Posted on 11/09/2011 8:50:24 PM PST by This Just In
Why Rick Perry's Brain Freeze Matters
By W. James Antle, III on 11.9.11 @ 10:49PM
Everybody has at some point lost their train of thought. I've set out to make multiple points on television and forgotten one, or forgotten if I had run through them all, before myself. So on one level, Rick Perry's inability to remember the third federal agency he would eliminate is simply part of being human.
Unfortunately, it also seems to be a big part of what it means to be candidate Rick Perry. There are small debate gaffes that seem to sum up what's wrong with an entire campaign -- Bob Dole's "Democrat wars" line in 1976, George Bush looking at his watch in 1992, Al Gore sighing prissily and behaving like a lunatic in 2000. This is one of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
“It’s not like Perry was asked the name of the second assistant to the undersecretary for contraception of Zimbabwe...it was his own point that he could not remember!”
I feel too embarrassed, being from Texas, to actually watch him. But I have been saying for months that when Perry last year promised Texans that he would not run for president (he was up for re-election), he was not lying - he had never given it any thought. But then Mitch Daniels, the Indiana governor that lived in a crack-house during college, but didn’t know it (he also sold out his toll road to a foreign company), dropped out - and POW!! that was the opening he (or maybe Anita) needed.
So he jumped in, figuring that he could use the same method that’s worked so well in Texas - which is to ignore the competition, and wait to be coronated (in fact, in 10 years and 3 elections, he’s only had 4 debates as governor, and 3 of them were in 2002, I think). For whatever reason, either the media doesn’t care about him, or the people of the state don’t - but I think it’s safe to say that most Texans on this site (me included) have learned much more about Perry in the past 2 months, as opposed to the past 10 years.
The problem he’s had since running for prez is that the others are serious and have spent years (if not longer) preparing, and were not about to roll over and play dead (as the Republicans do for him in Texan). He was going to have to FIGHT for the nomination and that would have been a difficult job for a governor who’d been planning to be president for years...and is next to impossible for a governor who’s only had a few months to prepare.
Finally, there was a clue when his grades at Texas A&M University were released. They were horrendous (something like a 2.16 out of 4.0). To me they showed someone that didn’t learn stuff quickly, or at least didn’t learn stuff that he wasn’t particularly interested in.
So, in the end, not a surprise to this Texan. Also not a surprise that he had been in the lead for a short time...I don’t blame the country for wanting a piece of the Texas Miracle. And on that, I have always credited Perry for not screwing up the state. He inherited a healthy economy and was fortunate to have a state constitution that essentially prohibited ‘extracting equity’ from homes - and thus prevented the housing bubble...and did not significantly screw that up.
But the problem at the federal level is that the next president doesn’t inherit the ‘Texas Miracle’, rather he (or Hillary) inherits a government drowning in debt, with even bigger future obligations; a country that could go the way of Greece and now Italy, at any time. Sitting back and doing nothing is not enough...we’ll need someone that can lead and explain to people that uncomfortable things must take place to get this country healthy again.
Sadly, this was Perry’s Howard Dean Moment (although, it wasn’t THAT bad).
Good analysis. I’m also a native Texan, and I’ve been warning people on conservative sites for months not to dive so fast onto the Perry bandwagon. I got some grief over it, but maybe now they’re starting to see why.
Have you ever heard Barry Soreto try to make a coherent sentence when his teleprompter goes out. He sounds like a gangbanger with a third grade education. Uh, Uh, ah, ah, uh, uh, ah, ah. He sounds like an idiot. There’s a reason why he refuses to release his college transcripts. This tongue tied stooge was elected president of the United States. How many times has he been called an idiot by the media for sounding exactly like one when that teleprompter goes out. The answer. Never. It’s bad enough seeing the liberal networks say how stupid Perry is. But I never thought I would hear it so much on this board. The man is human. Obama gets every break in the world, Romney is never called out for basically BSing his way around any question and never giving specifics on anything. But every move that Perry makes is questioned and belittled. It’s not right. By the way the winner of that so-called debate tonight was Ron Paul, who sounds like a college professor trying to explain economics to a class full of students.
Look. I loathe Obama. But someone else’s stupidity is irrelevant as it pertains to another. Saying, essentially, “well they did it too” doesn’t address the problem at all. Yeah, Obama is horrid and needs to go. But Perry is STILL a moron and needs to go too.
On the other hand, it is very easy to imagine him being utterly humiliated by Obama in debate after debate. It is also easy to imagine the MSM ripping him to shreds and Perry being unable to defend himself or defend conservative viewpoints. I remember Perry being called a "slick politician" here on FR. Was that ever wrong!
He had spinal fusion surgery just a few months ago. I wouldn’t assume there are not some ongoing physical effects and perhaps ongoing medication.
He does not look alert, except in brief moments, and he looks physically uncomfortable, even when he is not speaking but merely watching the other candidates.
If I liked his record as governor, I suppose I could find a way to overlook this - perhaps. Adding this shot in his own foot to the others and piling on the major goofs he has made as governor as well leaves me thinking:
MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN
Chris Bell should challenge Barack for the Democrat nomination. He lost races for Houston Mayor, House of Reps., Governor. He should put in onward and upward to prove the Peter Principle.
Chris Bell will forever be a footnote in the anus of history for launching the “ethics” probe against Tom DeLay as a lame duck congressman when he found himself voted out of office because redistricting permitted a BLACK democrat to take his seat. What a racist putz rat. Just the Democrat the challenge Obama.
My wife had that surgery, followed by a heart cath. I have known others to have issues with their heart following the surgery as well. I wonder if he has been checked out recently as low blood oxygen could explain some of the lack of concentration and fatigue as well.
Good grief. It’s Perry’s record as governor that I like not whether or not he’s silver-tongued and slick like that weasel Obama.
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Please. Give it up!!! Perry dude doesn’t have it. He’s my Governor (embarrassing to have to admit that) and I’ve said for years that the guy is a light-weight who is the Governor of a State where the Guv’s office is a “weak” position in Texas; almost ceremonial. After tonight’s Debate, put a fork in him; he’s done. Why do the Perry supporters prolong the inevitable. LET IT GO!!!
His surgery was in June.
The jogging might be trying to put on a good show so as not to raise questions of his health, who knows.
If the country had not suffered Bush’s inability to verbally fight with the Left and explain and defend his actions, people would not be intolerant of Perry’s weakness in verbal expression. He had no slick representatives to fight in the media and he could not do it. I am not prone to being for slick talkers as a priority in a candidate - normally.
But it’s not okay at this time after Bush (Rove) failed so miserably to fight off the Dems on every major issue facing his presidency beginning with the 911 investigation when he put Jamie Gorlick on the panel to cover up for Clinton, and rampaging through the Iraq war where Condi Rice got him to say there were no WMD, and finally the bankster real estate loan scam Clinton worked out with the banksters during his term and the bankster bailouts that no one thought was right.
Tooooooo much unsaid and all the communist spins, cover ups and lies stuck.
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