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.
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a consistent conservative. And the only one who has actually dealt with our southern border...say what you will.
That head line sounds like an old saturdat night live lead in line, see president ford not fall down at 11:00.
Perry was solid throughout.
Especially when Wallace brought up “less revenue” to the government. Perry correctly told him the government should learn to do with less revenue.
By offering in-state tuition to illegals?
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That little peccadillo aside, how marvelous candidate Perry actually delivers a gaffe-free interview! Color me encouraged. /s How sad a state of preparedness and ability to have to trumpet one gaffe-free interview. And, people call Cain 'inexperienced', 'simplistic' and all manner of other ills (not authentically black, not down with the struggle and other BS).
The point of all this is that if you have deep convictions and are heartfelt, you don't need to be coached, rehearsed or schooled; you speak, speak from the heart.
Perry ALWAYS does great in these interviews...wonder why anyone would be shocked with that. Geeezzz...he’s been our Texas Governor for 11 years and done so many interviews you can’t even count them all. IF he was terrible, he’d have never been our Governor this long.
Nothing like a headline like this to inspire confidence in a candidate.
He did great, this is the Rick Perry I want to see more of.
Reminds me of Young Frankenstein- "He's Aliiive!!!"
Who-hoo, I is all inspired now, sign me up I want to be a 4%er...
You mean as opposed to his “Drunk Perry” speech?
I guess since Cain’s “Smoking Man” video went viral, Perry had to put out his “Drunk Man” video to try to compete:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M4gz97Y9W8
That’s the point. Perry has always spoken from the heart, he just didn’t have the practiced 30 second sound bites you need for a debate.
True. Perry's problem is that the heart can't tell which way the wind is blowing like a wet finger and a platoon of hired guns can.
When Perry first announced I was very happy about it. When he collapsed, it deeply saddened me and I started looking around at other candidates. I’m having a hard time getting behind Cain but I’ll do it, if it comes down to that.
So stories like this are encouraging... but having been on the roller coaster once, I’m not getting my hopes up too high.
Currently in 7th place.
That’s a hard row to hoe.
Kind of like supporting Duncan Hunter in 2008.
I agree. My first thought when I saw the headline was “how sad is it when your interview is heralded as gaffe-free”. Perry is and has always been, first and foremost, a politician. I think the reason that Cain resonates with many voters is that they can tell he does have convictions and speaks from the heart. Is he perfect, heck no. But he does offer something very different from what we have been conditioned to. It’s refreshing.
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