““...instead, he’s gone out of his way to insult the conservative electorate.””
I dont know about recently but my first view of Perry was at the debate where he said conservatives who didnt want to give illegal immigrants children free instate tuition “heartless” is pretty insulting. between that and “oops” i realized this guy was going nowhere.
“I dont know about recently but my first view of Perry was at the debate where he said conservatives who didnt want to give illegal immigrants children free instate tuition “heartless” is pretty insulting. between that and “oops” i realized this guy was going nowhere.
True dat. Still, I think is is more insulting to the base to try to convince them Gingrich and Perry are anti-capitalists when they call into question the business ethics of their opponent’s career as a corporate raider. The talk shows hosts are just revealing themselves as they push that meme. So many of their conservative callers have gotten through that are objecting to that line of attack on Gingrich and Perry, that I’ve noticed the host’s call screeners are letting some pretty boring sycophantic callers on the air to make the host look good today.
While I agree that Perry gave an in-artful impolitic answer to this particular question at the debate, and that it has cost him dearly, he NEVER said what you are claiming.
First of all, he was referring to the State of Texas, and NOBODY gets "free instate tuition". If you lived in Texas you would know that. In Texas all taxpayers who fund Texas education through their sales taxes are treated equally - almost. The children of illegals have several additional hurdles before they can qualify to be treated like the children of other taxpayers.
And this is a law that was passed by the the Texas legislature on behalf of the voters of Texas by an overwhelming vote, and has never been unpopular in Texas - if it had been, those legislators who voted for the bill would not have been re-elected over and over again since then.
You may be right that Rick Perry is going nowhere. But I have looked long and hard at these candidates, and Rick Perry is the one outstanding example of a true small government conservative who speaks from the heart and is a proven doer, not a talker. So, who is the loser if Perry does go nowhere? We are the losers. Sad.