Free Republic

Anita Perry, the 59-year-old wife of Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, has been very actively campaigning for him on her own all fall. Now, she's taken on a new assignment. Mrs. Perry has launched an online drive to recruit hundreds of volunteers for what she calls the Perry Strike Force. This would consist of Perry fans who would travel to Iowa and work across the state Jan. 2-4, getting out Perry caucus-goers to the hundreds of meeting sites on the evening of Jan. 3. (Don't worry, the BCS Championship Game is not until Jan. 9 this time.) "With over 1,700...

...“You would be surprised at how many Republican Latinos there actually are in the state of Nevada. There are quite a few of us,” said Alex Garza, a Hispanic Republican activist. “I think the numbers are there; we just haven’t organized as well as the Democratic Latino organizations.” The potential political power of Latinos is an oft-told story in Nevada and elsewhere, though any happy ending at the polls usually is enjoyed by Democrats. ...During the Republican presidential candidates’ nationally televised debate in Las Vegas last month, they were asked how they would speak to the Latino community. Newt Gingrich...

NEW YORK—Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry says President Barack Obama and his administration are responsible for policies that have endangered agents patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border. The Texas governor made his remarks while picking up an award from the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation. Perry said lack of funding and "bureaucratic bungling" in Washington have made the border less safe. He singled out one program in particular, Operation Fast and Furious. The arms-trafficking probe run by the Justice Department allowed AK-47s and other weapons to leak into the black market.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has challenged the women conservatives love to hate — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — to a public debate next week. In a letter obtained by The Hill, Perry requested that the pair meet for a debate during Perry’s visit to Washington next week to compare the plan he rolled out this week to “Uproot and Overhaul Washington” with the current system. “I think it would be a tremendous service to the American public to see a public airing of those differences,” he wrote. “Let the people decide.” Perry’s challenge comes just days after his roll...

BETTENDORF, Iowa - An early copy of Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry's government reform speech shared with the Des Moines Register shows the Texas governor is planning to propose widespread changes for the federal government, including term limits on federal judges and Supreme Court justices, a part-time Congress, and laws criminalizing insider trading. The governor first previewed the reforms in a speech Monday evening at an event by the Scott County Republican Party, where he said, "Washington doesn't need a new coat of paint, it needs a complete overhaul." Today, he will deliver the details of his plan in a...

Taking a page from Ronald Reagan, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Saturday sought to use humor to rebound from his much-noted debate flub earlier in the week. That flub, a 53-second brain freeze that was replayed endlessly on news shows, had him forgetting the name of the Department of Energy, the third federal agency he pledges to eliminate. So Perry was quick to cut off CBS’ Scott Pelley, one of the debate moderators in South Carolina, when he began a question, saying, “Governor Perry, you advocate the elimination of the Department of Energy. If you eliminate the Department of Energy...”...

Gov. Rick Perry stated at the outset of his presidential campaign that he is running for president based on his principles and leadership accomplishments, not his oratorical skills. Media focus on his debate missteps deliberately ignores Perry's record and charisma. America's third president - Thomas Jefferson - was a lousy public speaker. He was literally a genius, and his singular eloquence as a writer is seen in his prose in the Declaration of Independence and other writings. But Jefferson was no speaker, so much so that he only gave a couple speeches in his entire two-term presidency. He was so...

The five reasons I asserted that Governor Perry would have the best shot at beating Obama were simple ones: He decisively created more jobs than Obama. He greatly respects and tries to encourage small businesses. He has a clear understanding of federalism and what states shouldn't be forced into. He has solid core convictions that replicate most of America. And he could unite the core conservative Democrats, Republicans and Independents across the nation on economic, social and defense policy. All five of those reasons remain -- even now -- solidly relevant and valid. However, he's certainly nowhere near where I...

By facing the issue and joking about it, Perry frames his gaffe as a funny moment rather than a serious, and seriously stupid, one. He takes control of the discussion. Every minute he's on the air being interviewed about it is one more minute his moment isn't being replayed, one more minute some panel of pundits isn't fretfully analyzing its stupendous terribleness. By allowing his memory glitch to be the topic of discussion and owning up to it, he helps exhaust the subject. Most of all, Perry is being humanized, albeit not in the way any politician would wish. For...

Within seconds of Rick Perry's onstage collapse last night, the political world had almost unanimously declared the time of death for the Texas Governor's presidential campaign. But Perry's spectacular meltdown may end up being the best thing that ever happened to his lagging White House bid. In contrast to the Herman Cain camp, Perry's team has been a model for crisis management in the aftermath of the gaffe. The chagrined candidate has been making the morning show rounds today, displaying a startling humble and human side in the face of some pretty snarky talk show hosts. Perry's media blitz is...

(Machine Translation from German to English) -- ("Perry' s Debatten-Desaster : "Ähm, oops, sorry"): "There should be a settlement with the intra-party rivals Herman Cain, but then Rick Perry catapulted out of the presidential race in the U.S. Republicans. In a televised debate of the candidates had the Texans a highly embarrassing blackout. It is exactly 21.20 clock in Michigan, as Rick Perry 's presidential ambitions. For almost one and a half hours, the top eight candidates debated the U.S. Republicans already in the north gym of Oakland University in Detroit.

he Perry campaign wants to reboot, having retooled and refined its message and tried hard to get back on the jobs message. Okay, fine, but first the Perry camp needs to answer a basic question — why should supporters who went all in for him and wound up feeling burned give him a second shot? I asked him about that and it was, perhaps, a good sign that he stayed on the jobs message. The jobs message, though, raises a question about his flat tax — won't it just help the rich? Also, what about President Obama's approach and his...

EQUAL TIME: Randy Graf sees the ranch forfeiture as part of an erosion of freedoms. The rule of law is a standard we can no longer afford to bend. Without laws or equal enforcement of those laws, there is anarchy. The anarchy that exists today with regard to illegal immigration hit a new low last week. The seizure of Casey Nethercott's land in Cochise County, near Douglas, is the epitome of the brazen disregard for the rule of law that the open-border crowd has achieved. Such groups as La Raza, MEChA and the Council on Foreign Relations - all of...