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The Businessman Canard -- It’s not impt not to be a pol; it's impt to be a really good one
National Review Online ^ | October 11, 2011 | Rick Lowry

Posted on 10/28/2011 9:55:58 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

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To: Brookhaven; Cincinatus' Wife
Instead of asking why someone like Herman Cain thinks they have a right to run for any political office, we should be asking why does anyone (including Rick Perry) think they should be able to spend their entire adult life in one political office after another?

Rick Perry hasn't spent his entire adult life in one political office or another, unless adulthood begins when you're 34 years old.

One of the best packaged marketing schemes is this notion that Herman Cain is a non-politician, an "outsider". Herman deserves a great deal of credit for selling that malarkey.

Herman Cain has been involved in national politics at least since 1996. He has run for national office in 2000, 2004, and now once again. Perry, who started at it in 1984, has more years of it under his belt, but ole Herman is doing his best to catch up! As a matter of fact, if Herman keeps at it for a while longer, we may be able to refer to him as a career candidate, the Ralph Nader of the 21st century! :)

41 posted on 10/28/2011 12:01:08 PM PDT by smoothsailing (FUMR-FUBO)
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To: smoothsailing
Rick Perry hasn't spent his entire adult life in one political office or another, unless adulthood begins when you're 34 years old.

OK, you got me on that one. The first 13 adult years of Perry's adult life weren't spent in political office.

But since then, over the last 27 years, he has spent his adult life in one political office after another. Rick Perry hasn't spent his ENTIRE adult life in political office, only 2/3 of his adult life in political office.

Yep, you got me on tht one. Glad we could clear that up.

Really, who would dare say someone that is in their 60s and has held one political office or another continually since they were 34 is a career politican? What was I thinking?

42 posted on 10/28/2011 12:13:37 PM PDT by Brookhaven (I believe in the seperation of school and state)
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To: Brookhaven

No matter how you wish to define experience, experience is self evident. If you believe that business experience is more important than political experience that is your call. However, to say that experience in a particular profession is a bad thing is just silly.


43 posted on 10/28/2011 12:14:20 PM PDT by Quicksilver (Defeat Obama - zero-sum games will get us Zero, again.)
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To: smoothsailing
New VIDEO: Rick Perry – Cut, Balance and Grow
44 posted on 10/28/2011 12:37:43 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: smoothsailing

There you go again. :)


45 posted on 10/28/2011 12:42:32 PM PDT by Quicksilver (Defeat Obama - zero-sum games will get us Zero, again.)
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To: Brookhaven
What was I thinking?

You weren't thinking, you were engaging in hyperbole, you've all but admitted as much. I applaud you for your candor. The more obsessive anti-Perry posters wouldn't rise to your level of honesty.

46 posted on 10/28/2011 12:43:25 PM PDT by smoothsailing (FUMR-FUBO)
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To: Grunthor
Frankly it might even be the smart bet. Until Cain does collapse however, I am going to back him. I am not emotionally attached to him so I have back-ups.

Me too.

My only real emotional attachment was my 4 year secret love affair with Sarah.

She decided not to run and she rejected my offer of life on a beautiful island, so broken-hearted I moved to the next best conservative {but with no emotional attachment}.

I think that Herman will surprise a lot of the folks.

I saw him last summer at a TEA party and he was great.

47 posted on 10/28/2011 12:49:37 PM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the Terrorists Savages)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
I have read the title and the article repeatedly, but I read it again as you requested. How you can read this and come away with the sense that the author is saying anything other than career politicians are more qualified than businessmen for high office is beyond me. He does not use the word 'statesmen' as you did. He does not qualify successful three term governors. He even goes so far as to imply that Corzine was a failure because he was a businessman and Christie is a success because he is a politician. That logic requires you to suspend all other factors like Corzine is a raging crony socialist.

You are the one who has hitched Rick Perry to this delusional article which under normal circumstances would require a Barf! tag on Freerepublic.

Amid the slings of outrageous fortune, the politician learns how to inspire and persuade, how to avoid unnecessary minefields and pick his fights, when to accommodate his opponents and when to confront them, how to build a coalition and keep it together. A businessman might have similar challenges, but they aren’t played out in the public arena in the context of a balky, democratic political system that rarely moves on the basis of one man’s orders.

I understand that someone who has never held political office will have his handicaps, and they are large. Government is completely unlike any business in the world. I think it's common sense that governors are the closest in experience to the Presidency.

That being said, There are certainly drawbacks to spending 27 straight years in elected office. People who have made a career pandering for votes for the next election and spend every waking moment grasping for power are destroying this country. Can you prove Rick Perry isn't like all those others? Did he vote for Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan? Did he vote for Michael Dukakis in 1988 after Al Gore dropped out? Was the Democrat Party in Texas from 1984 to 1989 more conservative than the Republican Party of Texas in the same time period? Were the ideals, goals and plans of the Democrat Party in the middle of Ronald Reagan's term more conservative than the Republicans? Or was he a Democrat because it was the most likely path to win and keep elected office? Why did he switch parties? Did he have a massive conservative epiphany in 1989? After eight years of watching Ronald Reagan did he finally, one year after campaigning for Al Gore, figure out that republicans were more conservative than Democrats? Or was he switching horses when he saw his state, or more importantly his district, turning Republican? Right after becoming a Republican he ran for state wide office, rather than stay in the minority in the State Legislature. Coincidence? Maybe. But it's a pattern followed by thousands of career politicians.

As I told you before, Governor Perry is my second choice at this time. Romney, Huntsman and Johnson are the only other governors and are completely unqualified because of their positions. Gingrich, Paul and Bachmann have zero executive experience. That makes Perry #2 on the list. But he walks like a career politician and quacks like a career politician. And unlike the author of the article I don't think that's a compliment.

48 posted on 10/28/2011 12:55:11 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: Brookhaven
Rick Perry hasn't spent his ENTIRE adult life in political office, only 2/3 of his adult life in political office.

Fractions are fun! Did you know that Herman Cain has spent over 1/2 as many years as Rick Perry engaged in politics and seeking elective office? :)

49 posted on 10/28/2011 1:08:25 PM PDT by smoothsailing (FUMR-FUBO)
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To: Pan_Yan
The last paragraph of the Lowry piece:

And the businessman’s work doesn’t depend on a philosophical commitment to a set of ideas. The best politicians, like the non-businessman Ronald Reagan, translate their principles into reality in a way that rises to statesmanship. It’s not important not to be a politician; it’s important to be a really good one.

Rick Perry has said he voted for Ronald Reagan. He said he voted for Carter because he (as many did) felt he would be good for farmers. But then he realized the party he'd been raised in, wasn't his party -- the growing Republican party was -- and he became the first Republican Lt. Gov of Texas since Reconstruction.

50 posted on 10/28/2011 1:13:54 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Pan_Yan; Cincinatus' Wife

The author agrees with you that the values of Corzine and Christie had more to do with whether or not they were successful as Governors.

He didn’t say Corzine failed because he was a successful businessman, he said that being a businessman was not sufficient to make Corzine a success as governor. Neither was it necessary for Christie to have been a businessman.

We know what Governor Perry has done for over 10 years, with his appointments, his directives and all but one of his Executive Orders supported by the voters of Texas.

His appointed judges get re-elected, his heads of agencies and boards are vilified by the anti-God, anti-life side, but win approval from the people and, for the most part, of the Senate.

An example: Every time the Senate turns down his choice for Chair of the State Board of Education - the members are elected by their districts and the Governor appoints the Chair who has already served for two years before being confirmed - the Governor just appoints another conservative member to the Chair.
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/public-education/perry-appoints-cargill-head-state-education-board/


51 posted on 10/28/2011 1:31:29 PM PDT by hocndoc (WingRight.org Have mustard seed:Will use. Cut spending, cut spending, cut spending, now,now,now!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

This thread is a canard.

Experienced politicians rape us by nature.


52 posted on 10/28/2011 2:48:06 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: TigersEye

The jerk in the picture is obviously used to swallowing things shaped like that!


53 posted on 10/28/2011 2:50:01 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: Quicksilver

We know how much you like establishment goons, but to see any irony in a citizen trying to fix the problems that your elitist owners made is a stretch.


54 posted on 10/28/2011 2:54:23 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: Sherman Logan

You and Mitt are in for a surprise.


55 posted on 10/28/2011 2:56:18 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: Grunthor

Grinchrich would be an even bigger mistake than Perry, if that is possible.


56 posted on 10/28/2011 2:58:10 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: Liberty Valance

Whatever you posted, it must have been taken down by the host.


57 posted on 10/28/2011 3:06:00 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: editor-surveyor

It was an editorial cartoon from the Austin American-Statesman. I guess they’re not allowed. My bad.


58 posted on 10/28/2011 3:08:01 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: editor-surveyor

Actually it’s still there at post #20. Don’t know why you can’t see it.


59 posted on 10/28/2011 3:10:42 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: editor-surveyor

To each his own.


60 posted on 10/28/2011 3:13:46 PM PDT by Grunthor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0heL2Czeraw)
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