I have a theory on the Gardasil thing. At the time Tx was building and funding a huge medical/cancer/bioresearch complex.
Perry was wooing Harvard’s top talent who was also a Gardasil developer. I think he was trying to demonstrate that TX would be the right place to move with his research.
Say what you will but Gardasil is the first anti-cancer vaccine. People are all hung up on the STD component and missing the forest for the trees.
Perry was putting Tx ahead of 49 other states in a very promising area of medical research. Crazy like a fox. Unfortunately he’s a hamhanded, inarticulate one.
It’s not a vaccine for cancer.
It doesn’t actually do anything for cervical cancer.
What it is, is a vaccine for certain strains of HPV, which is a virus, which you can completely avoid through not having sex with people who are infected. There are many other ways to contract cervical cancer...
“Say what you will but Gardasil is the first anti-cancer vaccine. People are all hung up on the STD component and missing the forest for the trees. Perry was putting Tx ahead of 49 other states in a very promising area of medical research. Crazy like a fox. Unfortunately he’s a hamhanded, inarticulate one.”
But it still gets into the core values question. A real conservative would run for the hills at the idea of mandating Gardasil shots - even if it meant a bunch of jobs. Someone who’s faking it, but still a good politician would ask around, and then run for the hills once they got their answer. Someone who’s clueless would jump on the idea...and make a fool of himself.
Sorry, but I see it that way. I would agree that in a debate you can mess up, and not get out of it easy, or at all. But on something like this, there are many, many, people and levels of government that will see what you’re doing before it becomes public - you MUST solicit their advice before acting. It would be interesting to some day find out that story. Did Perry ask others, or were they afraid to speak up, or maybe none of them were conservatives and therefore none of them had a clue as to how the public would react?