Posted on 09/13/2011 9:30:24 AM PDT by shield
They say it aint over til its over or the fat lady sings at least a dozen times, finally making all the high notes in Aida and La Traviata in succession. Nevertheless after only his second debate things do look pretty good for Rick Perry.
And consider before this Tampa debate he was already twelve points ahead of nearest rival Mitt Romney, according to its sponsors (CNN) own poll.
So its no surprise that most of Mondays affair which mostly reprised the same questions from last weeks Reagan Library debate (this all could get pretty tedious fast) was a game of Everybody on Rick with the Texas governor, perhaps in deference to his states proximity to Mexico, as the designated piñata.
Well, not quite everybody. Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain declined to attack Perry. (I will try to explain that later.) But Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, and, of course, Romney did their best to slam Perry at every opportunity, sometimes remembering, seemingly as an afterthought, to throw in an unkind word for Barack Obama, as if the Texas governor and the not the president was the incumbent.
The five, however, did their Perry dissing in different ways. The first three Huntsman, Bachmann and Santorum I would classify as the soreheads. They are all doing miserably in the polls. Huntsman and Santorum always were. They are both currently at 2%, tied with a generic Someone else and 2 points behind None/No one. (No surprise here with Santorum who, when last facing the electorate, lost reelection in his home state of Pennsylvania by 18 points.) Who, besides their wives, really knows why they are running?
Bachmann, too, once flying high, has herself sunk to a mere 4% (tied with None/No one) since Perry entered the race. No wonder shes sore at the Texan. She took after him, as did Santorum, during the Monday debate because some years ago Perry evidently tried by fiat to have high school girls vaccinated against cancer of the cervix. Perry admitted this approach was a mistake and this whole thing had apparently been rehashed ad infinitum by Kay Bailey Hutchison in her recent, ill-fated run against Perry for the Texas gubernatorial nomination, but never mind. To Bachmann and Santorum this attempt to prevent cancer, whether ill-founded or not, was a form of child molestation or something. The more they went on about this, the more rabid, and frankly scary, they sounded.
But they never sounded quite so nutsy as Huntsman when he accused Perry of treason for not building a border fence. Either the Utah governor is suffering from a cognitive disorder or, more likely, he deliberately misunderstood Perrys position on the border. But he certainly seemed over-heated. Of course, what Huntsman was really trying to do was define Perry as the dangerous one because he had used the word treason in association with Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. But the word flew back in his face.
All of this was I would guess almost deliberately grist for Perrys mill. Which leads me to the man who is putatively the Texas governors great rival Mitt Romney. My advice to Mitt is that he start rereading his Mark Twain. Ironically, it is the New England governor who is being played for the rube here. He allowed himself to be drawn into the most obvious of traps by again accusing Perry of being excessive in his use of the term Ponzi scheme with respect to Social Security. It would scare seniors.
What a setup that was. It took Perry about thirty seconds to explain that in no way would his plans to reform Social Security affect those currently or soon receiving it. Romney was left to explain his years of attacks on Social Security in which he called the program, well, close to a Ponzi scheme. In fact, the brouhaha about the subject since last weeks debate has led to numerous identifications of interesting people who have called SS a PS in the past. My favorite is Paul Samuelson, the very liberal Nobel Prize-winning author of my freshman economics textbook.
I will put aside Ron Paul, except to say that he was roundly (and quite properly) booed for his bizarre ahistorical assertions that jihad is our fault, and skip on to the aforementioned Gingrich and Cain. They didnt attack Perry because, in part at least, I think they suspect he is going to win and are acting accordingly. Gingrich is not particularly vice-presidential material but he would make a highly qualified secretary of State (a more interesting job than Fox news commentator, I would imagine). Cain supposedly has his eye on the Senate from Georgia. Although he might not need it, an assist from a President Perry would be extremely helpful.
All politics is local, as they say. Stay tuned.
Your point is well taken and it shows something about Perry that is overlooked by those who just want to pile on.
Perry is an experienced executive. This Gardasil matter taught him a lesson about governance and leadership. This is why I believe Governors of large states are far better prepared for the Presidency than Senators or Congressman.
I LOVE Cain--maybe he'd be a great VP pick (that would get the lib race-baiters all wee-weed up for sure). Or even Palin--but the position I'd LOVE to see Palin hold is Secretary of the Interior. That would for sure produce some major Lib wee-wee!
Yep some folks are looking for the perfect candidate- one who has never made a mistake and is a hot shot debater to boot. Good luck!
Most on the stage last night do not have a day job and the only job they have is running for president and have been doing so for quite awhile - some for years such as Romney.
As far as I know, Bachman and Perry are the only ones who have anoher job other than being a retired CEO or a professional politician.
A governor for the most part has the most demanding job of all the candidates on the stage. A governor of a huge state of Texas may not be a born debater but he is running on his record or job growth and budgeting in a poor economy.
Perry’s debating skills will sharpen as he gets more experience on the national stage. Also his handlers have given him the points to cover for that night and now everyone who thinks he didn’t say the right things might be surprised when everyone is agreeing with him next week such as what happened this week with the issue of Social Security.
The one issue that Gov. Perry is going to have to walk back and explain more than any other is his support for the "in state tuition for illegals"! It will become a much bigger problem for him than SS or HPV, IMO.
I do live in Texas, right on the Mexican border, and it galls me that illegals can not only get the "in state tuition" but go on the dole as well. We are not talking about "anchor" children here, but flat out illegals.
I understand the huge problem we have concerning the number of illegals in the country and the logistics of rounding them all up and sending them back south. Not to mention the cost, but to reward the illegal behavior is just wrong. Period.
Would it keep me from voting for him in the general election? Probably not, but it will be a tough one for many conservatives to get beyond. So he has some real work ahead of him in that regard, once again in my opinion.
The opt out program is only the way to encourage parents to investigate. It forces parents to investigate and make a decision for themselves.
No, an opt in program won’t force parents to take the time to do anything. They will just be of the mindset that heir precious little girl would never need that kind of protection.
“In reading the press this am, I was reminded that GWB wasnt great in debates.”
LOLOLOL GWB cleaned Gore’s clock in all 3 presidential debates despite the MSM meme that Gore was a devastating debater.....the MSM, in order to avoid embarrasment for Al Gore, “gave him the last debate on a “close call,” even though it was clear he has lost that final debate.....
I knew/saw GWB, and R Perry isn’t that good.
His best bet is to stay as Governor, or maybe run for the US Senate. With his Pharmasutical expertise maybe he could become a cabinet member in the Dept of Health in a Palin Administration.!
Then she pretends to be "offended", yea right. She wasn't offended at all, she saw it as an opportunity to attack Perry for almost a nothing issue.
Bachmann appears to be selling out to Romney and he's more than willing to accept her help. Why?
“.......however, if Newt would stay like weve been seeing him...then he may make a good SOS.”
Why? All of Newt’s expertise is in domestic issues, with little to no diplomatic experience. Round peg in round hole. Newt doesn’t belong anywhere near State any more than Hillary did/does.
You may not have looked so good, either, if you had everyone else attacking you. The performance was despicable and Bachmann looks like a sellout to Romney.
How do you deliver a positive, energetic debate performance when the entire hour is devoted to everyone attacking you because you are the leader and CNN/MSNBC hates your guts?
I don’t recall debates where Obama was in before the last election but he can’t speak anything without a teleprompter. How good does Perry have to be to take on a teleprompter?
I don’t recall debates where Obama was in before the last election but he can’t speak anything without a teleprompter. How good does Perry have to be to take on a teleprompter?
it’s a different dynamic to debate one on one, than it is to debate 6 others especially when all participants agree on so many things.
I actually saw Perry years ago debate a democrat live. Perry beat him senseless. I actually felt a little sorry for the guy.
I would look for Perry to do that in the general election debates.
All that said, there is no harm in nothing that perhaps last night he could have been stronger....which seems to be the consensus.
It also seems to be the consensus that Bachmann’s attack won’t amount to much.
“The opt out program is only the way to encourage parents to investigate. It forces parents to investigate and make a decision for themselves.”
LOLOLOLOl The “opt out” option in RP65 was political cover for politicians like Perry that passed this onto the citizens of Texas soley to the benefit of one company. Merek.
The “opt out” is a “cop out” for crony capitalism as practiced in earnest by pols like Perry.
$4,000? Nope, not much money......except it signaled expectations of much more, to be applied at judicious times....
Sorry, I’m not buying the whole scenario as laid out by Perry and his supporters.
I enjoy Newt in the debates....however, he is not trustworthy....like I said John Bolton would be the best SOS.
Bachmann’s repetitious attacks on Perry about the Gardisil issue was more a reflection on Bachmann than on Perry. If this is all this woman has, she’s in deep doo doo and she came off looking like a desperate you-know-what.
Thank you =)
I didn’t know about the back surgery. That would explain why he seemed physically uncomfortable after standing for an hour.
I don’t know how to do mult quotes, so this is addressed to someone, but I can’t remember who (d’oh!). A debate coach would not bother me at all. A good leader knows enough to be surrounded and advised by the best. That shows leadership, not weakness (see: Obama, Barack for the latter).
Like someone else said, not many are influenced by the debates. I’m undecided on our candidate right now, but there was no doubt that the audience was with Rick Perry last night. They WANT him to succeed. I remember in 2000 Peggy Noonan (I know, I know) referring to us as Broken Glass Republicans, meaning we would crawl over broken glass to take back the White House. In 2012, we’ll jump through fire, too.
As a wife, I wasn’t impressed by Perry saying he’d bring his beautiful wife to the WH (I hate that forced lovey dovey junk). It sounded smarmy like something Romney would say. I’d rather he had said he’d bring PRIDE back to the WH or at least a man’s pair of jeans. =D
If no one was going to plug Palin for Prez I was going to do it.
GWB seemed pretty lackluster in the debates to me. He made me cringe every time he said “We need to LET people keep SOME of their money...” in the context of talking about privatizing social security.
Not quite the firebrand that Sarah would be.
We’ll know what she’s decided by Oct 1
You know what? I’m going to say it. I don’t want Palin to join the race now. I was a fan, but she’s really pissed me off in the last year or 2. This whole “tease” is unbecoming, unprofessional & undignified. When Potato Head McCain asked her to be his VP, she said she didn’t blink. It was refreshing to see such a decisive leader. But all this coy posturing errodes that. If she can’t make up her mind whether or not she wants this job, she’s not decisive enough to lead the country. What she doesn’t realize is that many of us have moved on.
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