Posted on 10/19/2011 5:22:56 PM PDT by smoothsailing
October 19, 2011
Well, this much is clear: Rick Perry's campaign takes its cues from this blog, which just a few days ago asked in a headline, "Time for Perry to Bring up Mitt's lawn care?" Apparently, it was time. The question that came to my mind as that remarkable fracas last night was occurring was: could this turn into Mitt Romney's driver's license moment? Hillary Clinton was sailing along on an aura of inevitability in the fall of 2007, acing the debates much as Romney has done, when she found herself ganged up in a Philadelphia debate over her ambiguous stance over whether or not illegal immigrants in New York state should be allowed drivers' licenses.
It was a damaging moment because it brought to the fore all at once the less appealing side of her political persona, the trimming and calculating Hillary. There was a sudden similar risk in Perry's attack on Mitt's lawn workers (and what is it, anyway, with immigration as the issue that sparks revelatory moments in both parties' debates?) -- it reacquainted viewers very clearly with the Romney that he had managed to submerge so far in the campaign, the supremely wealthy suburban Boston pol who finds it unnervingly easy to talk away past positions or actions in blatant denial of the historical record. It will be up to viewers to decide what they make of this Mitt -- appealing to Anderson Cooper to restore order, his face red, his voice raised to a full shout -- in the constant replaying that the back and forth is sure to get in the coming days. Me, I thought the Times' Alessandra Stanley nailed it: "Romney looked a little like a country club tennis player dealing with a nonmember guest who gauchely calls a ball in that was obviously out."
Still, for this to turn into an equivalent of Hillary's driver's license moment will require that there is another candidate who is able to capitalize on this opening the way that Barack Obama was able to do then, as he deftly zeroed in on the triangulating Hillary in the Jefferson-Jackson speech in Des Moines that revived his campaign. This is the chance for Rick Perry's team to prove they're as good as everyone in Texas says they are.
VIDEO-Romney & Perry Take the Gloves Off
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True humor is based on truth.
This picture is a definition of true humor.
Frankly, sounds like a phony issue to me. Can't they get him on something more substantive than that?
Great graphic.
No. It’s absurd to claim that he should have known the citizenship of the people his contractor had hired. There are many valid reasons to dislike Romney — let’s stick to those.
Do we really have to bring the leftists at New Republic in to help us hate Mittens, here at FR????
anything they have to say is suspect
Its an old issue that’s been beat to death in the last election.
Yep. It’s illegal for the the hiring landscape company to especially question or doubt employee documents, let alone for a customer of the company to.
Romney’s not my guy, but this won’t sink him.
Perry looked pitiful on that last night. Hiring a contractor to work on your home is not something that will sink his campaign.
Did the crooked real estate deal with convicted felon Tony Rezko sink the candidacy of B. Hussein Obama?
Oh wait he was a Democrat....
Sorry, but I hate RINOmney.
Almost as much as I hate the Cretin-in-Chief.
The only diff is that RINOmney would take two to three times as long to do the same slimy things as the Cretin-in-Chief has done.
He’s clever, though. Felony accomplished by him would be soooo much slicker and better packaged.
However, he’s still a slimeball.
Period.
Perry looked stupid. Perry gives a pass to employers in Texas using a MILLION cheap illegals, and gets outraged over guys mowing Romney’s lawn? A guy who is giving away cheap tuition to illegals left and right is simply in no position to point fingers on illegal immigration.
Santorum was MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE in taking down Romney on Romneycare.
We CANNOT allow Romney to be the nominee because he CANNOT make the case against Obamacare (among his other liberal positions).
Obamacare is pure tyranny and an offense against freedom. That Americans would permit government officials to decide what health care Americans should be allowed to receive is a disgrace. It is no answer for Romney to say “it is okay for a state to impose this tyranny but not the federal government.”
This is just as bad as Perry saying that the federal government shouldn’t be involved in investing taxpayer money in private businesses like Solyndra but it is okay for a state to take taxpayer money and invest in private businesses in the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
Even Gingrich is compromised on this issue with his love for the government mandate on Americans.
People love Gingrich in the debates but this is the same guy who wanted a government mandate and fell for the man-made global warming scam.
We need to keep Santorum around in the debates because he is the most effective one in taking down Romney.
Dick Morris and Ted Baxter thought it hurt Ricardo somehow.
Romney was caught TWICE with illegals working his grounds. It is possible I’m certain for a man as well connected and rich as he is to find a company they know follows the rule of law if he had really cared about the issue. In the end all he cares about is what he admitted. How it reflects on his presidential campaign. The man doesn’t care about border security or illegal workers. He cares about saying or doing whatever he has to do to win a political contest even if it involves lying.
Gloria Allred the Fascist Pig from Hell pursued Whitman to a massive electoral defeat on that particular issue.
I hired a Haitian once and he denuded all of my Eureka palms for no particularly good reason.
Took about 5 years for them to grow back in.
Santorum is a non entity. He has been a non entity ever since he was run out of office by CONSERVATIVES over endorsing Specter instead of Toomey. Even in the Gardisol debate he came second to Bachmann. The man has never laid a finger on Romney, he doesn’t have the ability to damage him. Only two people have hurt romney in this entire cycle. Perry and Cain. Cain by topping Romney in a few polls...for however long that lasts. And Perry for doing that first...but also being the only one who has shown a willingness to go for Mitt’s throat in these debates. I would have a much easier time jumping off of Perry if just one of the other people showed the same willingness to rip Romney to shreds as they have shown to Perry. Until or if that happens I stick with Perry .
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