Third Look: Rick Perry
Ed Morrissey, reporting on Iowa:
Which candidate, then, can fill what looks to be an opening to the right of Gingrich and Romney? At the moment, that candidate may be Rick Perry. In the Insider Advantage and ARG polls, Perry has more than doubled his support in the last couple of weeks, going from 5 percent to 13 percent in both. The Texas governor has launched a “saturation” ad buy in Iowa, spending over a million dollars in the three markets over the next couple of weeks on radio and TV spots. After a disastrous series of debates, Perry has suddenly become pretty good in the format, if not great. He got the better of Mitt Romney in Des Moines on Saturday, and stayed energetic and focused throughout the event.
It’s good to see Perry showing some strength. I headlined this post with “Third Look,” because of something George Will wrote a week or two ago. Dismissing Newt and Mitt, Will argued that GOP voters should given Huntsman and Perry “a second look.”
Well, I’d given Perry a good look at governor of Texas, and saw a lot to like. I took a second look at him when he launched his campaign, and what we all saw mostly made us cringe. His debate performances were especially awful, not least because he tended to fade after the first 90 minutes, making the last half hour even more painful. And, yes, such a thing was possible.
But Ed’s right. Perry was strong last weekend, and stayed that way right up until the end. If he can do it again tonight — I’ll be drunkblogging, of course — then Iowa might not be the end of Perry.
Perry’s far from the worst candidate – but what has he really done? He was governor of one of the most business-friendly states in the union, but Texas was business-friendly long before Perry was at the helm. Name the battles he fought with his legislature over this… there pretty much aren’t any. He pulled some appalling tricks to look like he was pushing for criminal penalties for TSA gropers while at the same time sabotaging the legislation so it had exactly zero chance of actually passing. Gardisil is still a very valid complaint, as is the rampant crony capitalism. His swing towards extreme social conservatism will be a huge negative in the general election – his recent YouTube commercial has 22,000 likes and 683,000 dislikes. That’s pretty ugly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA
There’s also some dirt on him that has yet to surface that would absolute nuke him when it comes out (and it always does). And no, I’m not talking about the strippers.
And…if you don’t give him a fifth and a tenth and quadrillionth look…you have no heart.
And, possibly no liver.
Rick Perry is my governor. If there was real dirt on him, in ten years of governing and campaigning for the job, it would have come out and stuck.
I thought everyone knew he had back surgery just before starting on the campaign trail, but that seems to be a surprise that is just being discovered. I’ve had surgery six times, and until the anesthetic is well and truly gone, it can make you stupid. My second surgery was only a couple months after my first one, and I didn’t feel like the fog cleared from my head for an entire year. One day I awoke and realized I finally felt “normal”.
Perry’s performance early on was affected by pain, from the surgery, and if he’s like me, his marbles were probably still floating in the modern equivalent of ether. When he has those occasional brain farts, I chalk it up to anesthesia, because he has spoken well since I started watching him years ago.
He’s my governor too, and I barely knew who he was until the whole “flirting with secession” thing became public. Bush, warts and all, at least signed the concealed carry bill. What did Perry do?
Well, he has brought significant numbers of California businesses to Texas, because they can’t afford to do business there.
And if you didn’t know who your governor is, that is your fault, not his.
What specific initiatives did he spearhead to bring the CA businesses over? Methinks the credit should be taken by the disfunctional Californical govt!
And I did know his name, just not what he represented. OTOH, I wish I could get by not knowing the President’s name… might be a good world, that.
Well, I was in San Francisco, at dinner talking w/friends when they were talking about MedTronics being in San Francisco, but as we sat there, Rick Perry was romancing them and had just convinced them to move to Texas because of taxes, property prices, and general business climate. I traveled a lot that year, and every place I went, Rick Perry was there, convincing businesses to move to Texas.
It’s not a migratory tendency in these companies – they are not Canada geese. They are invited here by Rick Perry, who convinces them it’s worth pulling up stakes and heading to The Republic of Texas.
Give the man his due.
[Sorry if this shows up twice -- but my first reply seems to have been eaten]
He’s my governor too, and I barely knew that until the “flirting with secession” memo became public. Bush — warts and all — at least signed the concealed carry bill. What has Perry done?
‘course, now I see both
Steve, your Web server is an Apple product, riiiight?
Nothing to do with Apple products. Some of the blogs on PJM have moderated (or semi-moderated) comments. The logic behind when is somewhat obscure, but there you go. Some words (as innocuous as they may appear) seem to trigger the trap.
Evil has a lot of valid points but lost me on the “Gardisil is a valid complaint” comment. It wasn’t valid AT ALL. The side effects of the vaccine are even more grossly overblown that the bogus side effects scare of children’s vaccines. Requiring the vaccine saved thousands of people from cancer, and had he not pushed that bill, the same people pillorying him for signing the law would have pilloryed him for doing nothing while millions of women died of cancer. He did the right thing here and I’ll meet anyone in the parking lot who says different.
(disclosure: I lost my grandmother to cancer at a very young and impressionable age)
The legitimate knock on Perry is the tuition for illegal aliens thing and the way he responded to it (the “don’t have a heart” crack). But in a primary where the two front runners are out for full blown amnesty, to say nothing of a general opponent who wants to import as many illegals as he can and turn them into voters because voting Democrat is another job Americans just won’t do, Perry’s issue doesn’t seem so bad.
If you get me drunk and flatter me you might be able to persuade me that his early performance in the debate was a side effect of bad medicine, but if he presses the issue, he just looks like he’s making excuses and you just know that’s how the MSM will will spin it.
I would love to be wrong, but I just don’t see the Perry thing happening.
Mark, please educate yourself on the actual candidate positions before you start throwing out generic echo-chamber stuff like “for full blown amnesty.” I can’t speak about Romney, but I know that both Newt and Perry have very nuanced takes on this. Unless you honestly think that all we need to do is evict all illegals in the country, it’s just not that simple. Simple-minded, yes.
…Four comments posted so far, yet no Ronulans? They must be on break or something.
No, the Gardasil issue is a valid one. Perry unilaterally declared that youths must get this shot. It’s not about the medicine. It’s about his fiat-ruling. What made him think he had that right, that power?
This kind of stuff has to go through the people’s representatives, the Legislature. He does not get to do it on his own, like some benevolent tyrant.
BIG. Government.
Re Gardasil, this is what happens when you’re married to a nurse. I’m certain his wife has ideas about vaccination, and he felt it was important to do this. He has admitted he chose the wrong way and he backed down. I hated the Gardasil edict, but HE BACKED DOWN. He learns from his mistakes.
Has Obama learned ANYTHING in three years? Besides, “I won”?
Guys- he’s won election after election. He deals with Democratic grandees all the time. Bill Hobby’s biography is an oozing sore of insider dealing. That’s who Perry has worked against, already, effectively.
There is no sleaze. There are no strippers. He’s clean.
He can’t send illegal kids home. By law, he has to educate them. They get educated to be Texans. My kids go to a school where there’s a full Spanish class in each grade, plus spillover. They go home to Mexico City on three day weekends. They pledge allegiance to the American Flag every last single day they are in school. They pledge allegiance to Texas. They have a moment of silence. The teachers are pretty open about the fact that they, themselves, pray during that moment of silence. Do these sound like the sort of kids who are going to get the la raza memo? They’re more Americanized than kids at Sidwell Friends.
They have special projects on Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day and every last patriotic holiday- including Presidents Day. Little kids whose parents speak spanish, and wear luchador tee-shirts, have sought out my husband to say thank you for serving your country in the military.
There’s Cali, where nobody’s getting integrated, and there’s Texas, where everyone is turning Texan. Which world would you rather live in?
I’ve never really heard it put that way before. You make an interesting and intriguing argument.
I am definitely not pro-amnesty. But I recognize the complexities of the situation.
There are no easy solutions. I just wish there were clean ones.
When he got into the race I said, “I could vote for Rick Perry.”
I still can.
Ah, but will you get that opportunity?
That’s a good question.
I won’t vote for him in the primary, but I would in the general. He would be a slight improvement over Bush, but not much.
Here’s what really bugs me about Perry: His grades in college. C student. In Agriculture. Don’t tune out yet. This is important.
No one leaked Bachmann’s grades. She has a post-J.D. in tax law. It is not for the weak of mind. You know she was the good girl in school. I am sure she ran A’s and B’s in school.
Santorum is similar. Good boy in school. J.D. (law degree). Policy wonk. A bit nerdy. A’s and B’s, I am sure.
Cain, who is now out, is a Mathematician with a Masters in Comp Sci. He had the horn-rimmed glasses and all in college. You KNOW he was an A student.
Romney has 3 degrees, including his J.D. Driven, type-A personality. Policy wonk. He does his homework. You know he was an A student.
Gingrich has a PhD in History. He has written 13 NYT bestsellers. He is the ultimate policy wonk. Smartest man in the room. You KNOW he was an A student.
Dr. Paul is an M.D. with a further specialization in ObGyn. You do not get into Med school unless you have a genius IQ and top grades. A student.
I have never in my lifetime seen such a highly educated slate of candidates offered for the nomination of either Party.
So, we have (had) all these (I’m purposely ignoring Huntsman as a non-factor) candidates with advanced degrees and probably at least a 3.5 GPA in college… and we are going to nominate Perry, the only one without an Advanced degree and who was a C student? We are going to choose the guy who had the brain-freeze moment and the debate fades? We are going to nominate the only candidate we have whom the MSM can characterize as yet another dumb, Republican redneck? Really?!? We are going to give them that gift? Really?!? Just how stupid would we have to be to do that?
Republicans… the Stupid Party.
Because all of our advanced-degree-holder presidents were such rousing successes.
We did much better with the largely self educated early presidents as opposed to Wilson or that nitwit in the White House now.
Wilson’s a good reason to declare a Ph.D. as an automatic disqualifier.
Truman was a haberdasher. He knew when to drop the bomb.
If you were out jogging and a coyote started to attack your dog, which of the candidates would you want helping you out? Perry, who packs heat and snuffed the coyote, or a man or woman with an advanced degree? There is a lot of value in knowing how to do stuff, how to fix stuff, how to grow stuff. People who have done physical work (and btw flying airplanes is not reserved for those with double-digit IQs) and have lived like my parents live can have all the right instincts. Not everyone needs an advanced degree. It didn’t help Obama at all.
I am reminded of William F. Buckley’s remark: