[Essie]

I think he should stay in. Neither Santorum, Gingrich or Paul can win, so all that would be left is Romney.

[Jedidah]

We are going to field a bad candidate to oppose Obama in November.

I will vote for that bad candidate.

I hope it’s not Romney, with all my heart I do.

However, if he wins SC on Saturday, it most likely will be.

I don’t like Rick Perry, but I would thank him and admire him for doing what’s right and endorsing Gingrich, whom I now believe to be the only way to stop Romney.

[JDW11235]

Perry will not bow out until after his hat is handed to him, yet again, in SC. Then he’ll say it was for the good of the party/country/whatever. The truth is he wanted to bow out after Iowa, but wanted to save face so he can run again in the future, without being knocked out in the first round. Now he can pretend he’s not an insider, blah, blah, blah. If Romney win’s SC, Perry will get out. If Romney loses SC, Perry may stay in to distract again for him in Florida, and THEN get out. We’ll see if he’s the stalking horse or not.

[Slings and Arrows]

Just once - once! - it would be nice if conservative pols didn’t form a circular firing squad.

[Azzurri]

Perry needs to stay in thru South Carolina, but if he comes in under 10% then it’s over. If he gets over the 10% threshold, he should make one last stand in Florida. I personally prefer Perry over both Gingrich and Santorum.

[Jeff Head]

If a Romney nomination is to be stopped, all of the conservative candidates have to get behind a leader.

I believe the latest that can happen is after Florida...but the sooner the better.

At this point, I believe Newt is on the surge and has the wherewithall to win against Romney and against Obama. I believe Perry and Santprum could too if they had the votes and the dollars. But the most astute of them all, particularly if he stays on game, is Newt, despite some of his own foibles (which they all have).

Now, if we cannot do this, and Romney wins the nomination I will vote for him and suuipport him against Obama who is a marxist hell bent on destroying our nation. I believe Romney can beat Obama...but I would much rather see a Newt, Perry or Santorum do it and then work together with a Tea Party oriented House and Senate to turn this nation around.

[DoughtyOne]

Perry Under Pressure to Bow Out, Endorse Another Conservative

This is a good example of something I see on FoxNews all the time.  As part of a comment, something that isn't really true is offered up buttressing a false premise.

Conservatives believe in individual rights and freedoms.  They do not believe in issuing an edict that infringes on those rights and freedoms.

Along comes a man who issued an Executive Order that would have forced all 14 year old girls to submit to a Gardasil regimine before they could continue with their schooling, unless they could talk their parents into signing a waver.  Many of those parents were naturally going to think the state must know better than them, and refuse to sign this sort of waver.  This would have left the 14 year old girls without an advocate on their side.

This is not the action of a Conservative folks.  His own state legislature overturned his Executive Order by a two-thirds majority.  He even admits it was a big mistake.  And yet people who consider themselves to be Conservatives, don't give it a second thought.  "Why he's the biggest Conservative out there."

And we wonder why we're in trouble.

The title of this article shoud read, "Perry Under Pressure to Bow Out, Endorse Another Candidate"  (or A Conservative)  In this instance, sadly, he couldn't endorse another Conservative, because he is not a Conservative himself.

[Kenny]

reflecting on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s endorsement of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

Palin did NOT endorse Newt. Said she'd vote for him in SC to keep process going. Also said no one should drop out just yet, need to see more.

[GOPyouth]

I think Erikson may be correct. I'm a huge Perry supporter, but I also am not blind to realities. I was driving in this morning to work and thought about this very idea and hoped that he would drop out before the weekend and announce his support for Newt.

I still think Perry was the best person to go against Obama, but the dominoes haven't fallen my way. Therefore, we have 2 goals. The first immediate goal is to defeat Mitt Romney. The 2nd is to beat Obama. I am willing to look past some of the major issues I have with Newt if Perry is out. Santorum, for the most part, is a good conservative, but he's boring as hell to me. I don't know if he would be able to get the crowd wound up like Newt did this week.

We'll see what happens. However, I was hoping to not have a Washington insider as our candidate. But I'll take that over Mitt Romney any day.

[thedrake]

I thought Gov. Perry did an excellent job in Monday's debate!

I hope he has another great debate, and experiences a surge in Saturday's primary.

Short of that it will be time for him to bow out - IMHO.

[gunnyg]

In my kindness, I had him pegged as the lessor of evils of the herd at best....but even so...I prefer he not grab over and bend his ankles for the likes of these phony Rs !!!!!
he’s better than that!

Semper Watching!
*****

[Brookhaven]

Even Red State, which has been all but an official Perry supporter, is now saying Perry should drop out.

Erick Erickson (runs Red State), on his radio show, suggested that Perry should drop out today and endorse Gingrich before the next debate, so it can have the most impact.

[montyspython]

Awaiting for all the Perrybot whining to start.

These guys think he’s the next Reagan, more like the illegitimate baby of Ross Perot and Bob Dole.

[americanophile]

He should drop out and endorse Gingrich. His campaign isn’t going anywhere. If his latest debate performance had been his first, he might well be the nominee, but it’s too late now. Dropping out and endorsing Gingrich will endear him to conservatives, give him a noble way out, and is the best way to stop Romney in South Carolina. Only vanity and the faint promise of (understandable) ambition is keeping him in.

[Leep]

Perry can go out as a patriot who took one for the team. Sorry, but Newt is the only one poised to knock Romney down a notch but he needs more votes to do it.
Had folks not bailed out on Newt earlier this would be a 3 way race between the Ricks and Gingrich. Now we have to worry all the way about Romneycrat and Uncle Nutty.

[patriot08]

.

Rick Santorum need to place his country before himself and drop out of the race. THIS is a Conservative??

Santorum:

Voted for Federal funding of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Voted against a 10% cut in the budget for National Endowment for the Arts.

Bankruptcy
Voted for a Schumer amendment to make the debts of pro-life demonstrators not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Defense and Foreign Policy

Voted for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Voted against requiring the President to certify that the CWC is effectively verifiable.

Voted against requiring the President to certify that that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, and all other countries determined to be state sponsors of terror have joined CWC prior to submitting the instrument of ratification.

Voted for the START II Treaty
Voted to allow the sale of supercomputers to China.
Voted to ban antipersonnel landmines
Voted against increasing defense spending offset by equivalent cuts in non-defense spending.
Voted to require that Federal bureaucrats get the same payraises as uniformed military.
Voted to allow food and medicine sales to state sponsors of terror and tyranical regimes such as Libya and Cuba.
Voted to limit the President’s authority to impose sanctions on nations for reasons of national security unless the sanctions were approved by a multilateral regime.
Voted against requiring Congressional authorization for military action in Bosnia.
Voted to give $25 million in foreign aid to North Korea
Voted to weaken alien terrorist deportation provisions. If the Court determines that the evidence must be withheld for national security reasons, the Justice Department must still provide a summary of the evidence sufficient for the alien terrorist to mount a defense against deportation.
Voted against delaying the India Nuclear until the President certified that India had agreed to suspend military-to-military exchanges with Iran.
Voted against the Conventional Trident Missile Program

Nominations
Voted for Richard Paez to the 9th Curcuit (cloture)
Voted for Sonia Sotomayor, Circuit Judge
Voted for Richard Holbrooke to be Ambassador to the UN
Voted for Margaret Morrow to be District Judge
Voted twice for Marsha Berzon to the 9thg Circuit
Voted for Mary McLaughlin to be District Judge
Voted for Tim Dyk to be District Judge
Voted for James Brady to be District Judge

Labor
Voted against National Right to Work Act
Voted against Real of Davis-Bacon Prevailing union wages
Voted for Alexis Herman to be Secretary of Labor
Voted for mandatory Federal child care funding
Voted for Trade Adjustment Assistance.
Voted for Job Corps funding
Voted twice in support of Fedex Unionization
Voted against allowing a waiver of Davis-Bacon in emergency situations.
Voted for minimum wage increases six times here here here here here and here
Voted to require a union representative on an IRS oversight board.
Voted to exempt IRS union representative from criminal ethics laws.
Voted against creating independent Board of Governors to investigate IRS abuses.
Guns

Voted to require pawn shops to do background checks on people who pawn a gun.
Voted twice to make it illegal to sell a gun without a secure storage or safety device
Voted for a Federal ban on possession of “assault weapons” by those under 18.
Voted for Federal funding for anti-gun education programs in schools.
Voted for anti-gun juvenile justice bill.

Reform

Voted for funding for the legal services corporation.
Voted twice for a Congressional payraise.
Voted to impose a uniform Federal mandate on states to force them to allow convicted rapits, arsonists, drug kingpins, and all other ex-convicts to vote in Federal elections.
Voted for the Specter “backup plan” to allow campaign finance reform to survive if portions of the bill were found unconstitutional.
Voted to mandate discounted broadcast times for politicians.
Voted for a McCain amendment to require State and local campaign committees to report all campaign contributions to the FEC and to require all campaign contributions to be reported to the FEC within 24 hours within 90 days of an election.

Immigration
Voted against increasing the number of immigration investigators
Voted to allow illegal immigrants to receive the earned income credit before becoming citizens
Voted to give SSI benefits to legal aliens.
Voted to give welfare benefits to naturalized citizens without regard to to the earnings of their sponsors.
Voted against hiring an additional 1,000 border partrol agents, paid for by reductions in state grants.

Taxes
Voted against a flat tax.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for Medicare prescription drugs
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to fund health insurance subsidies for small businesses.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an $8 billion increase in child healh insurance.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an increase in NIH funding.
Voted twice for internet taxes.
Voted to allow gas tax revenues to be used to subsidize Amtrak.
Voted to strike marriage penalty tax relief and instead provide fines on tobacco companies.
Voted against repealing the Clinton 4.3 cent gas tax increase.
Voted to increase taxes by $2.3 billion to pay for an Amtrak trust fund.
Voted to allow welfare to a minor who had a child out of wedlock and who resided with an adult who was on welfare within the previous two years.
Voted to increase taxes by $9.4 billion to pay for a $9.4 billion increase in student loans.
Voted to say that AMT patch is more important than capital gains and dividend relief.

Welfare
Voted against food stamp reform
Voted against Medicaid reform
Voted against TANF reform
Voted to increase the Social Services Block Grant from $1 billion to $2 billion
Voted to increase the FHA loan from $170,000 to $197,000. Also opposed increasing GNMA guaranty from 6 basis points to 12.
Voted for $2 billion for low income heating assistance.

Waste
Sponsored An amendment to increase Amtrak funds by $550 million
Voted to use HUD funds for the Joslyn Art Museum (NE), the Stand Up for Animals project (RI) and the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Project (WA)
Voted to increase spending on social programs by $7 billion
Voted to increase NIH funding by $1.6 billion.
Voted to increase NIHnding by $700 million
Voted to for a $2 million earmark to renovate the Vulcan Monument (AL)
Voted for a $1 billion bailout for the steel industry
Voted against requiring that highway earmarks would come out of a state’s highway allocation
Voted to allow Market Access Program funds to go to foreign companies.
Voted to allow OPIC to increase its administrative costs by 50%
Voted against transferring $20 million from Americorps to veterans.
Voted for the $140 billion asbestos compensation bill.
Voted against requiring a uniform medical criteria to ensure asbestos claims were legitimate.
Voted to increase community development programs by $2 billion.

Spending and Entitlements
Voted to make Medicare part B premium subsidies an new entitlement.
Voted against paying off the debt ($5.6 trillion at the time) within 30 years.
Voted to give $18 billion to the IMF.
Voted to raid Social Security instead of using surpluses to pay down the debt.

Health Care
Voted to allow states to impose health care mandates that are stricter than proposed new Federal mandates, but not weaker.
Voted twice for Federal mental health parity mandates in health insurance.
Voted against a allow consumers the option to purchase a plan outside the parity mandate.

Education
Voted to increase Federal funding for teacher testing
Voted to increase spending for the Department of Education by $3.1 billion.
Voted against requiring courts to consider the impact of IDEA awards on a local school district.

Energy

Voted to allow the President to designate certain sites as interim nuclear waste storage sites in the event that he determines that Yucca Mountain is not a suitable site for a permanent waste repository. Those sites are as follows: the nuclear waste site in Hanford, Washington; the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Barnwell County, South Carolina; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.

Voted to make fuel price gouging a Federal crime.

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/01/06/what-a-big-government-conservative-looks-like/

.

Voted AGAINST increasing the number of immigration investigators?

VOTED AGAINST HIRING AN ADDITIONAL 1,000 BORDER PATROL AGENTS?

VOTED TO GIVE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?

.

Santorum; Big government spender:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt6XCZz2X1Y&feature=player_embedded

.
Perry stated that in his administration he would start all countries getting U.S. foreign aid at ZERO, until they proved to be our allies.

He was also the first to bring the war on religion to the forefront.

Rick Perry is twice the Conservative Santorum is!

Santorum needs to place his country before himself-
but his ego won’t let him.

.

[Cyber Liberty]

My guess, based upon no special information whatsoever, is that if Perry drops out he will support Santorum, just to keep Gingrich from catching up with Romney.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Rick Perry is a good guy. This is just not his year. He has zero chance to win. He needs to get out and endorse Newt. Santorum needs to get out also. Newt can beat Mitt in head to head campaign.