The American Spectator : President Perry?

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President Perry?

By William Murchison on 8.15.11 @ 6:11AM

America is more than ready for this Texas governor.

So, to the surprise of exactly no one, he’s in. A single question remains, concerning Rick Perry, governor of Texas. If he wins the Republican presidential nomination, as well he may, can he be counted on to send Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Tim Geithner to the unemployment lines (pending their recruitment by the lobby or the universities)? Will America accord him that chance?

Er. Maybe. Quite possibly. I don’t know, and I don’t speak abstractly concerning the finite nature of human knowledge.

My governor — I am a Texan — is operating at a level at which none of his fans — I am one — has seen him operate. We are moving about in the dusk here. Some deliberation is in order.

My governor, as a presidential candidate, brings various strengths to the table:

First, a good gubernatorial record for keeping a relatively tight lid on spending while encouraging enterprise and economic growth. Rick Perry loves business and the spirit of enterprise even more than Barack Obama seems to look down his nose at same. He’d probably love for every start-up concern or corporation in the country to move here , taking advantage of Texas’s low-tax, light-regulation climate. From 1999 to 2010, the number of Texas jobs rose 12.6 percent; the country’s overall number fell 0.2 percent. How do we like them apples? A whole lot, I bet.

Were Perry to become president, the Environmental Protection Agency could forget about lashing coal producers and automobile manufacturers to lofty standards for “pollution reduction.” We would see a different kind of Energy Department — a more forward-looking one, focused not just on so-called green energy but likewise on traditional sources, including oil, natural gas, and, yes, coal. To the extent legally and politically feasible, the dismantling of Obamacare would commence under a Perry administration, followed by the substitution of something more logical, efficient, and market-oriented.

As a campaigner, Perry would bring considerable vitality to the race. He’s a good speaker who commands a public platform. Nobody zings our guv and receives a meek smile in response. The fun of a run against Obama, at the presidential debate level, would consist — I predict — in Perry’s delight at calling Obama’s hand whenever necessary: exposing the generally huge gap between rhetoric and performance.

Texas liberals have had great sport with Perry’s mediocre college transcript, leaked recently to the media by some enemy or the other. I have news for Ivy League hecklers everywhere. The governor of Texas is in fact one sharp cookie. Go on and misjudge him if you care to. That’ll be your problem and yours only. Further, go on and misjudge the American electorate’s commitment to government by Harvard graduates who, for all their book-larnin’, can’t seem to identify the forces that drive and undergird great, prosperous economies.

Very well, then. Can’t we go ahead and measure my governor for his inauguration suit? We might want to wait on that, due to factors such as the unknowableness of human destinies. Another factor to which I have alluded is also worth consideration — that of Perry’s newness to the national, as distinguished from the state or regional, political scene.

A lot of calibration in terms of presentation will be necessary as Perry reveals himself to 300 million-plus Americans, some of whom are backward enough — ahem — to suppose Texans unfitted for any place but the back of a horse. Anti-Texas prejudice becomes Texasphobia under certain political and cultural conditions: as when the Eastern media perceive Eastern political and cultural ways to be threatened by us boobs and barbarians. As a New York Times subscriber of many years’ standing, I can tell you Maureen Dowd, Frank Bruni, and the squinty fanatics of Andrew Rosenthal’s editorial page will come unglued at the idea of Rick Perry approaching unto the seat of Barack Obama. Likewise the Eastern bloggers — the Jacob Weisbergs, the Andrew Sullivans, and so on. Why do the nations so furiously rage together when a Texan comes in view? They just do.

That’s a related point: Quote the Good Book, or speak a word in behalf of its narrative, and the nations rage louder than ever. That’s to say, Rick Perry makes no bones about his Christian faith: as witness the Houston rally at which he bade Americans pray for America. Will a commitment to prayer, and to God, be held against him in fast-secularizing America, where gay marriage has joined wealth-redistribution on the marble tablets where liberals’ ideals are inscribed? Or will mainstream voters instead cut slack for a candidate unwilling, in a time of stress and strife, to assert the priority of human ideals over all others? A lot, I think, will depend on Rick Perry’s rhetorical skills. These, as I say, are large, so we mustn’t yet draw negative conclusions regarding his prospects.

It’s frequently said that America isn’t ready for another Texas governor, given lack of love for the last one, whatever his name was. The point worth noticing perhaps is that the last one preceded possibly the most oversold president ever: a chief executive unable, we subsequently found out, to get his act together. The perceived offenses of What’s His Name have been blotted out already in considerable degree by the bungling and obfuscations of the pig-in-a-poke the public bought in 2008. I wouldn’t ‘t count, were I a Democratic strategist, on names like “Rove,” “Rumsfeld,” and “Guantanamo” to work like talismans in a country with 9 percent unemployment.

President Perry? Maybe. Again, maybe not. What fun, though, the finding out will be. The guy is going to shake up this race, big time: with Stetson on, or without.

Get ready.

About the Author

William Murchison, a Dallas-based columnist for Creators Syndicate and author of Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity (Encounter Books), is completing a biography of John Dickinson..

Letter to the Editor View all comments (286) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

nister| 8.15.11 @ 6:20AM

Perry wants to secede from the country he wants to preside over.

Racer99| 8.15.11 @ 6:42AM

Nonsense, there's no reason for him to want to succeed any more if Obama is gone. What Perry was really saying is that it's way past time to re-instate the rights and powers enumerated by the Constitution. If succession would do that I would say all states should start over and secede from the Federal Government.

Have you considered| 8.15.11 @ 7:49AM

Racer99, I can't see by this article that Perry wants to reinstate the Enumerated Powers doctrine...the opposite in fact.

If this article was intended to put forth Mr. Perry's "good" points, it failed with me.

""First, a good gubernatorial record for keeping a relatively tight lid on spending"" This is not what I have read. Spending has gone up substantially, and it has been financed by BORROWING. I read that Texas did not borrow prior to Perry's reign.

"" We would see a different kind of Energy Department -- a more forward-looking one, focused NOT JUST on so-called green energy ""

If Perry is a supporter of ANY so called "green energy" he has lost my support completely.
I defy you to find an Enumerated Power for the entire Dept. of Energy, let alone subsidies or mandates for "green energy"

""To the extent legally and politically feasible, the dismantling of Obamacare would commence under a Perry administration""

the Extent Politically and Legally possible? What on earth is this supposed to mean? Again, I will point out there is no Enumerated Power for HHS at all.

""followed by the substitution of something more logical, efficient, and market-oriented.""

Pursuant to which Enumerated Power? There is none, and this flies in the face of the 9th and 10th Amendments.

Seems to me Perry needs to devote some time to reading and understanding the US Constitution at a fundamental level.

It is way beyond time that we Demand that our federal government actually adhere to the US Constitution...this is The Only thing that will be able to save this nation.

imsteph| 8.15.11 @ 9:10AM

search perry bilderberg group meeting....is he the next 'chosen' one? they do like to cover their bases...

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 9:53AM

Look, it's Post-American's (DeeSee) Pen Pal.

JimH| 8.15.11 @ 12:26PM

All hail Discordia.

ENOUGH ROPE| 8.16.11 @ 4:44AM

Perry is pro Islam and Sharia law.
http://www.americanthinker.com....._pals.html

Perry...is now wielding his enormous power to influence changes in the schoolrooms and in the curricula to reflect a sharia compliant version of Islam. Perry has concluded at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and the Ismailis, including a comprehensive program to feed children in Texas public schools and taqiyya nonsense about how Islam is a religion of peace. Another agreement stipulates that Texas officials will work with the Ismailis in the "fields of education, health sciences, natural disaster preparedness and recovery, culture and the environment."

Herman Cain is 100% pro American. He is true to American values.

benny havens| 8.15.11 @ 8:01AM

Here we go with the BS one-liners. I am not interested in Texas BBQ, what pizza he likes or if he drinks Bud or Miller.

What I want to hear are straightforward questions and straight answers.

What is he going to do about the 15,000,000 illegal nationals here taking up space and
consuming government handouts?

How will he secure our borders?

What is his plan to cut spending and balancing the budget?

How will he reform Social Security and Medicare?

Will it be Executive Orders or the Constitution?

Will it be the states that control education or will our children still be subject to Federal brainwashing?

Will our firearms be rendered obsolete due to an excessive Federal tax on ammunition?

I can see from some of the posts that you Ivy League lefties are only interested in the meaningless election-year rhetoric. I guess you will be quite happy with president zero for another four years and a completely collapsed economy.

Nancy in NC| 8.15.11 @ 8:23AM

NumbersUSA gives Perry a D- for his immigration stance and performance. No one wants to tackle this very real problem for political expediency but it's not going away anytime soon. Illegals are costing us billions of dollars that we can't afford each year.

David| 8.15.11 @ 11:07AM

He won't do anything. Texas is the one and only state that could have forced the federal governments hand on illegal immigration, and quite honestly, Texas has failed to lead in this area. Being a navtive Texan I've watched as my state has fallen closer and closer to 3rd world status. Don't get me wrong, I love Texas, but our politicians here are as corrupt as they are anywhere else.
The Tea Party will need to branch out from is sole goal of a fight on taxation to also include the fight to seal the borders and repatriate the illegals with thier home countries. The politicians will do nothing about it unless we force them.
I would like to take this time to clear something up about our debt and our education system. Our debt per capita is less than probably any other state, and we do have funds in a rainy day fund. Texas can pay her debts without ANY problem.
In regards to what every one is saying about the way Texas cut funds to education, I challenge anyone to say they have built more new schools than Texas has in the least 5-10 years. Go to any small, or medium size town in Texas and you will see news school. I'm not talking cinder block buildings here, I'm talking first rate high class, high tech buildings. Unfortunatly the local school districts have also spent way too much money on sports facilities when they should have spent less and paid teachers more.
People like to talk about our drop out rate as well. Okay, when you schools are 50% filled with the children of illegal aliens that move every few months and don't care for an education anyway, then you can critisize Texas. We do have a goode education system here, A damn good one. Our universities are top rate.
People like to talk about all the low wage jobs we have here. Yep we do, but we have jobs. We also have plenty of good paying jobs. We are high tech state. You can think all our only industries are oil and cattle all you want, but we lead the nation in several areas.
All of this is due to conservative thinking and conservative actions. Yes, we have large liberal minded cities too, but overall Texas is a cinservative state. Maybe those of you in liberal states should take notice?

johninflorida| 8.18.11 @ 8:11AM

Amen, benny ... THAT's what we want to hear about!

Patricia Leath| 9.8.11 @ 6:55PM

Mitt Romney is a lawyer. He went to Harvard Law School. They teach students how to debate at Harvard Law School. Romney is Ivy League, he can talk in "Ivy tongue".
Stupid little old me has one simple question. He talks the talk. He has been running for the job for four years. Why isn't he the clear front runner? Could it be because he is boring?

scott| 9.12.11 @ 2:14PM

You want excitement, go watch some TV. I personally would take a competent boring president over an exciting one who leads us down the toilet.

JimP| 8.15.11 @ 9:13AM

Oh, if only he were serious about doing so. Now that would really shake up the race. 'Make me President and I WILL free you from the shackles of federal slavery. I'll not just let y'all secede. I might kick some of your arsses out!'

Imagine the panic in liberal states when they realized they would no longer have productive states to prop up their socialist nonsense. Goodbye CA, MA & NY just for starters.

I have a dream, y'all.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 9:54AM

Bye, y'all.
Y'all need help packin'?
Boxes? Tape? Map to find your behind?

W| 8.15.11 @ 8:24PM

What happened to your prediction to win the recall in Wisconsin?

Derek Leaberry| 8.15.11 @ 12:38PM

I'd rather have "ejection" than succession. Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Washington State, California and Hawaii plus the cities of Philadelphia, Newark, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta, Birmingham and Memphis should be ejected from the republic. Eject Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties in Maryland as well.

Jack in Wi.| 8.15.11 @ 2:47PM

Did you steal that line from me Derek? I have been posting something like that for years on various sites? If not, great minds think alike.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 3:18PM

Please, would you "eject" Wisconsin, too? Pretty, please, because I'm really certain I want nothing of the kind of the nation you envision. Only thing is you have to take Scott Walker, Glenn Grothman (sp?) and the Fitzgerald boys with you.

Matt G.| 8.15.11 @ 4:29PM

Right, because our nation was founded on the proud principles that everyone should think the same way and if you don't, you're not welcome here.

Roy N.| 8.15.11 @ 6:16PM

Why worry about the nation that "you" envision troll? Why don't you move to Cuba, clown. You should fit right into Fidel's worker's paradise. Oh, and you don't don't like balmy Cuba, there is also Venezuela and Hugo.

Jack in Wi.| 8.15.11 @ 10:54PM

I have met both Grothman and Walker. They are great and couragous men who have stood up to tyrany for the people of Wi. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty Free at last. If we got out of the USA we could be richer then Switzerland. Who needs Washington?

America will Rise| 8.16.11 @ 12:54AM

Derek . I agree 100 percent . You made me laugh when you included Montgomery and Prince Georges in Maryland , I'm a former PG. county resident .These are some of the most far left blind liberal places in Maryland . I thank the good lord I moved to Tennesse where we love America .

Ken in People's Republic of MD| 8.16.11 @ 1:50PM

What's wrong with P.G. County? Love it there.

DaveS| 8.15.11 @ 5:33PM

Though hyperbole to talk of seceding, what's wrong with that? The times call for the big antidote to BHO and the corrupt Democratic Party.

Alan Brooks| 8.15.11 @ 8:33PM

Perry might win, he really looks like a president-- not to mention the Marlboro Man. But so much for a woman president; though Bachmann or Palin might be veep.

Alan Brooks| 8.15.11 @ 8:34PM

Perry might win, he really looks like a president-- not to mention the Marlboro Man. But so much for a woman president; though Bachmann or Palin might be veep.

ENOUGH ROPE| 8.16.11 @ 4:41AM

Perry is pro Islam and Sharia law.
http://www.americanthinker.com....._pals.html

Herman Cain is 100% pro American. He is true to American values.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 6:27AM

Good column, Bill.
He certainly provides Americans a clear choice.

YeloStalyn| 8.15.11 @ 9:43AM

As "...Considered" posted above, it's not that clear of a choice. I was interested in Perry when I heard he may jump in... but as I heard more about him I become less excited about him and find myself more firmly in the Bachman camp. She's the only person, other than maybe Paul (who's foreign policy is suicidal) or Cain (who just isn't electable), to actually call upon the Constitution for her arguments, rather than pragmatism. She did so during a House comittee meeting about the AIG bonuses that Timmy the Tax Cheat gave out... only politician, while in the capacity of actually doing that job, to use the Constitution in my memery. That's a plus that Perry's so-so take on the EPA and immigration can't touch.

JohnC| 8.15.11 @ 6:40AM

Rick is another one-world RINO globalist who pushed for the NAFTA superhighway and is weak on immigration enforcement plus he is liberal on other issues.

Perry is liked by Sarah and is El-Rushbo’s dream candidate. Rush and his phony talk radio RINO-lovers are trying to push another liberal Republican posing as a conservative during election time.

We need a new patriotic talk-radio media and an America-First Third party to replace the RINO Party.

Kitty | 8.15.11 @ 6:53AM

Obviously you don't listen to Rush.

Jack in Wi.| 8.15.11 @ 7:12AM

I listened to Rush for 13 years. I finally had enough of him. I grew up he didn't. All he is about is money, kissing the rear end people like Dick Cheney, and younger women. He is some example of what a principaled conservative should be. I agree he used to be a considerable talent. Now he is nothing but a shadow of his former self. If the Republicans nominate Perry they will lose. He makes GWBush look good. I don't like repeats on TV or in politics.

Kitty | 8.15.11 @ 7:18AM

You proved my point.

Carol| 8.15.11 @ 7:31AM

Jack in WI and Kitty:

If you think Rush is not right I can't imagine who you think is.

Kitty | 8.15.11 @ 8:20AM

Carol, I think you have the wrong idea. I have been a dittohead since April of '92. Even when I worked outside the home, I still found ways to listen to his show. I was responding to Jack, who admitted he no longer listens to Limbaugh. Jack thinks Perry is Rush's "dream candidate."

Doctor Right| 8.15.11 @ 9:44AM

Here's a few folks that Jack probably likes:

1. Lew Rockwell.
2. Pat Buchanan.
3. Father Coughlin
4. Ron Paul.
5. Lyndon LaRouche

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 9:56AM

"Probably"? Most likely they are his ideas for a new Mt. Rushmore.

Jack in Wi.| 8.15.11 @ 10:29AM

I love everyone above except Lyndon Larouche. I include Father Coughlin who has been wrongly defamed as an antisemite. I have watched his actual speeeches and there is nothing anti semictic about them. He was against the Federal Reserve and war. that is enough to make someone an antisemite on this site.

RCV| 8.15.11 @ 11:29AM

Jack, your answer is enough to close the case on whether or not you are an antisemite.

RCV| 8.15.11 @ 11:31AM

Here are some of Father Coughlin's non-anti-semitic remarks: "When we get through with the Jews in America, they'll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing."

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 1:14PM

Thank you for a bit of balance and fairhandedness.

Jack in Wi.| 8.15.11 @ 2:56PM

Baloney: He never said that. More lies and misquotes from the usual suspects. Anyone who tells the truth is smeared as an antisemite. He was against against being dragged into war and had a huge influence in the country . He had to be destroyed and was. You have tried the same thing with Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul, but your efforts seem to failing because everyone with any sense can see that you are liers and defamers and losers who have destroyed our country with your wars and fiscal mismanagement..

RCV| 8.15.11 @ 4:13PM

It's a well-documented quote from one of Coughlin's 1938 radio broadcasts. One of the main reasons he was ordered off the air by the Church or threatened with defrocking.

Jack in Wi.| 8.15.11 @ 10:59PM

Baloney again. It is a misquote or taken out of context. He was taken off the air because when the war started all the people who opposed the war were silenced in some way or another. It is like Lincoln or Wilson who silenced thouseads of critics.

RCV| 8.16.11 @ 6:05PM

In this case, it was the Vatican who ordered him off the air, thanks to the lobbying of Bishop Francis Spellman. You can actually check out FACTS at www.fathercoughlin.org

Josrph| 8.15.11 @ 12:14PM

Obama is friends with Rev.Wright and Minister Farrakan, both are anti semites. Obama is antisemite.

RCV| 8.15.11 @ 1:29PM

Obama is close friends with David Axelrod and Rahm Emmanuell, both are Jewish. Therefore, Obama is Jewish.

Ken in People's Republic of MD| 8.16.11 @ 1:51PM

What's wrong with kissing the rear-ends of younger women?

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 9:54AM

Thank God for not listening to that vacuous bag of verbal flatulence.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 9:57AM

I agree, I can't stand listening to Obama either.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 11:04AM

ooh, good one! Point to DS.

TheLeftIsStupidNoButs| 8.15.11 @ 7:15PM

Wisconsin wins with Walker.
Wisconsin wins with Supreme Court election.
Wisconsin wins with Republican Senator Recall vote.

ooh, three good ones! Points to Wisconsin citizenry.

RCV| 8.17.11 @ 4:54PM

Wisconsin wins twith the failure of the Democrats recall.

Clint| 8.15.11 @ 7:08AM

" Rick Perry supported Lance Armstrong’s 3 billion dollar Texas taxpayer funded medical research center. That’s like ObamaCare. That’s not free market.

Rick Perry, secured a 300 million dollar business handout slush fund for him and just the two leaders of the legislature to dole out to whomever he felt like being friendly to. That’s corporate welfare, a recipe for corruption, and as bad as the TARP bailouts that caused the Tea Parties to explode all across America. In fact, Perry gave 20 million dollars to Countrywide Financial which later went bankrupt.
He supported a new state business tax. He set up toll road tax collection booths all over Texas highways. The Austin Tea Party and the Austin Toll Party booed him on the steps of the state Capitol for that.

Rick Perry, signed an executive order mandating young Texas schoolgirls get the HPV vaccine , while his former chief of staff was a lobbyist for Merck. Perry's judgment was so bad the Texas legislature revolted against him and overturned his decision,"

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 10:05AM

Once again. Texans can "opt out" of the HPV vaccine.

http://governor.state.tx.us/ne.....ease/2292/

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 11:00AM

Drunken Sailor,

I wasn't the vaccine that bothered me - I got it for my daughter - it was the executive order which gave me such pain. If it was a such a good idea the people's representatives would have passed it. There was no emergency.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 11:17AM

I think your missing the forest for the trees, John. I understand people's point of mandatory vaccines, but we have many vaccines that fall under that category. Most say recommended but try getting your child in school without one.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 11:30AM

Drunken Sailor,

Indeed, but the mandatory ones have always been for publicly communicable diseases. You can catch measles in Math class, but you cannot catch HPV (that would be sex-ed class ;)

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 11:50AM

But you can catch it through unsafe sexual practices without knowing it. I was a Sexually transmitted disease counselor in the Navy for 12 years. The majority of the cases of all STD's we treated were transmitted with no symptoms (Chlamydia is the worst). Most STD's are transmittable BEFORE symptoms may present themselves.

C Bowen| 8.15.11 @ 8:17PM

Mr. Navratil;

I assume you are being satiracal, as no man would come on a board that at the least, pretends to be 'conservative', and say they gave their daughter a venereal disease vaccine.

I applaud such deep humor as the alternative is far to scary. Sick, even.

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 9:28PM

C Bowen,

I did not give my daughter a vaccine against venereal disease. I gave her a vaccine against a relatively contagious HPV which is not necessarily sexually transmitted and can lead to cervical cancer. There is nothing imprudent about protection, and not all sexual activity is immoral.

If I could tell when a risk would strike, I would only buy insurance when I was planning on having an accident.

Kingofthenet| 8.15.11 @ 4:07PM

When it comes to Texas, young 'ladies' what's one more venereal disease?

Lawrence Boccardi| 8.15.11 @ 7:10AM

What the hell are these people talking about, Kitty?
A marxist sits in our WH, spending our economy into socialism, the EPA is going to raise our electricity rates by half, the FLOTUS has vacationed (with entourage) 42 days since the first of the year, and Perry's warts are a problem?

Kitty | 8.15.11 @ 8:33AM

I hear ya, LB. As Rush said, he'd vote for Elmer Fudd over Obama.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 11:14AM

Hey Kitty,
I gave Rush that line. He liked that better than my alternative...Daffy Duck.

Kitty | 8.15.11 @ 2:33PM

HA HA HA !!!

wodiej| 8.15.11 @ 9:46AM

George Bush Jr had warts too and it got us Obama. We can do better.

Sean| 8.15.11 @ 11:07AM

Perry is a former Democrat and supporter of Al Gore. The guy is an opportunist and has no real principals.

Southern_Comment| 8.15.11 @ 11:53AM

That is such a load of crap. He was a democrat, operative word being WAS - he's been a Republican - by TEXAS standards - not some bs Republican definition there. If Rick Perry gets up on the immigration issue - then he'll do just fine as president (and no i'm not going to compare to Obama - that's reserved for something of his same stature - rotted head of lettuce)

Sean| 8.15.11 @ 12:39PM

Yes he was a Democratic operative, which shows very bad judgement. He maybe a Republicna now but he is no Conservative. McCain got elected in Arizona and got the Republican nomination for President. So it is not too hard to get elected to office in Texas also as a liberal or moderate big government type.

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 4:51PM

Reagan was a Democrat. What's your point? We all make mistakes, support the wrong candidate, etc. So far, Perry seems very principled to me. Why do you say he is not? Can a person only be "principled" if they'd never made a mistake? Then I believe only Jesus could be POTUS, and he's not on the ticket.

darcy| 8.16.11 @ 1:57AM

idalily:
Are you familiar with the vast collection of Reagan's speeches and radio addresses, his talks to business groups and his writings over a 30-year period before becoming President? If so, you would not make so lightly a comparison of Reagan's leaving the Democrat Party with Perry's supposed enlightenment in his decision to become a Republican.

Truth be told, I would say that today's Republican Party is ideologically the same as the Democrat Party that Reagan left fifty years ago (because they abandoned him, in their leftward march). Moreover, the Democrat Party that Perry allied himself with two decades ago was -- and remains -- Marxist/socialist.

Please avail yourself of the vast information at your fingertips via google about the candidate Perry. Everybody makes mistakes -- but when a candidate's mistakes are consequential to your future, you should be concerned.

Don't be like the starry-eyed woman who ignored the basic and deep-seated flaws in her intended spouse because she thinks she can't do any better, only to find out seven years later -- after the wedding -- that the red flags meant REAL danger.

idalily| 8.16.11 @ 2:43PM

I don't make light of Reagan at all, and yes, I am VERY familiar with the man. I'm not making light of anything, and I can assure you I am not the least bit "starry-eyed." As to your remark about flaws in spouses, I have no idea what that has to do with anything. I am saying Reagan was human and he made mistakes, plenty of them, and if you deny that, you are the starry-eyed one here. His mistakes don't deter from the fact that he was a great man and a great president. As for Perry, I HAVE availed myself of the information, and so far, I see nothing that deters me from putting him in first place. If you are looking for a candidate with vast experience who has never made mistakes, you are chasing rainbows and unicorns.

Reagan Loyalist| 8.15.11 @ 11:27AM

Certainly an excellent perspective Lawrence, it drives home the "anybody but obama" point, however we ought to also highlight Perry's "Country Class" credentials, specifically to those who appear willing to sacrifice the good for their idea of the perfect. Gov. Perry is a breath of fresh FREE air, the right man for this moment in time, a guy who will boldly confront the Reid/Pelosi/Obama record and can withstand the "heat" of battle with the MSM. So let's stop with all the petty, "but he isn't perfect", self righteous, self important behavior - the MSM and obama's $1B war-chest will be doing that till November 2012 anyway.

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 11:45AM

Reagan Loyalist,

These are the primaries. This is THE TIME to be critically examining each candidates record. We will all have to live with warts, but knowing who has what warts is critical. Glossing over them and saying he will do is for the general election. It's way too early for hagiography. That's exactly what gave us Obama.

Reagan Loyalist| 8.15.11 @ 12:09PM

You missed my point if you think I was recommending that we all lay down for Mr. Perry - or perhaps I didn't make my point very well. Critical analysis is one thing, a wise endeavor indeed. However, requiring a candidate to be 100% aligned with a single ideological strain in order to earn your vote overlooks the battle we face as a nation - placing a leader in the White House who has constitutional values running through his veins, within his DNA, one who has real leadership experience and who IS Country Class, not in rhetoric only.

We'll watch he and Michelle (I love her - she's the real deal as well) discuss the challenges we face with real pride. These are HIGH END human beings and candidates and we are blessed with a riches of choice.

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 4:57PM

Michelle has no chance to win over Indie voters. None. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Her stance on gays is so vehement, there's no way. If Perry can articulate a stand on gays that is States' Rights oriented, I think he's got a way better chance of pulling Indie voters away from Obama at the general election. Romney would be better with Indies, but the base isn't enthused. A lot is going to depend on how well Perry performs in the coming months as to whether it's him or Mitt. Either way, Bachmann is, IMO, out of the running, despite her win in the Aames poll. As for Palin, again, I think her negatives are too high to be overcome. She can't, IMO, win the general.

darcy| 8.16.11 @ 2:05AM

Bachmann's stance on "gays."?

Idalily, you are no conservative. You are a liberal, brainwashed into thinking that homosexuals and homosexual culture should be normalized -- as your comment regarding Bachmann indicates.

You are, therefore, opposed to an ordered society based on traditional values; you are, therefore, a spokesperson for the tearing-down of the traditional family; you are, therefore, opposed to our Declaration of Independence that states that our rights come from our creator, that they are unalienable -- which means that what is true and right and good is found, not in the whim of the current decadent and degraded, sickened culture, but from God himself.

idalily| 8.16.11 @ 2:51PM

Bull. I am conservative down to my bones. I also happen to believe in the both the Declaration and Constitution. Period. Full stop. Please tell me where in either of those documents YOUR particular definition of traditional values is specified to be the ONLY one allowed by our Creator. Gays have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that you and I do, and to believe otherwise, is to believe in a Christian form of Sharia Law. No thanks. As for your insults to me, they're not worth responding to. For someone who advocates traditional family values, you might start with civility. It's a good one.

scott| 9.12.11 @ 2:21PM

So because Idalily makes a point about Gays and Bachman she's no conservative and "opposed to an ordered society based on traditional values..."

That's your reasoning?! The only thing I know from your post is that you are stupid.

CrackerHound| 8.15.11 @ 1:15PM

Exactly Lawrence....Rick Perry is the man who can beat Obama and he is a REAL conservative despite what some here say. The only person in the race that compares in conservative bonafides is Michelle Bachmann. The problem is that Michelle will NEVER beat Obama.

Your two choices will be Romney or Perry. It's that simple. I don't know about any of you, but I could vote for Perry without holding my nose to do so.

Just as important as the Whitehouse is keeping the house and taking the senate if this country is to have any hope.

Paul| 8.15.11 @ 7:12AM

A real American as President? He was raised on a farm deep in Texas, raised by his two parents, Christian, Air Force pilot, cotton farmer. As opposed to someone we all know, if you said "God damn America," in front of him, I would imagine there would be a violent response. I can think of no better option to battle the Affirmative Action Super Star, Muslim, anti-American, anti-semetic, friend of terrorists, communists and black radicals, that we have now.

Mimi| 8.15.11 @ 7:21AM

I must say...I don't know much about this NEW, SHINY candidate...Have to listen and learn!
One thing I did see, was a speech, saying the RIGHT things and looking PRESIDENTIAL and with no pauses and NO TELEPROMPTER!

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 11:47AM

Mimi,

With all due respect, you sound a bit more like Chris Matthews than Mimi. (I hope he didn't send a thrill up you leg)

Reagan Loyalist| 8.15.11 @ 11:50AM

Mimi, I believe that the more you explore this man, the more you'll like his values, his confrontational "I am who I am" willingness to stand for something and allowing THAT to drive his actions and words - as opposed to whatever the writers load into his teleprompter.

And then there is his demeanor - his non-quantifiables. He is comfortable in his skin, speaks spontaneously, smiles, is sincere, all because he has real "earned" accomplishments; he has 10 years of executive experience so he KNOWS what it is to lead, he was a Captain/pilot in the military and get this, he was raised by "Country Class" folks, IN AMERICA! So do your due diligence and see if you too discover that Mr. Perry looks a lot like the candidate to lead this country out of our most recent cycle of failed liberal clap trap.

Bumr50| 8.15.11 @ 7:24AM

What's so wrong with Michele Bachmann that Perry supporters simply dismiss her out of hand?

I don't mind Perry so much, but he's got a terrible record on border issues.

I haven't heard any knock on Bachmann other than "she annoys me" and "she's not electable."

Perry is wonderful when he speaks from the heart, but sounds like a consummate politician when he speaks from the dais.

He's decent, but has a lot of question marks to a lot of people, and the more I hear his supporters argue his case the more I get an undertone that their mind is made up this early.

I hope that they have something more than "Everybody has warts!" as a defense.

wodiej| 8.15.11 @ 9:47AM

Bachmann-no leadership experience at all. Has led no committees in congress. No notable legislation. And no executive experience.

DaveD| 8.15.11 @ 3:51PM

Sounds exactly like the bozo in the White House now. So what?

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 10:10AM

Actually I like both canidates for different reasons. Not sure if Mr. Bachmann's stances are going to hurt her chances but I am waiting to find out how the independents take her.

As much as conservatives like her (and rightly so) she will not get elected if she can not pull a significant portion of Independent votes. That is a fact for any canidate, be they Republican or Democrat. Why in the hell do you think all the successful canidates run on a centerist platform and then once in office either veer right or left? Let's hope enough Indies are pissed off enough at Obama to be more open minded about a more conservative choice.

Reagan Loyalist| 8.15.11 @ 12:24PM

"Let's hope enough Indies are pissed off enough at Obama to be more open minded about a more conservative choice."

Drunken Sailor,

I would bet the ranch that there are WAY more Indies just pining to correct their 2008 vote than we will need to win - AND then there is the reemergence of the Reagan Democrats as well as the extreme Obama antipathy energizing more Republicans to the polls.

I recall the 1980 election atmosphere and this seems even MORE intense...perhaps I'm too optimistic but I think we are going to see a radical shift back to a small government, low regulatory, low tax, pro business country starting in 2012. Thank God!!

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 1:48PM

I agree but I try to never underestimate the Republican party's abilty to snatch defeat from the jaw of victory.

RWinks| 8.15.11 @ 4:01PM

DS, I'd like to know the name of any President who's veered right, once in office.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 4:43PM

Bill Clinton but only because Congress forced him to. He was a lefty but smart enough to know that if he didn't veer right, he was done.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 4:43PM

I should add that did not make him conservative, just more so than he had been.

JayDick| 8.15.11 @ 10:58AM

First requirement: be likely to beat Obama. I don't think Bachmann meets that requirement. Does Perry? Don't know yet. Romney? Romneycare will make it difficult.

CrackerHound| 8.15.11 @ 1:26PM

Bumr....Nothing wrong with Bachmann but surely you must see that she is completely unelectable and that is no small thing when the risk is another Obama term.

Perry will NOT be a case of picking between two evils when the general election comes around.

Just mention Bachmann in a room full of people of various political persuasions and listen to the reaction. I cannot explain it but she is not taken seriously by 3/4 of the country.

Believe me...Obama would LOVE to face Bachmann and is terrified of facing Rick. Once Perry is chosen as the Republican nominee....it's over. His campaign ads wil be DEVESTATING to Obama. The debates will seal the deal and Obama will sink like a rock after the first one.

nister| 8.15.11 @ 7:24AM

99, Perry can't walk back what he said, any more than Bachmann can walk back what she said about homosexuality.

Doctor Right| 8.15.11 @ 9:45AM

What exactly did Bachman say about gays that has your panties in a twist?

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 11:19AM

Doc, I think they are referring to her husbands stance and his efforts to "cure" gays through therapy.

nister| 8.15.11 @ 11:46AM

Bachmann thinks being gay is satanic, an opinion she's entitled to..just as Perry is entitled to his secessionist sentiments, and I to my opinion of you.

Thing is, Bachmann is already wobbling on that point, and Perry can either man up on what he has said..or flip-flop.

CrackerHound| 8.15.11 @ 1:37PM

Nister...Perry DID NOT threaten to suceed. This is yet another liberal invention along the lines of "I can see Russia from my back yard" ala Sarah Palin.

Perry was using a speaking tone known as tounge-in-cheek (look it up). The whole speech was about state rights trumping the fed where not enumerated in the Constitution...that's all it was and in this nanny state hell-hole, that's all it takes to get the media and wimpy citizens into a frenzy.

JimP| 8.15.11 @ 3:50PM

I always get a good laugh at the people who hit the panic button at any kind of reference to secession. It's like being Christian and/or mentioning God. They come completely unglued and irrational. Their paranoia goes wild.

nister| 8.15.11 @ 8:39PM

I just watched Perry ruminating on secession, for the camera. You're on to a loser, Cracker.

Erling| 8.15.11 @ 7:27AM

Gov. Perry seems conservative, but so did Gov. Bush in 2000. The Nation can't afford another Big-Government Republican in the White House. Congresswoman Bachmann has conservative fire in the belly, a winsome manner, and was one of the few elected officials who opposed adding $2T debt as Boehner and his whiz-kids did in their complete capitulated to Reid and Obama. The Nation can't recover if the next President is a status quo Republican, and with our history of statist Texas Governors-turned-President (L.B. Johnson, G.H.W. Bush, & G.W. Bush) forgive me for not jumping for joy over Perry.

Erling| 8.15.11 @ 7:56AM

Correction- G.H.W. Bush was a Texas Congressman, not Governor. But the concern remains: is Perry more like Bush or Reagan?

Reagan Loyalist| 8.15.11 @ 12:29PM

Do some research - he is the anti-Bush. He is NOT a RINO even thought the purest libertarians will, no doubt find something they will say makes him one. You can't actually have Governed a large state like Texas for 10 years and not have ever compromised.

RCV| 8.15.11 @ 12:31PM

Nor was Lyndon Johnson ever governor either.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 7:27AM

More Thoughts on Rick Perry
As with most men with convictions and passion…and a long public record, Rick Perry is going to be hammered from every direction.
He is going to be hammered by arch conservatives for being too ‘reasonable’ and practicing the politics of the possible. (Ronald Reagan’s phrase)
The communists, (pardon the shorthand), are lining up a whole host of lies and half truths. Many of their arrows can already be seen and heard on youtube.
The Libertarians and fellow anarchists are going to hammer him for offering to help our little girls avoid ovarian cancer, or because he encourages free trade, or because he thought it would be a good idea to build a freeway for ‘thru’ traffic for our trade with our southern neighbors. Trade in both directions I might add.

Mexico is probably Texas’ largest trading partner. Combine that with a large (legal), Hispanic population, it would be absolutely insane for a Texas Governor to posture and brag about immigration reform. Have no doubts though; the Texas Rangers and Texas Guard troops are staying quite busy. Long term, until the US Congress outlaws “anchor babies”, any immigration debate is worthless.

chuck| 8.15.11 @ 7:41AM

Ken,
I have to respect the opinions of Texans about Gov. Perry. I have a lot of family in Texas, and they really like Perry. I skipped down the page of comments looking for yours, as your thoughts and comments are much more educated than the liberal and Ron Paul trolls.
Thanks for your thoughts,
On a side note, God bless you for the work you and your wife do for children!

Clint| 8.15.11 @ 8:28AM

The New Hampshire Tea Party:

Criticizes Perry for Supporting TARP, Toll Roads, Trans Texas Corridor, Business Margins Tax, HIV Vaccine Mandate ....

The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.

Carpe Diem.

JimP| 8.15.11 @ 9:21AM

Add my thanks to your list, Ken. Please keep giving us your views on Perry, because as Chuck pointed out, you are on the scene and have much more info than those of us outside of Texas.

Dave| 8.15.11 @ 9:36AM

Texas doesn't have a large "legal" Hispanic population.

We do have a large, "illegal" Hispanic population, coached by officials, et al on how to get here, get sanctuary, and then get their free SS cards from the local Consulate's office.

If you actually lived here you would know that!

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 11:24AM

Dave,
is sadly quite ignorant. How many of you know how many "hispanics" fought to the death from inside the Alamo...and at San Jacinto.

...Facinating historical footnotes. Check out the names of those heroes of Texas in any serious history text. (Uh, Garcia is a hispanic name for you ignoramuses.)
Some 20+ percent of our legal voters here have hispanic surnames.

Dave| 8.15.11 @ 2:53PM

I'm actually quite aware of the truth.

Perhaps when you're done generating fiction, you'll find it.

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 11:20AM

Ken,

I'm neither a Libertarian or anarchist, but I do "hammer him for offering to help our little girls avoid ovarian cancer". He didn't offer help, he signed an executive order mandating people take a vaccine. Does this sound like Obamacare - lite?

He's walked this back saying he got too far in front and was called back for it. But did he learn anything?

I like that way this guy talks, but he hasn't always talked that way. A lot of people liked the way Obama talked as well. That's not by any means to equate the two but to suggest that the talk and the walk are two different things,

With Pawlenty out of the race (he was my personal favorite, but going nowhere), I'm inclined to support Perry as the least dangerous of the bunch who can actually defeat Obama (back to practicing the possible). I hope I am not supporting another king-wannabe.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 11:45AM

Hi John.
(Sigh), I got to keep typing the same facts so ALL of you can get over the lies.
Yes, Perry signed an executive order.........with an opt-out clause.
That way insurance companies, (and Texas Medicaid), would pay the damned innoculation charges.
There are hundreds of thousands of single moms here in Texas with a "boyfriend"...and a series of boyfriends who routinely rape their little daughters.

Perry saw some statistics about little girls developing cancer due to that, and candidly I think Governor Perry just got pissed off.

Personally, I think he would have rather loaded up his six gun and gone out and blown those boyfriends' testicles off for child rape.

That wuld have made re-election pretty difficult. See we have a lot of immigrants from failed US States. Most of them bring their failed State attitudes with them.

Now...native Texans would have simply applauded him and passed the ammunition... and re-elected him in a landslide.
We native Texans don't like child rapists.

We REALLY don't like child rapists.
Any of you that can abide child rapists...please don't move to Texas.

I'm so proud of Governor Perry making a "statement" in this regard and bringing the conversation "public".

If nothing else, a bunch of lonely moms will keep a closer eye on their looser boyfriends.

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 12:21PM

Ken,

I respect your views but think we can deal with the issue of child rape more effectively in another setting. My wife doesn't have a boyfriend and this has nothing to do with classroom education. I also happen to like the Gardasil vaccine.

I suggest, without proof, that most cases of HPV are transmitted between sexually active consenting couples. I hope its not during Math class.

To the extent that "scheduling" this vaccine reduces the out-of-pocket to parents of teenage girls, it also increases the cost of medical care to everyone else. Not necessarily a bad deal overall when compared to the costs of treating cervical cancer, but one which should be deliberated. It is currently being provided, cost-free, to children uncovered by insurance.

Suppose Perry had, in an attempt to reduce the incidence of breast cancer, mandated mastectomies to sixth-grade girls? I take the point to extreme, no doubt, but this was not the venue for these good works and the mechanism (executive order) wasn't a good way to get it done.

And THAT is the point, not Gardasil. Good ideas make bad laws. I don't find fault in Perry's motives, merely his methods. I take solace in knowing that he will probably act in my best interest, but we are a nation of laws, not men. Obama has made ruling by Executive Order his signature piece. It is a legitimate concern that someone seeking that office has demonstrated a predilection for doing the same.

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 5:06PM

Your comparison of Gardasil to a masectomy is absurd. If you do not see a difference between a mandated surgical procedure to remove a body part and a mandated vaccine to prevent cancer, I can't help you.

You may disagree with Perry's EO, but we all make mistakes. Anyone with a resume has mistakes on their record (why do you think so many people were fooled by The One? As a conservative, I could pick Ronald Reagan's entire career apart with little "bad decisions" he made, but it doesn't change the fact that he was a great president.

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 9:16PM

Idalily,

Mandated surgical procedure, mandated vacccine, mandated health care.... what do they have in common? Mandate! The government is not now, nor will it every be your friend. "Pure motives" are always claimed by big government liberals.

Perry's "walk back" was the he got in front of the people and was called for it. If he had said it was a principled mistake I would feel better about it.

We do have the advantage of hind-sight with Reagan which we do not have with Perry, but rest assured that if he is the nominee (and I may well vote for him) that I will support him in the general. Meantime, I'm trying to determine if he is a big government or small government conservative. I've reason to doubt.

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 11:06PM

Immunizing children against other diseases is a mandate also. Are you against vaccines for polio, whooping cough, measles, too?

John Navratil| 8.16.11 @ 10:38AM

idalily,

If you had read my other posts, you would find that I am not. Publicly communicable diseases, the kind you get in Math class, are a public health issue. When your illness can affect me, I have an interest.

I realize that HPV is actually publicly communicable (if it weren't, there would be no need for a vaccine, at all, would there) but getting a Plantar wart through a cut in your skin when walking through airport security isn't quite the same thing as measles, is it? The Flu vaccine is available, but isn't mandated, is it?

If you are interested, just search for my name in this post and my position will, I hope, be clear.

Carol| 8.15.11 @ 7:28AM

I was sold on Perry until I just read an article on the American thinker he is a Muslim sympathizer.

RUN SARAH RUN!

Intelligent Design| 8.15.11 @ 8:12AM

Perry's position on Islam is basically the same as every other prominent political figure from both major parties. They all tell us that Islam is one of the great religions of the world, that it's just a handful of extremists who are the problem, and that we should be tolerant of Islam. They are all wrong, of course. Islam is a 7th century political ideology which seeks to merge so-called "religion" and state. As the Ayatollah Khomeini said, Islam is nothing if not politics. The word Islam means submission, meaning that all others must submit to Islam and sharia. Islam is about total lack of religious freedom and violent opposition to Infidels, whether they be Jews, Christians, Buddhists .... whatever. Islam is fundamentally at odds with and hostile to our Bill of Rights. For example, in current Saudi Arabia the constitution is the Koran, the law is the "holy law" (sharia), and the practice of any "religion" other than Islam is prohibited. For centuries, Muslims have engaged in jihad against all non-Muslims.

Since 9/11/01 there have been 17,500 Muslim terrorist attacks worldwide. In just the past several weeks Muslim terrorists have killed over 300 people and wounded over 400. Often these attacks are one Muslim sect against another, but not always.

A good book to read is The Grand Jihad by Andrew McCarthy, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department.

In any case, Perry's position on Islam is no different than Marco Rubio's or that of leading Democrats. They are all pandering to Islam, presumably based on their ignorance of the real thing.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 11:49AM

Hi Carol
I sympathize with every Muslim, past and present.
You will never forget my book.
www.americaalonesaidno.com

CrackerHound| 8.15.11 @ 1:52PM

Carol, I hope you are not typical of where Republicans and the beloved Tea Party are.

PLEASE give up on Palin and think about the future.

Carol said:"I was sold on Perry until I just read an article on the American thinker he is a Muslim sympathizer."

Yep...sounds like a Palin supporter.

I like Sarah a lot but she's NOT running and her "supporters" are delusional and shall we say...not really politically saavy.

Bumr50| 8.15.11 @ 7:36AM

Forgive me for being skeptical about Perry.

Part of it is this mass SWOON a whole lot of people seem to be in over him.

The "attacks" that he's under regarding Big Government favorable decisions he made and the absolutely idiotic quotes he's ON RECORD regarding border issues saying are hardly "unfair," Texas governor or not.

I just want the most conservative for the buck.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 11:52AM

Bum,
You SHOULD be skeptical. Keep studying.

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 5:08PM

I want the most ELECTABLE conservative for the buck. Obama must be defeated before he can nominate another disaster to the SCOTUS or we are toast.

POST American| 8.15.11 @ 7:39AM

---Required viewing for anyone at all sceptical
of this, yet again, David Rockefeller/CFR/RIIA
Chatham House vetted and Tavistock scripted
'REAL American' :

'Vote for Rick Perry (Do U Know His Record)'
-youtube

----Former Al Gore campaign manager
and another egg from the ever corrupt
Karl Roe--ve

----Pusher of the deadly Gardasil injections
on behalf of the EUGENICS borg Big Pharma

-----PRO-Banker Bailout

-----Useless on the borders issue

-----Infra structure sellout artist

----- NAFTA and GATT booster (ie Globalist)

-----ILLEGAL Bilderberg attendee (a la BOTH
Clinton and Obama)

-----AND, most recently, betrayed the outraged people of Texas by striking down the people's crusade to get the sexual molesting federal TSA out of the state

We could go on ---but you get the point.

--------------------FINALLY----------------------

Just take a GOOD LOOK at that face!

YIKES!

wodiej| 8.15.11 @ 9:50AM

He also supported Mr. Peanut Jimmy Carter over Reagan (didn't support him for either term). He has a GPA from college as 1.8-that's about a low C/D average.

CESC| 8.15.11 @ 5:47PM

And Obama's college records reveal.....oh yeah, that's right. We haven't been allowed to see HIS records. Repubs have to reveal everything, Dems get a free pass on anything inconvenient. Yeah, that's it.

wodiej| 8.15.11 @ 9:51AM

also been seen with ACORN-he's a RINO.

Margie| 8.16.11 @ 1:55AM

Did the squirrel bite him? And just how many acorns was he really seen with, anyway?

Intelligent Design| 8.15.11 @ 7:41AM

Perry is the best choice. I recommend his book titled "FED UP!"

Romney-Care would make a good running mate for Obama-Care.

JP| 8.15.11 @ 8:05AM

The danger of a Rick Perry candidacy is he could very well win. Let us not rush to select another Texan without doing our due diligence. Texas is a state filled with Libertarian Conservatives, who often vote in Statists to national office (LBJ, Connally, Bush41, Bush43, Kay Baily Hutchinson, etc..).

I'm from Indiana, and I know many conservatives who continue to elect Richard Lugar, one of the more Liberal RINOs in the Senate. So, I don't blame Texans. Perry came up through the Bush political pipeline. And it appears Perry continued many of the policy initiatives that Bush was for. Bush gave us No-Child-Left-Behind; many people complained that this policy had its genesis in Texas. But the big test will be Perry's views on ObamaCare (will it be one of his top priorities to repeal it?), and immigration (will he enact a fence and actively patrol our southern borders?), and energy (will he pressure Congress to rewrite the EPA's charter and reign in its abuses?).

Of course, there's a whole host of issues. But, when it comes down to it, will a President Perry accomodate the Progressives? Will he cut deals? Like I said, a Perry Presidency is more likely than a Bachman or Romney one. But I hope we don't rush to him and regret it later.

Bumr50| 8.15.11 @ 8:13AM

"JP| 8.15.11 @ 8:05AM

Thank you.

I'm alarmed at the fact that when I say something bad about Perry on a WHOLE LOT of sites, it's like I went to the 'TigerBeat" website and said something nasty about "Glee."

Tenn Slim| 8.15.11 @ 8:15AM

Reviewed the Texas Gov Web site. His recent signing of various Texas Legislature bills, reveal a lot.
Recc you go to the Texas Senate web site for details. The Electrical bill alone is well worth the PDF down load time.
Perry could indeed make the final race most interesting. The Eastern 1/8 population, led by the Vermonters, will go beserk, at the idea of ANOTHER Texan in the Oval office. Expect to resurrect the GWB days of disrespect plus.
bt
Compared to Bachman, he is far more business experienced. Consider a coupling... Now that would drive the NYT and the Socialists from NE berserk.
end
Semper FI

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 10:20AM

Tenn Slim,

As for the coupling driving the socialist berserk (or more beserk than the norm). Same thought ran through my head but him teaming with Sara Palin. Can you imagine the numbers of exploded heads?

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 11:59AM

Sailor,
I don't mind cleaning up the wasted brain-matter.
I wrote in my blog the other day:

Governor Perry and Sarah Palin…dream ticket for prosperity
One thought I have is that we are going to desperately need a President who can COMMAND the “bully pulpit”!
We are going to need a President who can by sheer force of character, turn our country around.
Before proceeding further, I commend you to this speech by Governor Perry:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbWz1RYGE3Q
To my knowledge, that afternoon, Governor Perry came of age. He demonstrated to me that afternoon that he has “grown a pair”.
I would be very happy to see Governor Perry in the Whitehouse….. BUT I’m also sort of selfish. We need him here in Texas…and in the national Governors’ Chair.
You know, I look around and see medical doctors moving here, (To Texas), in droves. Just one example of a decent government allowing prosperity to happen, in spite of vested interests trying to stack the deck.
People often forget that many of those doctors are merely “small businessmen and women”.
Governor Perry and Sarah Palin would be the dream ticket.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 12:20PM

Hell, I would even man the broom and mop bucket.

"You know, I look around and see medical doctors moving here"

You don't think that has anything to do with passing a Medical Malpractice cap and the resulting dive in the price of malpractice insurance and health cost do you? Liberals will never admit that is part of the winning formula to drive down healthcare cost instead of the job killing Obamacare.

Paul Streitz | 8.15.11 @ 8:22AM

Mexico is ready for Perry. He would make a fine president of Mex-America. He has done nothing but encourage massive illegal and legal immigration into the United States. He is a George Bush writ large. To examine the full extent of Perry's perfidity, readers and the writer of this article might be wise to read today's article on Perry at VDare.com.
Paul Streitz
www.comprehensiveimmigrationreduction.com

Dave| 8.15.11 @ 8:32AM

Rick Perry is a Liberal. He was a Liberal Dem, but flipped over to get elected to public office. His views and agenda have always been those of a Liberal. He will always be Liberal. This is why he's a RINO (in case there was any doubt).

I will not vote for Perry. I would rather re-elect Obama than put Perry into the highest office in America. This view is shared by my entire family (having followed Perry before anyone knew who Perry was).

So is this the way the GOP is going to give Obama 4 more years and then feign shock?

Some day, people are going to get tired of these games our "servants" play with us and perhaps rise up and revolt again against tyranny.

I hope.

dustoffmom| 8.15.11 @ 9:01AM

" I would rather re-elect Obama than put Perry into the highest office in America."

Dave, I simply cannot fathom saying this. Ever. BO could be running against 'invisible person' and still would never get my vote....for anything. I really believe 4 more years of this and my country will damn near cease to exist at all.

Dave| 8.15.11 @ 9:31AM

Perry would be worse.

I can't explain it to you. You have to vote for who you like or believe will do right by you.

I've lived here and watched Perry for years. When he thinks he can get away with a piece of liberalism, he tries to. I would have thought he had learned he couldn't serve two-masters, but he never has. He's been an "ok" Gov., but I fear what he could do as President when given the opportunity.

The risk is too great, IMHO.

dustoffmom| 8.15.11 @ 9:46AM

Fair enough.....I surely do not know his record and his policies like someone from his state would. At least not yet. However, the risk is too great? That assumes ANYTHING at all could be worse than what we have now and to my mind that is not a rational possibility. Hence my comment.

Dave| 8.15.11 @ 9:54AM

Well, for example, Perry had this great idea of making the Guardia vaccination mandatory for all girls at age "X".

Now I don't have any daughters, but what I do have is a strong desire to limit government's ability to dictate the day-to-day affairs of Americans.

Manadatory Guardia vaccs... Obamacare...

Can you see it yet?

Dave| 8.15.11 @ 10:05AM

I know I spelled that wrong. LOL...

But the point is (if you didnt know) was that the vaccine had a risk or serious harm to girls, including sterilization. It should not be mandatory. The uproad here, in Texas, was so great Perry immediately changed the process to allow for someone to opt out (but only after calls for his head on a platter were heard).

This is not the kind of leader we need.

CrackerHound| 8.15.11 @ 2:01PM

Dave: "Perry would be worse.I can't explain it to you."

Personal distrust is one thing, but you are really not making a good case why Perry is the wrong choice. Just like many so-called conservatives who are against him it seems like grasping at straws.

Dave| 8.15.11 @ 2:55PM

Wait, do you need more than personal distrust? If you have personal distrust of a politician, should you vote for them? LOL.

So called? Listen Cracker... I AM conservative. That's why I won't support Perry.

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 5:12PM

You are crazy if you think Perry would be worse that Obama simply because he made an error in judgment about Gardasil, an error which he later corrected.

RichTex| 8.15.11 @ 12:10PM

Rick Perry did win the endorsement of the Liberal Republicans. A few weeks ago, he won a straw poll among the Republicans of Liberal, Kansas.

Dave| 8.15.11 @ 2:56PM

LOL

Paul Streitz | 8.15.11 @ 8:33AM

I should have put a link to the article in VDare on Perry. Here it is.
http://www.vdare.com/fulford/1.....d_file.htm
The Fulford File, By James Fulford
Rick Perry In Texas: Flunking The National Question
In Rick Perry's Texas, it's “basically over” for Anglos. Or so I read in the papers—see Texas demographer: ‘It’s basically over for Anglos’[by Gary Scharrer, Houston Chronicle blog, February 24, 2011]
Considering that Texas achieved Anglo-Saxon independence from Mexico in 1836, and has been an American state since 1845, you might wonder how that happened. Well, that’s a long story, but let’s talk about when it happened.

POST American| 8.15.11 @ 8:37AM

---IF Bilderberg vetted, former Al Gore manager,
and latest 'egg' from the ever core-rupt
Karl Roe--ve, PERRY gets in, you can set your
RED China-Globalist TREASON OP clocks
by David Rockefeller's withers right up to your
FEMA camp retirement.

"--DEMAND all of your candidates ABSOLUTELY
disclose whatever private organizations they belong to, and whatever secret oaths they've taken --and ALL the backing they've received. This is ESSENTIAL."
-ALAN WATT

REALLY

TRULY

ABSOLUTEY

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 8:41AM

Perry or any other will get my voting support only if Michele Bachmann drops out before the Convention. He will never get my monetary support, and in fact, he would be a grudging, but necessary vote against Obama. I still say the GOP is throwing away a grand, historic opportunity to be the party of the first woman U.S. President. To me, Perry offers NOTHING that we already haven't seen before. Sorry.

wodiej| 8.15.11 @ 9:53AM

Bachmann's credentials pale in comparison to Gov. Sarah Palin. Governor, Mayor, Councilwoman, done manual labor and owned a business.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 10:02AM

Quitter. You forgot quitter. But you are correct on Bachmann's total lack of qualifications.

George S| 8.15.11 @ 11:54AM

Didn't Obama quit the Senate to run for president? And what does Bachmann lack that Obama had in November 2008?

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 12:21PM

Actualy he quit the Illinois Senate to run for the National Senate, then quit that to run for President.

dustoffmom| 8.15.11 @ 1:04PM

So he's a double quitter then? But that's okay, no need to fret, after all....it IS the Messiah.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 1:52PM

If your a Democrat Messiah, it isn't called quitting. It's evolving to serve a higher cause of enlightenment.

DaveD| 8.15.11 @ 4:04PM

We have repeatedly elected people because of their qualifications. George H.W. had an impressive resume' before becoming President - that worked out well. Clinton, George W., and Carter were a successful state governors - sure was a predictor of how they were as President.

Unquestionably, the current bum is unqualified. But he is also unintelligent, unimaginative, unable to speak by himself without somebody providing him with the words, unquestionably a socialist, and unconcerned about governing against the will of the people.

Maybe we overrate unqualified as a disqualificatoin for office.

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 5:13PM

We have someone now with a complete LACK of qualifications. I'm not sure what your point is. That unqualified is better? Seriously?

tatosian| 8.15.11 @ 8:45AM

Texas politicians in the white house are a disaster.

LBJ's great society and Hart Cellar led to what's his names (compassionate) Islam is a religion of peace, illegal aliens are Americans too drivel which in turn gave us Obama.

What's Perry gonna do? Deliver the coup de grace and pray over the remains?

Just say no.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 8:49AM

As a matter of fact, Romney is miles above Perry as far as being business savvy.

David T| 8.15.11 @ 9:45AM

The best "business savvy" a president can have is the good sense to stay out of the way.

Rudy| 8.15.11 @ 8:52AM

You can talk all you want about Perry's "mediocre college transcript", but I contend that his grades were far superior to Barack Obama's and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

wodiej| 8.15.11 @ 9:54AM

maybe so but 1.8 is a low C/D. Either he was lazy or not bright.

Butch | 8.15.11 @ 4:42PM

Wodiej, that is the second time you have cited that statistic. I am a college professor and long-time academic administrator. A 1.8 GPA is D, period; there's no C to it. Almost every American university (I am not sure about TAM) is on a four-point grading system. In an accredited university, which TAM certainly is, 1.8 is insufficient for graduation. Are you saying he did not graduate? Is TAM on a different grading scale from most (I don't know)? Help me out here, please.

CESC| 8.15.11 @ 5:52PM

Again I say, where are Obama's college records? Why are you so focused on college records rather than actual performance results? Obama is an unmitigated disaster, has a proven track record of complete incompetence. Perry has a track record in TX that is much much better than this current president.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 9:05AM

If Bachmann wins Iowa, and finishes only second or third in S.C. Perry will be toast.

WJ| 8.15.11 @ 9:07AM

You people are delusional if you think the American people are going t elect George W. Bush , the Sequel. In this echo chamber it is easy enough to think that there are enough of you all to get this phony elected but in the states north of Texas they are going to see him as just another dumb looking Texan with a funny accent.

Try to step outside of your box and look at it from the perspective of the rest of the country. They will be needed to elect a Republican.

JimP| 8.15.11 @ 10:17AM

"You people"? There's a revealing condescension, for sure. Funny, I'm reading the comments and not finding a 'Let's blindly elect Perry' bandwagon going on. You must be a troll of some type. Either a lefty or maybe a partisan Repub who favors some other candidate.

John Navratil| 8.15.11 @ 11:24AM

WJ,

I think you'll find the Bushes are none to keen on Perry.

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 5:14PM

Who are "you people"?

CESC| 8.15.11 @ 5:56PM

Perry reminds me of Bush in no way other than state of origin. Now, if your comment was meant to mean something negative about TX, you can jump in with the anti-TX attitude of most elite idiots. "Dumb looking Texan with a funny accent" You are such a complete ass.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 9:28AM

The New York Post has heralded this now as "two man race neither of them named Michele", and that is part of the problem. That N.Y. network, MSNBC and CO. even Bill O'Reilly and parts of Fox included, are once again steering the ship off course deliberately picking the race. I will vote for the eventual nominee, but if we can't see what is happening ONCE AGAIN to try to make a race "interesting" in order to prop the JIHADIST IN CHIEF up, then we continue to prove we are lambs for slaughter.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 9:52AM

Let the pandering continue.
For years, Gov. Rick Perry has taken flak for his 2007 attempt to require girls to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, the most commonly sexually transmitted disease and the principal cause of cervical cancer. At the risk of angering fellow conservatives, Perry has always insisted he did the right thing.

That unapologetic approach changed this weekend.

A few hours after unveiling his campaign for president, Perry began walking back from one of the most controversial decisions of his more-than-10-year reign as Texas governor. Speaking to voters at a backyard party in New Hampshire, Perry said he was ill-informed when he issued his executive order, in February 2007, mandating the HPV vaccine for all girls entering sixth grade, unless their parents completed a conscientious-objection affidavit form. The vaccine, Merck & Co.’s Gardasil, would have protected against the forms of HPV that cause about 70 percent of all cervical cancer, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

"I signed an executive order that allowed for an opt-out, but the fact of the matter is that I didn’t do my research well enough to understand that we needed to have a substantial conversation with our citizenry," Perry said at the Manchester, N.H., event in response to an audience question about the HPV controversy, according to ABC News’ The Note. "But here’s what I learned: When you get too far out in front of the parade, they will let you know, and that’s exactly what our Legislature did, and I saluted it and I said, 'Roger that, I hear you loud and clear.' And they didn’t want to do it and we don’t, so enough said.”

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 10:25AM

So you say he was willing to admit he might have made a mistake? WOW if only the current POTUS could do as much. Then again, he would have to be admitting that quite a lot. Even one of his ex-economist advisers is telling him raising taxes right now is wrong. Will he listen? Highly doubt it.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 11:09AM

Exactly. Politicians get to change their minds - as long as it's for reasoned changes due to new information, new circumstances - without being butchered for it or accused of giving up their principles or engaging in strange acts with animals .....
I think this is more of pandering instead of a legitimiate change of mind.

What do you know or what do you make of Perry's alleged Neo-Confederate ties?

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 11:25AM

Just this. Just because your a member of "Sons of Confederate vetrans" does not make you a "the south will rise again" crackpot. Perhaps it is just a way to honor his southern roots, it does not equal Pro-slavery. That is a bunch of Democrat labeling crap. And just because a Neo confederate group endorses you does not mean you share the same beliefs.
Hell, my brother had a "White Power" supporter tell him he had his support and my brother does not share those views. Kooks are free to endorse anyone they want without the Endorsee's approval.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 1:13PM

Thank you, I'd received conflicting information. That and his secessionist statements lead me to wonder why he'd want to run a country that he didn't believe should exist.

JimP| 8.15.11 @ 10:15PM

Isn't it obvious? He plans to dismantle the Union from within the White House. It's a vast Neo-Confederate conspiracy. Watch out, it's coming but you'll never see it until it's too late. The SCV, Neo-Confeds are Masons too.... I assume since it's all a beyond top secret conspiracy./s

W| 8.15.11 @ 8:31PM

DS,
Don't believe anything Right says and check any quotes. He posted a quote that Justice Scalia was for a dead constitution. When I read the full quote and hear Scalia, Right omitted words to have the quote say what he wants. Have asked him repeatedly to admit, but he runs away.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 9:56AM

That's the point: Bachmann has the type of LEADERSHIP that hasn't been tried yet. Most of the others are the same old crap. Enough said.

Melvin| 8.15.11 @ 9:56AM

Bachmann is the antithesis of all things political on both sides of the isle. It is to be expected that Republican and Democrat talking heads will never ever say nothing good about this woman.
The political elite in Washington D.C. are very, very comfortable to leave the status quo exactly where it is. Because even with Obama life in Washington D.C. hasn't really changed all that much from President to President.
Oh sure there is the periodic dust ups, and scandals to distract our attention from what is really going on, but by and large the money is flowing just like it always has.
Do we think for one moment that the D.C. gate keepers are going to let an outsider like Bachmann come in and ruin they're nice little cozy relationship that they have with the crony capitalists. Hell No!
The Republican and Democrat Party Elite are going to fight this woman or any other outsider with every fiber of they're beings. There is way too much free tax payer money out to be skimmed off.
So is the RNC and the DNC going to portray Bachmann as an illiterate, Right Wing, Tea Bagging candidate? Damn straight they are.
This is why the new push for Perry. He is the Republican Establishment Candidate. Because if he is elected, the Crony Capitalists will let out a collective sigh of relief, and go about skimming tax payer money, and having visions of a one world Euro empire dancing in they're heads.
Besides it's obvious the Rick Perry and George Bush are cut from the same bolt of political cloth, and besides it's his turn.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 12:14PM

Melvin,
God bless you but you are mistaken. Rick is a good man.
He has already laid down his platform!
1. Don't spend all the money.
2. cut taxes and spending.
3. Keep regulations light and flexible...and predictable with a friendly business environment.
4. Pray for guidance for America.

He and Sarah have my vote.

aware| 8.15.11 @ 3:10PM

#1.....Texas has a 27 billion deficit this year http://www.businessinsider.com.....all-2011-1
Also doubled debt for "old texicans"(13.4 billion in '01 to 37.8 billion in '10)
So much for #1.

#2.....Texas spent 46 billion in '01, now spends 93 billion
Double the budget means double the size of government. So much for #2.

#3.....mandated with executive order vaccines for young girls. Merck sponsored bill with big "contributions" for Perry's reelection.
"Friendly" all right. Crony capitalism "friendly". So #3 a bust
#4.....You'll need plenty of praying with what is coming. So at least you got one right!

Only a fool would defend a politician, especially early. Don't listen to what they say, just look at their record. All politicians are liars. Nothing in his record tells me he's anything but another establishment neocon big government Republican. Between the neocons and the progressives we are just about done as a country.

How pathetic conservatism has become. You will chase after anything these days.
(would have provided links for all this but this site doesn't allow it)(do the research for yourself)

wodiej| 8.15.11 @ 9:56AM

Perry is the "flavor of the week." The adoration will wear off then perhaps they will see the person who really cares about this country and can be proud of her accomplishments-Gov. Sarah Palin 2012.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 12:16PM

Wodieg,
You heard it here first...Perry and Palin will win the Whitehouse.
They REALLY trust each other.
I trust both of them.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 8.15.11 @ 1:19PM

As you noted above, "God bless you but you are mistaken."

idalily| 8.15.11 @ 5:18PM

You mean the woman who quit? The one whose extremely high negatives HAVE NOT MOVED since she quit?

Look, I like Sarah, but if she can't handle the heat of a few lawsuits while governor of a small-population state, she doesn't have the staying power to be POTUS, in my opinion. Polls show a lot of Americans agree with me about that. She can't overcome her negatives with Indies. She cannot win.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 10:11AM

I'm going to say it a final time. Palin is not running. I wish she was, but she isn't. Get over it.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 10:21AM

Michele Bachmann has also done manual labor. She picked cotton in an Israeli kibbutz after high school graduation. Look it up and try picking cotton if you don't think that is work. If Palin is so confident and qualified why doesn't she toss her hat in the ring? And don't bring up Reagan announcing in November 1979 either. Perhaps she does need to stick to commentary and criticism. One month ago I would not have said all this, but if you believe you can win, then any time is the time to announce.

Matthew Quigley| 8.15.11 @ 10:25AM

Perry's ties to muslim interests render him absolutely unacceptable.

http://www.americanthinker.com....._pals.html

There is no way I can think of where he would get my vote in a primary.

tadcf| 8.15.11 @ 10:34AM

America is not ready for a Fundamentalist preacher for President.

Melvin| 8.15.11 @ 10:51AM

So what the guy believes in God, should he be immediately stoned to death or should it wait until after the Republican Convention?

Samuel af Ugglas| 8.15.11 @ 10:48AM

He has to prove he isn´t just another RINO!!!!!!

Solo| 8.15.11 @ 11:05AM

My attraction to a Perry candidacy is rooted more in the counter-balance he presents to Romney.
He's a "consensus conservative" who will attract a broad spectrum of support and is reliably conservative socially and fiscally.
There is lots of criticism available for Perry-some if it is actually legitimate and based in fact-- but I think this is going to be the case for any Governor of a large state with a strong, organized opposition party and a divided legislature.
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone", springs to mind.

IN sum.....it's awfully difficult to remain ideologically pure and get elected in this diverse culture of ours--much less be able to reliably govern in such a manner.
This "political Darwinism" tends to select ideological purists for extinction.

On balance, I think that, if after 8 years of a Perry Presidency the entire country looks more like Texas does today under his leadership, then we will be the better for it. By a long shot.

VBMax| 8.15.11 @ 11:12AM

Having read the entire thread I conclude that Perry has many more pros than cons. Add to that, it appears that he is able to admit and learn from his mistakes which is something that the current President is incapable of. I also firmly believe that speaking ability is almost as important as political philosophy. And Perry appears to fit the bill.

Perusha| 8.15.11 @ 11:14AM

Perry sure looked like just the man to enter the race who could beat Romney, however---

Even an average Internet acolyte like yours truly has read about his crony capitalism dealings in the past. Just wait until all the rest of his corrupt acts become known and hammered into the public’s consciousness by the MSM!

Remember that Soviet émigré, who was famous for saying, “What a country?”

America! “What a country!”

You recently had a draft dodging, womanizing/rapist, pot smoking Bill Clinton, now have a radical anti-American half black slick trick, and NOW the GOP is likely to nominate a MORMON, with a pair of bible-banging contenders named Perry and Bachman the other choices.

Hey, America is a Christian majority-secularist minority country, as they say, so a Jew or a Buddhist could never be chosen to lead---it’s simple math.

Still, “the trend is your friend” and “past is prologue”, taking the above into account, cause me to both laugh and weep at the seemingly inevitable result still to come from the election in 2012.

No matter what, though, the USA, in both the micro and the macro, is sure to go through a wrenching period of radical change. On the individual level, like low hanging fruit, the fattest and sickest citizens will definitely reach their bodily limits, and suffer and die, and at the summary level, the federal government will itself be unable to “kick the can down the road” much longer.

Yes, we DO live in interesting times!

Keep the following story in “mind”---

A devotee came to Bodhidharma seeking Enlightenment.

“I have no peace of mind. Please pacify my mind”, he asked of Bodhidharma.

“Bring out your mind here before me and I will pacify it!, said the latter.

“But when I seek my own mind”, the devotee said, “I cannot find it.”

“There!” snapped Bodhidharma, “I have pacified your mind!”

At this moment the devotee had his awakening, or satori.

It will be a long time before the American electorate even approximates any kind of satori, when it comes to politics.

fmm| 8.15.11 @ 11:37AM

And what about Perry's weak points? His social views are moderate with a slant to the left: Texas Dream act anyone? A thoughtful piece would mention those aspects.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 2:00PM

And a thoughtful commenter would note his steps to increase border security with Texas Ranger Recon teams.

http://governor.state.tx.us/ne.....ase/13577/

Bob K.| 8.15.11 @ 11:38AM

Another politician from a border state who, like McCain, is weak on defending our borders!

But worry not, he will be strong in the cause of advancing Democracy into the failed muslim states on the Mediterranean and in Western Asia with our Military might and dollars and lives!

Son of Liberty| 8.15.11 @ 11:53AM

Rubio/Ryan or Rubio/Christie would be a much stronger ticket with people who can clearly articulate the benefits of conservative values and principles to the average American. Haven't seen that in Perry to this point. Such a ticket would defeat Obama/Biden in a landslide and bring a lot of Senate and House coat tail victories with it.

Oldefarte| 8.15.11 @ 12:02PM

If true [and I have no doubt that it is], the following would be a Perry job killer for me and many others:

'.....August 15, 2011
Perry's Problematic Pals
By Pamela Geller

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced Saturday that he is going to seek the Republican nomination for President, and in his speech declaring his candidacy, he sounded great: "we reject this President's unbridled fixation on taking more money out of the wallets and pocketbooks of American families and employers and giving it to a central government," Perry said. "'Spreading the wealth' punishes success while setting America on course to greater dependency on government. Washington's insatiable desire to spend our children's inheritance on failed 'stimulus' plans and other misguided economic theories have given us record debt and left us with far too many unemployed."

Perry promises to fix all that: "We'll create jobs. We'll get America working again. We'll create jobs and we'll build wealth, we'll truly educate and innovate in science, and in technology, engineering and math. We'll create the jobs and the progress needed to get America working again."

Sounds good. But Perry has been sucked into the propaganda vortex, and is now wielding his enormous power to influence changes in the schoolrooms and in the curricula to reflect a sharia compliant version of Islam. He is a friend of the Aga Khan, the multimillionaire head of the Ismailis, a Shi'ite sect of Islam that today proclaims its nonviolence but in ages past was the sect that gave rise to the Assassins. Perry has concluded at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and the Ismailis, including a comprehensive program to feed children in Texas public schools and taqiyya nonsense about how Islam is a religion of peace. Another agreement stipulates that Texas officials will work with the Ismailis in the "fields of education, health sciences, natural disaster preparedness and recovery, culture and the environment." Perry let on that this was all about whitewashing Islam's bloody historical and modern-day record: "traditional Western education speaks little of the influence of Muslim scientists, scholars, throughout history, and for that matter the cultural treasures that stand today in testament to their wisdom."

It gets worse. Last March, Perry gave a speech in Dallas in the company of Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist was close to George W. Bush, and Perry's anti-tax, anti-Big Government rhetoric sounds like it's right out of Norquist's playbook. But there is a dark side to Norquist as well: Norquist's ties to Islamic supremacists and jihadists have been known for years. He and his Palestinian wife, Samah Alrayyes -- who was director of communications for his Islamic Free Market Institute until they married in 2005 -- are very active in "Muslim outreach." Six weeks after 9/11, The New Republic ran an exposé explaining how Norquist arranged for George W. Bush to meet with fifteen Islamic supremacists at the White House on September 26, 2001 -- to show how Muslims rejected terrorism.

The only problem was that the ones with Bush didn't. To Bush's left sat Dr. Yahya Basha, president of the American Muslim Council, an organization whose leaders have repeatedly called Hamas "freedom fighters." Also in attendance was Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who on the afternoon of September 11 told a Los Angeles public radio audience that "we should put the State of Israel on the suspect list." And sitting right next to President Bush was Muzammil Siddiqi, president of the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America, who once told a Muslim crowd chanting pro-Hezbollah slogans that "America has to learn if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come."

It was Norquist who ushered these silver-tongued jihadists into the Oval Office of an incurious president after the worst attack ever on American soil. Yet in December 2003, David Horowitz wrote that Norquist "has formed alliances with prominent Islamic radicals who have ties to the Saudis and to Libya and to Palestine Islamic Jihad, and who are now under indictment by U.S. authorities. Equally troubling is that the arrests of these individuals and their exposure as agents of terrorism have not resulted in noticeable second thoughts on Grover's part or any meaningful effort to dissociate himself from his unsavory friends." Nor has Norquist changed course since then.

Grover Norquist was on the Islamic payroll before and after the carnage of September 11. Gaffney revealed Norquist's close ties to Abdurahman Alamoudi, who is now serving time in prison for financing jihad activity. In 2000, Alamoudi said at a rally, "I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas. Anybody support Hamas here? ... Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas. I wished they added that I am also a supporter of Hezb'allah." Alamoudi was at that time head of the now-defunct "moderate" group known as American Muslim Council (AMC), and he was active in other Muslim groups in the U.S. that showed sympathy to or support for jihadists. And Alamoudi gave $50,000 to the lobbying group Janus-Merritt Strategies, which Norquist co-founded. Alamoudi also helped found Norquist's Islamic Institute with a $10,000 loan and a gift of another $10,000.

It was bad enough that Bush was close to Norquist. There is no way the GOP can again nominate anyone who is so completely and utterly clueless about the fifth column within. Ten years after 9/11, can't we nominate someone who can speak to the ominous threat posed by Islamic supremacists in this country? There are no secrets here, even if the stealth jihad is covert and sneaky. We know what they are doing. See their whole plan, and how to fight it, in my new book Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.

Rick Perry must not be the Republican nominee. Rick Perry must not be President. Have we not had enough of this systemic sedition?......'

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 12:29PM

Oldefarte,
I read the article too. If you have read my book, you know my stance on Sharia Law.
( www.americaalonesaidno.com ) Now available at amazon.com in the Kindle store of E-books.
It will pucker your butt.
Mr. Perry has already taken some hits for trying to protect little girls in Texas against "boyfriend rape" of little girls.
Stop and think for a moment.
Do you really think he is FOR a religion that castrates little girls and sells them into lifetime slavery?
God bless her, Pamela Gellar is our biggest Sharia hawk. She will never be elected to anything though.
I can accept a little "politickin'".

Oldefarte| 8.15.11 @ 12:40PM

Ken, with all due respect, once again if this is NOT TRUE, then Perry or someone else needs to counter argue her facts with counter-argued facts. Everyone, including her, has political partisaned spin when they are discussing politics, but these are blatently stated facts that are either true or not. Politics it is said makes strange bedfellows, and if Perry, Bush or whoever have [or are currently] associating with these Muslims-organizations, then I'll simply cross him off my consideration list for my vote. If it is one thing that I feel extremely adament about, it is THIS SUBJECT as regards our country. Regards, OF!

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 1:16PM

Olde Farte,
I appreciate your concern. I truly do.

Let me remind you of something... even Obama is following Bush's policies...if weakly. Even the Muslim/communist keeps blowing up jihadists.

I will speak for Rick Perry. He HATES child rapists.
Duh...that includes Muslims who practice it.
SHHHHHHHHHH!
Don't tell flip-flop voters.

Oldefarte| 8.15.11 @ 4:06PM

Ken, Again I'm neither at this point PRO/ANTI Rich Perry. The editorialist is simply making a claim concerning him that presumably is factually correct. As is requested below by ST, if this editorial's information is incorrect, then someone should simply post/state the facts of same. Also, if he has political associations with Muslim organizations, that in and of itself is not illegal or immoral, and it is simply up to each individual here as to their particular individual opinion concerning same. Even though Muslims per se should not all be blamed for the actions of those within their ranks who are terrorists, it has not been proven to my satisfaction that they do enough to fight/counter their radical element within their religion. Also I was not in favor of their attempting to build a mosque at ground zero in NYC. My point is that its not the Methodists, the Baptist, the Episcapaleans etc who are committing terrorism [and if it were, they their religion and members would/should be rightly blamed for same]. Additionally I don't know the circumstances of this child rapist situation in Texas and don't really see a possible connection between his stance on that issue versus the overall issue of his political affiliation with Muslim organizations. It just the latter, if true, that I would disagree with and have political concerns with!!!!!!!

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 12:15PM

Christie couldn't even whip his own behind nationally.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 12:20PM

I'm willing to say Palin/Perry in that order for the ticket. But forget the other way around, and Sarah Palin would be a damn fool to accept Veep. She plays second fiddle to no one-----BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! But she isn't running anyway, wait and see.

Nite| 8.15.11 @ 12:26PM

Wow! The liberal trolls are out full force in the comments here. Guess they know that Perry could beat Obama. I lived in TX for a lot of years. I have voted for Perry in the last three races, and will vote for him again. He is a conservative, believes in control of the borders (requested troops several times from Obama and got a big NO), anti-abortion, marriage between a man and a woman, strong national defense, against the run amuck current EPA, strong pro business, friend of Israel and the majority social and fiscal conservative views. The fact that he is being trashed by posters (with the same talking points) on conservative web sites indicated liberal fear of a strong GOP candidate against Obama. Perry is a junk yard dog and will not be intimidated by Obama the teleprompter King.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 12:31PM

Nite,
welcome. You are right on it, guy.
best regards

Oldefarte| 8.15.11 @ 12:44PM

I am NOT TRASHING anybody....if the GD facts stated by the editorial's author are incorrect, THEN PROVE IT BY POSTING THE THE CONTRARY ''''''''TRUTH'''''', if you can do so?????

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 2:11PM

This probably won't change your mind but.

"These connections with donors don’t necessarily mean Perry maintains a relationship with the state’s Muslims as a whole, according to Mohamed Elibiary, founder of the Freedom and Justice Foundation, a Muslim public policy organization in Texas."

http://blog.chron.com/believei.....him-apart/

Oldefarte| 8.15.11 @ 4:17PM

DS, You're entirely correct and I know that politicians in general have to have contact with numerous political groupings, sometimes to their detriment. However, that said, possibly you'd agree that 9/11/01 was a defining issue of emmence proportions form most of us, whether we knew anyone personally involved in that tradegy. I just think that this country's citizens have been ignorantly asleep at the wheel concerning the creeping under-the-radar-assault concerning Muslims, Sharia Law, etc; which has culminated in not only 9/11/01, but their attemot to build a mosque at ground zero in NYC, the Ft Hood massacre[s] etc. When you have the US Army commandant issuing a statement after Ft Hood that the primary issue concerning the military is a LACK OF DIVERSITY WITHIN ITS RANKS, then something is ars-backwards wrong. When you have a president of the US that is virtually unknown as to who/what he is, who his associates are etc; and who was given the keys to the kingdom of US political power by the voters on 11/4/08 and has thereafter politically run ruffshod over this country ever since; I think people need to maybe not STAND UP & FIGHT but to instead WAKE UP & VOTE PROPERLY!!!!!!!!!!!

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 4:53PM

No arguments here OF. But as you said, politics make stranger bedfellows. Is he on good terms with them or was it simply a bit of politicking? I honestly don't know. We do need to be very aware but I am not slamming the door shut on him just a few days into his race without knowing more. In fact the people that are looking for the perfect canidate tick me off to no end. There will never be one perfect canidate for everyone. Can I live with one or two things I disagee with? Absolutely, because I believe our founding fathers were smart enough to forsee this and allowed enough checks and balances to offset this.
The jury is still out on him for me, but overall I like him as one of my top 3 picks. I'll vote for any of them over Obama at this point even if he means I have to take a shower afterwards.

Oldefarte| 8.16.11 @ 10:57AM

DS: I absolutely agree with your totally correct position/thoughts. Politicians have rogue associations within the nature of their job as such, but again, if he's PROMOTING MUSLIMS [as opposed to simply politically ASSOCIATING with them], then I have a huge problem with his candidacy. His religiousosity may be the defining answer concerning this matter, since religions have become infiltrated by various liberal groups/sects for their own partisaned political purposes; and if by chance he's been indoctrinated due to his religion, then his associations may be beyond ASSOCIATIONS and more toward PROMOTIONS. The POLITICAL CORRECTNESS in this country has simply gone to damn far IMHO and has to be somehow stopped!!!!!!

JimH| 8.15.11 @ 12:34PM

National Review has a slideshow titled ‘What You Might Not Know About Rick Perry’. It appears to be a series of Chick Norris jokes, just substituting Perry’s name. Seeing how the race is shaping up maybe they’ll add one more: Rick Perry doesn’t get headaches. He gives them.

Derek Leaberry| 8.15.11 @ 12:54PM

Perry's record is mixed. He tried to force the Gardasil vaccine on the teenaged girls of Texas. He tried to jam the Trans-Texas corridor down the throats of Texans, a transportation plan that would have divided hundreds of communities, a very unconservative notion. He did very little in the fight against the deluge of illegal immigrants flooding his state. And he was a big spender when the money was there just like George W. Bush and most other Republican politicians.

Perry's Own Words| 8.15.11 @ 1:23PM

http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/5156/
Rare is the religious leader whose vision is so extraordinary that his appeal transcends nationality, ethnicity and faith traditions. His Highness, the Aga Khan, is one such extraordinary leader. If the history of civilization is filled with chapters concerning the strife borne of differences over religion, race, tribe and language, then blessed indeed are the peacemakers who have heard a higher calling of unity, who have recognized our common bonds of humanity, and who have had the courage to say that: “Tolerance, openness and understanding towards other people’s cultures, social structures, values and faiths are essential to the very survival of an independent world”.

The Quran says: Truly those who believe, and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabeans – whoever believes in God and the Last Day and is virtuous – surely their reward is with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, neither shall they grieve.”

In more ways than one, I have witnessed firsthand the extraordinary vision of His Highness, the Aga Khan. First, and most prominently, I have seen His vision of peace and unity reflected in the charitable lives of His followers in Texas, who contribute greatly to the fabric of our society, who have made many sacrifices for the sake of a brighter future for all of our children.

Oldefarte| 8.15.11 @ 1:41PM

http://youtu.be/EwaNRWMN-F4

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.15.11 @ 1:24PM

Derek,
you keep being an anarchist Paul-bot. Our books balance here in Texas.
The vacine push is going to save a lot of young women cancer here. (see comments above)

Uh...freeways always "divide" communities, but Texas has the finest road system in the country.

Mr. Perry was simply trying to maintain that distinction.
I of course don't know what HELL-HOLE IN WHICH YOU ABIDE...but we like freedom and roads.

Solo| 8.15.11 @ 1:38PM

Yeah.....the problem with RuPaul libertarians is that they view the construction of Stop Signs and Post Offices as equivalent to a Stalinist purge.

Derek Leaberry| 8.15.11 @ 2:28PM

Just to set the record straight, I do not support the Libertarian-in-Republican clothing, Ron Paul. Libertarians are wrong on too many issues to be considered conservatives. Most are cultural nihilists.

As for Perry's mandatory vaccine, it was a tyrannical scheme. It was anti-freedom.

As for roads, the worship of roads at the expense of the conservation of the rural splendor of the countryside is anti-conservative. The Interstate Highway system should have been shut down thirty years ago and sold to the 50 states.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 2:53PM

I guess we should go back to horse and buggies while we are at it. You ever try making a long trip and not use the interstates? You must have a lot of excess time on your hands to kill.

Derek Leaberry| 8.15.11 @ 4:48PM

Do towns as small as Salisbury, MD, Elizabeth City, NC or even Jacksonville, NC need by-passes? I think not. When Dwight Eisenhower conceptualized the Interstate System in 1920, the American road system was backward and needed modernization and he achieved that in the 50s and 60s. But even General Eisenhower would have recognized that much of what has been built over the last three decades has been political pork for politicians and make-work for one of the most unheralded and avaricious lobbies in the nations- the road construction lobby.

C Bowen| 8.15.11 @ 8:23PM

Surely, Mr. Leaberry, you mean when General Eisenhower saw the German Autobahn in the 1940s, not the '20s, did he dream of what he might do for our land--turn it into Germany, I guess is your point?

Derek Leaberry| 8.16.11 @ 9:43AM

Although the Autobahn impressed General Eisenhower immensely, he took military trucks cross-country in 1920 and found the American road system sadly lacking. The seeds of the Interstate Highway System began then, Mr. Bowen.

As an end note, Dwight Eisenhower was a much more powerfully analytical person than the left-wing dolts who looked down on him were willing to admit.

C Bowen| 8.16.11 @ 7:58PM

I see. I am not familiar with that anecdote, but it makes the whole thing worse. Eminent domain, twas a good thing, so sad it troubled good driving.

Walmart thanks you anyway...which in your next post, here or there, you'll pretend to condemn.

Solo| 8.16.11 @ 2:41PM

I can['t speak for the other cities you mentioned, Derek, but I can attest as to the necessity for the Route 50 By-Pass in Salisbury, MD. I'm from that area.
Route 50 is the major "Beach Route" between Western Maryland and Ocean City MD. From Friday afternoon till Sunday night during summer months, Route 50 would be all but impassable because of the Beach Traffic.

I worked in Easton, MD (also on Route 50) for a time and I recall that we once had a 47 mile back up on route 50 for beach traffic. It stretched from Salisbury almost to the Bay Bridge.

Trust me....they needed a By-Pass.

aware| 8.16.11 @ 5:32AM

Texas "books" don't balance unless you call a 27 billion dollar deficit "balanced". They only "balanced" last year because Perry used some of the Ocommie "stimulus" to do so after loudly railing against it.

Solo| 8.15.11 @ 1:34PM

Texas, by any metric, can hardly be considered a "Blue" State. Heck...it's not even close to "Purple State" status.
No, Texas is as Red a state as it gets.

They've elected Perry as their governor a record three times.

David| 8.15.11 @ 2:10PM

The problem with Bachmann is that I see her like I saw Palin; and I saw Palin like I see Obama. I will grant that Palin has more experience than either Bachmann and certainly Obama. Nevertheless, all three burst onto to the scene with relatively little experience. If we berate and make fun of Bam Bam because of his lack of experience, how can we then fully support Bachmann without having the same kind of reasonable reservations about her. I do like what she believes, and think she is a fine profesional woman, wife, and mother, but she is not ready to be prez. She is a great asset to conservatives, but is just not experienced enough for prez.

I am always suspicious of someone who just bursts onto the scene and swoons large sections of the masses.

simon templar| 8.15.11 @ 3:52PM

David, she burst onto the scene perhaps for you. She as been in the House and politics for some time and has run a successful firm and business for many years. She is not 20 years old. The same with Palin. Just how much experience are you looking for and just how much can a person acquire by the age of 45 or so? Both of them have tons more than the current idiot in the white house who by Clinton's own standards should have been a page and getting coffee for the real senators.
You are forgetting as all of us have that this is a self governing Republic. Our founding fathers wanted citizens not professional politicians and stromgly believed that regular people who ran businesses, raised families, and showed leadership in their communities and states were more than qualified. Just how can you compare the poser with any of the candidates running? They all are miles ahead of him?

David| 8.15.11 @ 2:15PM

The day Perry announced he was a candidate, a Pakistani Muslim I know told me that that morning at his mosque, they completely support Perry and are going to raise a lot of money for him.

What that means - how much can be read into that - I don't know.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 2:16PM

Like I say, Perry will get my support on Election Day(lukewarm, not enthusiastically) if he is the nominee. But not before then. Not at all. And at any rate he is the same old same old. Ho hum.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 3:16PM

Anyone here who thinks Obama wins all of the southern states, as someone on another AS story concerning Michele Bachmann does, is beyond hilarious. Pray tell, WHAT AGENDA IS OBAMA GOING TO RUN ON?

Kingofthenet| 8.15.11 @ 4:24PM

Well it's me or those idiots, works for me.

Brian Valentine| 8.15.11 @ 3:25PM

Oh, come on now, Biden and his side-kick won't be "unemployed" - somebody will pick them up, maybe to sell solar hot water heaters to homeowners?

simon templar| 8.15.11 @ 3:41PM

Bill, thank you for your article. It was an interesting read.

May I request, however, given that you are from Texas, that you write another going in greater detail on Perry's record as well and also address the many claims and accusations thrown out here
in this thread. I have heard conflicting reports on this vaccine program for example. Some state it was a voluntary program and others a Third Reich offense. It can not be both but in this age we get spin presented as fact and fact as spin. OF is right, there has to be some objective reality out there and if the facts dispute this then let them be told.

Let me say this. If I can not get some truth, some reasonable fascimile of the truth out here on a conservative web site which prides itself as being conservative and seeking the truth, where am I suppose to go? We lament every day about liberals being decepetive, lying, and distorting.
We believe are visions for America are true and our intentions and efforts are noble and the rights we fight for self evident truths. Is our politics the same as our opposition? Just how are we different?

So, something to think about, eh, OF, Margie, Occams Tool, Ken... and even Clint.

Solo| 8.15.11 @ 4:20PM

Well Simon,

Here's one piece of "spin presented as fact" that can be easily dispelled--that, of course, is the narrative spewed out by the PaulBots that Perry "forced" girls to take vaccinations:

Gov. Perry Establishes HPV Vaccination Program for Young Women
Vaccine will save lives of Texas women by preventing cervical cancer caused by HPV

Friday, February 02, 2007 • Press Release

" AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today issued an executive order directing the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to adopt rules requiring all girls age 11 and 12 to receive the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine prior to entering sixth grade, effective September 2008. The executive order also directs HHSC and the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to make the vaccine immediately available to eligible young females through the Texas Vaccines for Children program for young women ages 9 to 18, and through Medicaid for women ages 19 to 21.

“The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer,” said Perry. “Requiring young girls to get vaccinated before they come into contact with HPV is responsible health and fiscal policy that has the potential to significantly reduce cases of cervical cancer and mitigate future medical costs.”

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. Today, approximately 20 million people in the nation are infected, including one in four 15 to 24 year olds. Certain strains of HPV cause most cases of cervical cancer. Texas has the second highest number of women suffering from this devastating disease in the nation. In 2006, there were 1,169 new cases and nearly 400 deaths from cervical cancer in the state.

Parents may choose to opt out of mandatory vaccinations for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. The governor’s executive order directs DSHS to ease the opt out process by providing exemption request forms online."

http://www.thepoliticalguide.c.....6227230808

But...just you wait. It won't be a day or two and the PaulBots will be right back on here spewing the exact same thing.

simon templar| 8.15.11 @ 4:58PM

Thank you Solo for the info.

I found this web site addressing all the accusations against Perry circulating on the internet.

Take it for what it is worth. It appears to be very well written and documented with source links like the one you found.

http://peskytruth.wordpress.co.....negatives/

Solo| 8.15.11 @ 5:25PM

Thanks, Simon. I'm headed there right now!

Solo| 8.15.11 @ 5:57PM

Wow! That's a great link and a great read.

*Note to Paulbots: Warning....reading this research may cause your tin-foil-hats to explode.

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 5:00PM

Solo,
You don't give them enough credit. I posted those same fact last week and here they are again today. You, me and Ken posted the fact that there is a "opt out" but I garuntee by tomorow we will all read it again.

C Bowen| 8.15.11 @ 8:19PM

I have come to appreciate that venereal disease with your Texas teenage daughters, who are apparently completely out of control, required this vaccine.

Drunken Sailor| 8.16.11 @ 8:58AM

C.Bowen,
Not only are you a idot, but apparently your a ass too.

JimP| 8.15.11 @ 3:58PM

Thanks to all you Texans for your many comments. It is an enlightening discussion and I'm sure I am not the only one who appreciates it. Keep it up, please. It allows we non Texans to hear the complaints and check for ourselves and weight the evidence.

Kingofthenet| 8.15.11 @ 4:11PM

Another Texas President? I don't think so...There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, it's probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again.

Solo| 8.15.11 @ 4:26PM

Yeah...that's right. The state that someone hails from tells you everything you need to know about their character and qualifications, huh?

Very enlightened attitude.

JimP| 8.15.11 @ 4:43PM

I agree, Solo. Except if it's NY. LOL

Drunken Sailor| 8.15.11 @ 5:01PM

Solo,
He can't even get its orgins or the quote right. It's a Irish quote: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Kingofthenet| 8.15.11 @ 5:33PM

Sailor, stay off the booze...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A

David| 8.15.11 @ 4:41PM

Simon, I agree (as stated) that both Palin and Bachmann have more real-world experience in private practice and government than the current phony in the White House.

What I haven't heard specifics on is exactly what business experience Bachmann has. I know she was a federal tax attorney (how long did she practice?), has reared umpteen children and foster children, and for the firt time the other night, heard that her and her husband opened and ran a successful business (what type, how large, and is it still operating and profitable?).

Hey, I would take ANY of the current crop over Bam Bam. I am just wondering if anyone can shed some light on specifics of what she has accomplished other than (and it is NO SMALL thing) to be a principled voice of opposition to business as usual in Washington.

Again, I am always suspicious of anyone who can get a large swath of people to fawn over him or her. That is just my nature.

I will check her out to see exactly what her accomplishments have been. Rearing so many children, I don't know how she had time for anything else. Again, I think she is a fine person.

David| 8.15.11 @ 4:54PM

Simon, I checked. She was tax attorney for 5 years and their business employs 50 people.

That said, I did not not in her 5 years in U.S. Congress that she authored or co-authored any significant piece of legislation. I have not seen any specifics as to WHAT she cut with regard to spending.

simon templar| 8.15.11 @ 5:02PM

David, thanks, it is sad that we have to do all this work and we can not get our media to assist as this is what they are suppose to be doing for a living.

Here is a link about Perry and a rebuttal to all the accusations about him. Interesting web site..check it our for what it is worth.

http://peskytruth.wordpress.co.....negatives/

Kingofthenet| 8.15.11 @ 5:07PM

Whenever I see Rick, I get a Rock Hudson vibe, like he would like nothing more than to be oiling up some young man's body...

PCP Smoker| 8.15.11 @ 8:55PM

We don't need to know your homosexual fantasies. Go back to your bed and masturbate there. Wash your hands too.

David| 8.15.11 @ 5:33PM

KingoftheNEt, you are a moron.

Simon, thanks for the link. That was very informative and I recommend it to everyone who posted here.

Yep, that 'ole illegal immigration matter. It is very bothersome to me. Perry may say we need to secure the border, and he publicly chided Bam Bam's admin for not doing so, but I have a strong suspicion that he did so ONLY because he knew Bam Bam would do nothing.

DaveS| 8.15.11 @ 5:36PM

All we ask for is a grown-up to run a thorough campaign against the most vulnerable sitting President since Carter. Perry is not perfect, but he is the adult.

RCV| 8.15.11 @ 6:26PM

The Perry apologists can stop trying to justify his support of the sensible vaccination stand he took, because he just repudiated it, being the political chameleon that he is. After all, like Romney, if it's incompatible with your current political ambitions, you just reverse yourself!

COPY GIRL| 8.15.11 @ 6:52PM

IF WE ARE GOING TO HAVE 15 MONTHS OF RAGGING ON PERRY ABOUT SECEDING FROM THE UNION, LET'S GET IT RIGHT.

SECEDE: TO DROP OUT OF

SUCCEED: TO LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "SECEDE" AND "SUCCEED"

SECESSION: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOUTHERN STATES. . .

SUCCESSION: THE ACT OF SUCCEEDING A FORMER PRESIDENT OR OTHER IN OFFICE, AS IN

"PERRY'S SUCCESION TO THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT SURPRISED A LOT OF PEOPLE..."

ALSO, A NUMBER OF PERSONS,, DOING ONE THING, ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER - - AS IN OBAMA'S FOLKS PACKING UP AND LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE IN JANUARY 2012 "THEY STUMBLED OUT IN A DISMAL SUCCESSION, MUTTERING, "WE THOUGHT WE COULD...."

SURCEASE: WHAT PERRY CAN MAKE POSSIBLE FOR THE NATION - AN END TO OBAMA'S REIGN OF TERROR.

Bob K.| 8.15.11 @ 10:35PM

If at first you don't succeed, just keep on sucking till you do succeed!

PCP Smoker| 8.15.11 @ 8:52PM

Bush's III term coming up, if this creep gets elected. "There is peace in my heart", he says, and so did Bush. Matter of fact, outside of central TX, I don't know anyone who uses that expression.
I can already see the "family values don't stop at the Rio Grande" rhetoric , as he rallies liberals and RINOS towards the Grahamnesty led "tough immigration bill".
Come on conservatives. This is no time to get sentimental and weak. This guy is better than Obama , but someone with such checkered past, including support for Gore in 1988, is not the answer.
Fuck Ron Paul too.

Votocracy| 8.15.11 @ 8:58PM

Not happy with all the candidates for President? Try supporting someone who you actually agree with and while you're at it, chime in on our daily polls! More voices, more choices! http://bit.ly/Votocracy

wayne| 8.15.11 @ 9:46PM

Personally, I have the sense that people are not really ready for another polarizing Texas good ole boy right now.
That said, if he does get the nomination I hope to God he isn't as tongue tied and inarticulate as the last Yahoo, and I would not give Perry good odds against the Machine.
The WSJ's article about Perry's crony capitalism is cause for worry. Of course, BHO is the biggest crony out there right now; who's backing BHO: the forces of "Light", such as Google, Buffet, GE, MSM, unions, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs,... 'Doesn't look good. Even with God on his side I don't see Perry winning against that mob.

somnolence| 8.15.11 @ 9:57PM

Scenario: By the time the primary gets to N.H. Romney is fading, Bachmann gets the majority of the evangelical vote from Perry there, captures S.C. Palin will possibly have entered the race between Sept.-Jan, has accumulated 350 million in cash, and captures the nomination. Picks Bachmann as Veep. Palin-Bachmann prevails with at least 297 electoral votes.

Kingofthenet| 8.15.11 @ 10:34PM

Are Texans still drinking Piss?

POST American| 8.15.11 @ 10:48PM

----------------------BOTTOM LINE---------------------

In this the 11th hour of the Globalization
-RED China sellout and TREASON OP ----TTT-Rick PAIR--HE is yet another David Rockefeller/Bilderberg/CFR/RIIA front,
another egg from the basket of the ever core-rupt
Karl Roe-ve.

----Remember kiddies, them thar' massive tunnels
connecting Pigeon Lake B.C. and Asia are just a sittin' there ---waitin'.

Just like that 'first of several' RED Chinese
'sovereignty zones' south of Boise.

Just like that loitering, EUGENICS programming-
infanticide created surplus of 30 MILLION young Chinese males.

"---Did you just hear me? --THIS IS TREASON."
-ALEX JONES

Turn off your Tell-A-Visions and you'll soon
REAL-EYES ----IT IS...

Yoda| 8.15.11 @ 11:30PM

The Tinfoil is STRONG in this one...

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.16.11 @ 8:37AM

Long thread.

Governor Perry as ALREADY laid down his intensions...and his platform...in no uncertain terms.
I like that.
As President, Perry will demand that the STATES man-up and solve their individual problems. Most States will fail in cowardice.

TOO DAMN MANY PEOPLE DEPENDENT ON WELFARE!
i'M FRIGHTENED, FOLKS.

Those welfare folks vote too.

Margie| 8.17.11 @ 11:42AM

Personally, I'm against the vaccine, but that's just personal.
And I've done my research. I think it ought to be destroyed.

But that whole thing doesn't disqualify him in my eyes because as you said, he has a plan, and it seems good to me.

It would be a deal killer though, if he really is soft on Islam. He needs to call an ace an ace. Is he? Lots of us will be taking notes.

As to the welfare issue. We're not in NJ anymore, further west now. We were talking to a man with a well known business in the state just yesterday. He was giving us a picture of what the welfare nation looks like: One company that's been in business for decades has about 300 job applicants to work there. It's a huge bakery. They need good workers just to man the computer system.
Almost every single applicant fails the drug test. It costs the company about $80.00 for the drug test.

Welfare is supporting these people. This man we spoke with is trying to work with the state Reps. on making it a requirement that the recipients must pass a drug test in order to get any assistance. Right now, there is no law.

Isn't it a sad state of affairs? I tell you, the way it affected me was it brought me to tears. Why??

Because our beloved country is overcome in sin. I wonder how much of the population is addicted to drugs? And then, there are no real laws to prevent them from going on the dole~ so it's a continual merry-go-round. They're allowed to live off the taxpayers indefinitely.

Who's at fault> Ultimately it's the individuals who choose the lifestyle. But then the lawmakers we elect~ the Liberals & Leftists that WANT it to be so??

Friends, we NEED Republicans in office who are willing to stand up and work to do something about this condition we are in.

They have my vote. I want to see a strong America again.
I love my country.

John.in.Georgia| 8.16.11 @ 9:14AM

Well, you might be all excited about Perry's candidacy, but this is one Georgian who doesn't plan on voting for him. I am for Bachmann. I think the people of Texas deserve to have the current Governor serve out his entire term uninterrupted. After all, I don't recall him telling the people of Texas he was going to run for president before his term was up while campaigning for reelection, do you?.

David| 8.16.11 @ 11:19AM

This info is from Wikepedia. Yesterday I was questioning Bachmann's accomplishments and had back and forth with Simon. This is pretty good stuff on Santorum who is not wishy-washy on issues such as illegal immigration.

BA in Political Science.

Masters in Business Administration.

Law Degree.

Practiced business law for 4 years.

Administrative Ass't to PA State Senator Doyle Corman in his late 20's.

At 32 defeated seven term rep Doug Walgren in heavily democratic district.

Re-elected to House of Reps. Was big player in naming names involved in the House banking scandal (REMEMBER THAT),

At 36 defeated heavy favorite Harris Wofford for U.S. Senate.

Served in Senate from 1994 - 2006. (Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security), and served on many other committees.

Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

He has been a consistently principled legislator over the years.

He and his only wife have had 7 children, and the remainder of his family history is at least as impressive and heartwarming as that of Palin and Bachmann.

I know Bachmann and Perry are all the talk right now, but folks, please take a serious look at Santorum. He has been my favorite. Yes, he supported Specter (which he has thoroughly explained to my satisfaction, and to any reasonable person's satisfaction), and he lost big in 2006. Nevertheless, the man should be overlooked. He is an excellent debater - he knows the issues - he can explain why he believes what he believes better than almost anyone else. He rivals Gingrich in that regard.

I hope you see this Simon.

Oldefarte| 8.16.11 @ 2:38PM

Here's another news item FYI. I probably agree with 95% of what his political positions will be [but on this issue, he's going to have much to explain and possibly CHANGE]:
'.... Rick Perry Has Good Ties With Muslims
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 11:30 AM
By: Husna Haq, Christian Science Monitor Correspondent
In a GOP field crowded with presidential hopefuls questioning Muslims’ loyalty and promising to crack down on Muslim religious sharia law in America, Texas Gov. Rick Perry enters the race with a distinguishing calling card: a historically good relationship with Muslims in his state.Whether Governor Perry, as a presidential candidate, will continue courting Muslims — and whether that is a liability for Perry in the current Islam-leery climate — remains to be seen.An evangelical Christian and self-described social conservative who recently led a Christian prayer rally in Texas, Perry has had a surprisingly warm relationship with Muslims as governor, says Mohamed Elbiary, founder of the Freedom and Justice Foundation, a Muslim public policy organization in Texas.
“We’ve seen him for 20 years at state level, as lieutenant governor and state governor,” Mr. Elbiary says. “Throughout that whole history, he’s never taken an anti-Muslim or anti-Islam position. He’s a live-and-let-live type of Texan, and relations have been good.”In fact, Perry’s relations with Ismailis, a Shia sect of Islam whose adherents number between 30,000 and 40,000 in Texas, have been particularly positive, says Mahmoud Eboo, President of the Ismaili Council for the USA."I believe that Governor Perry’s leadership philosophy has been to serve Texans of all races and religions and his relationship with the Muslim community generally and the Ismaili community in particular has been cordial and respectful," Mr. Eboo says in an email.In 2008, Perry helped expand the Muslim Histories and Culture Project, a teacher-training program spearheaded by Texas Ismailis that introduces Islamic history and culture curricula into Texas schools."I have supported this program from the very beginning, because we must bridge the gap of understanding between East and West if we ever hope to experience a future of peace and prosperity," Perry said at the signing ceremony.
In contrast, upon entering the race, most of Perry’s contenders immediately set about distancing themselves from Islam and Muslims.
GOP hopeful and former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain has famously said he will not have Muslims in his cabinet if he is elected because he questions their loyalty, though he has since amended his stance by calling for a “loyalty oath” from any Muslim appointees.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has called sharia law an “existential threat to America.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has proposed a federal anti-sharia law. "I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time [my grandchildren] are my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists,” Gingrich said to thousands of evangelical churchgoers during a March address at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. In response to a debate question about French Muslims during a congressional campaign in 2005, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, the winner of this weekend’s straw poll in Iowa, said: "Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal." Former Minnesota governor (and now former candidate) Tim Pawlenty touted his cancellation of a Minnesota agency's sharia-compliant mortgage program designed to help Muslim homebuyers. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in 2007 that he would not consider Muslims for cabinet posts. Romney said that “based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified." Romney later disputed the accuracy of that quote. “This is all part of a post-9/11 phenomenon,” says John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio. “There’s been a lot more focus put on Islam.” It’s not all bad, he said, “but the negative side is heightened scrutiny of Muslims and Islam.”Many of these candidates have previously had good relations with Muslims before the climate turned against Islam. Mr. Gingrich cultivated Muslim donors and helped Muslim congressional staffers get prayer space on Capitol Hill.Noting the change, Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Houston, calls the candidates’ recent questioning of Muslims and Islam a “chilling” trend designed to galvanize support among the conservative base of the Republican Party.“I think what is happening is they’re using this anti-sharia law stuff as a red herring to get everybody fired up,” Mr. Carroll says. “In order to show how patriotic you are, [you have to demonstrate] how negative you can be about Muslims.“People are saying things they can’t say about anybody else in society,” he added, comparing some of the anti-Muslim rhetoric to “nasty, ugly things” political candidates said about African Americans during the Civil Rights era.If Perry were to reverse course himself, he would be walking away from a long record of good relations with Muslims. As governor he signed off on several Muslim-friendly pieces of legislation, including a consumer protection law ensuring the accurate labeling of food products as halal, or conforming to Muslim dietary restrictions.And for years, Perry has been close friends with the head of the Ismaili sect, Aga Khan, whom he met in Paris in 2000. Since then, Perry has attended a number of Ismaili events in Texas, brokered a few agreements between the state and Ismailis (including the legislation introducing Islamic curricula into Texas schools), and even laid the first brick at the groundbreaking ceremony for an Ismaili worship center in Plano in 2005.Perry’s relatively good relations with Muslims have already sparked distrust among some conservative bloggers.“Scratch him off my presidential list," wrote RoadTest on the conservative site FreeRepublic.com. "We have already seen what a Muslim enabler in the White House can do."In a nominating race where every candidate is vying for the Christian conservative vote, a critical part of the GOP’s base, Perry will likely be criticized for his relationship with the Muslim community in Texas, says Professor Green.“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if in the Republican primaries the whole issues of appropriate relationships with Islam comes up,” he says. “Other candidates or faith-based interest groups would criticize the governor for that. There are groups that are very concerned about these issues.”Although it was planned long before Perry was considering running for president, his Christian prayer rally was just the sort of event that would reassure religious conservatives about Perry’s evangelical credentials, added Green. The event, “The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis,” saw between 15,000 and 22,000 worshipers, including several controversial religious leaders, gather in Houston’s Reliant Stadium for a seven-hour-long Christian prayer rally with a decidedly conservative Christian bent.Muslim Americans say they are looking to Perry to set a more inclusive tone in the nominating contest.
“The American people are looking for someone who can solidify and bring people together,” says Carroll. “To continue to polarize the nation is not good for America . . . We don’t want a leader . . . who polarizes and uses fear-mongering to garner political favor.....'

shipley130| 8.16.11 @ 5:04PM

No, his stance on illegal immigrants will keep me from voting for him.

shipley130| 8.16.11 @ 5:09PM

It's a good think to read others' comments on a story. It can really bring into focus what you like or don't like about a candidate. One particular comment caught my eye. Rick Perry as a "live and let live" sort of guy. Well, that is exactly why America is in a tsunami of trouble. Our governments have had the same laissez faire attitude toward groups that are breaking laws and trying to destroy our great country.

Patricia Woods | 8.16.11 @ 8:59PM

Bless you! I laughed so hard I cried. The libs and their media will just roll over and howl when the fun begins. As a soon-to-be resident of San Antonio, rather than Albuquerque, I look forward to calling him my guv and, I hope, my President Perry. I daresay people are puffing up with anger even as we breathe...
And it's time to read your book. I am an escapee from the ECUSA. Mainline Christianity is not long for this world; the fault lies completely at the feet of the leaders and clergy in those churches. Ah well, we will look forward now. Keep writing. This is one former news scribbler who loves your work. My work is found in blogs and now books. Have a terrific week. And thank you, again, for the wit and wisdom of your words. Best regards, Patricia Woods aka Patricia Cole Williams

William| 8.16.11 @ 9:36PM

Rick Perry cannot beat B.O. only Chris Christie
can.

Lizario| 8.17.11 @ 2:41PM

Perry is Arlen Spector in cowboy boots that are covered in BS up to its boots straps.

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