Posted on 10/30/2011 12:21:46 PM PDT by smoothsailing
October 30, 2011
These days, no news is good news for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. In the first two months of his presidential campaign, Perry's media appearances have been associated with blunders, a big reason why he quickly tumbled from frontrunner status to the back of the pack in polls. But in an extended interview with Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace this morning in Austin, Perry was able to stay completely on message and was unrattled by critical questions about his campaign and policy proposals.
“I’ve laid out a plan, and I’ve got the record and courage to put that in place,” Perry told Wallace, getting at the heart of the case for his candidacy. The clear message was that his new tax and spending plan was superior to Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan while his record as a conservative governor in Texas and willingness to stick to his principles makes him a better choice than Mitt Romney.
“I have been a consistent conservative," Perry said. "I have always been in favor of the Second Amendment, protecting the Second Amendment, I’ve always been pro-life. I’ve always been a fiscal conservative. And Mitt’s been on both sides of those issues. He’s been for a ban on guns in Massachusetts. He’s been for pro-abortion. He’s been for supporting gay rights and now, he’s on the other side of those issues.”
When Perry released his plan this week, one question was whether he'd be able to defend it in interviews and debates. At least this morning, he was able to deflect Wallace's challenges to it, at least in a way that would reassure conservative primary voters.
For instance, when asked if his plan would blow a hole in the federal budget given that it would slash revenues, Perry talked about the economic growth that would help generate revenue and the spending cuts that would accompany lower taxes.
When Wallace followed up by asking the usual trap question for Republicans about what specific area they would cut, Perry noted that Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., had released a plan detailing $9 trillion in possible cuts, and then explained a specific education reform that would save $25 billion.
Policy analysts would quibble -- it would have been better had he spoken about how to reform Medicare, which is the biggest problem facing our nation's long-term budget outlook. But the point is, agree or disagree, he did provide cogent answers to questions about his plan.
This leaves us with the following questions about his candidacy: can Perry replicate this performance in the coming months, most importantly, in upcoming debates? And even if he does drastically improve as a candidate, has he already dug himself too deep of a hole to recover? A Des Moines Register poll taken this morning shows Cain at 23 percent, Romney at 22 percent and Perry in fifth place with just 7 percent.
And, that is EXACTLY my problem with him. His acceptance of illegals into society as if they were citizens is absolutely NOT what I want in a president, period. You don't need to wet your finger to know the majority of people in this country want illegals out of it. It is called sovereignty. When you undermine the laws designed to keep the country sovereign, you diminish it.
Perry is by far the best of the bunch. I’m definitely not counting him out.
So easy a child could do it. Maybe one day Perry can do it too.
I don’t see what the problem is for Perry if he debates Obama all he has to do is point out the lies when Obama speaks because zero cannot help telling a lie. And Obama is known for his gaffes too guarantee he will say plenty when he starts debating perry or anyone else.
Well, have no fear. This “Perry believes this....and Perry does that...” will be over in not much more time. He’s at 6% now, he won’t be the first to drop out, but he’ll follow soon after the one that does.
What did you think when Perry was questioned about the number of jobs that it wouldn’t meet population growth and he responded that he didn’t believe Wallace’s numbers. I liked Perry a lot in this interview.
The big questions is: Who will they throw their support behind when they do drop out??
Missed the Fox interview, but on C-span radio this am they were re-playing Perry’s interview with the (NH) Union Leader and he sounded pretty impressive. He made a point of not letting the interviewer gloss over areas where he’s had a problem with the base, i.e., securing the border and in-state tuition. He chose to take those topics head-on, and did very well.
I fully support my Gov. Rick, at this point.
I like Cain too, but I’m not convinced he can really be elected with no political experience. You have to know where the bodies are buried to get anything done.
At least it won’t be Mitt Romney.
I agree, Obama can’t defend his record in a debate. His arrogance would get him in trouble right away. All Perry would have to do is smile and use the Reagan line “There you go again”.
Too little, and way too late.
But it does show that Fox is SCARED TO DEATH of Cain, since they’re trying to perform life resuscitation on Perry.
Perry will do fine in debates with Obama since it will be one-on-one. He just doesn’t do as well with too many people. I wouldn’t worry about it - the 1%ers will be out soon enough.
When Perry apologizes, I'll listen. Until then, he's still nothing more than a walking gaffe-machine who crumbles under pressure (debates.)
Good to hear!
If you want to watch and listen to the complete 26 minute Fox interview with Perry and Chris Wallace today, just click on the picture in post #1. It’s good quality video. :)
“he still hasn’t apologized to Conservatives like myself whom he called “Heartless””
But I thought he did apologize? Oh but I forgot, you wounldn’t accept it anyway, so no point.
“Perry will do fine in debates with Obama since it will be one-on-one.”
What makes you think that? I can promise you that if Romney or Perry make it on the November ticket, there will be at least one Third Party running, and that run will be STRONG, since it will likely be a conservative.
We all held our noses in 2008, we WILL NOT do that again.
Can you tell me the time marker in the interview where he APOLOGIZED for calling a substantial part of the Conservative base "heartless" for not wanting to pay to educate the children of ILLEGAL ALIENS, when we have a hard enough time financially paying for our own children?
TIA.
I'd happily accept his apology if in face he made a sincere one. I haven't heard any apology at all. If you can point me to the video of one, by all means please do so.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.