it to be that way, winter is terribly long unless you actually make a thriving income during it.
I have lived here since 1992 and I dread the upcoming 6 months of winter.
But I refuse to travel outside the state, especially knowing that jobs are much much worse in the lower 48, my job pays well and I will stay with it even if it kills me, why?
Because there isn’t anything else any better, thats a fact. Not for me at my age.
There's no running away from that. And oh, BTW, El Presidente Mexicano Vincente Fox has thanked Perry profusely for supporting in-state tuition for illegals.
You made me remember the story about the guy that retired in a place that had snow for the first time. He went from happy to crazy, LOL
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