Posted on 01/04/2012 5:22:25 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Many point to the fact that different Republican candidates have captured our fancy over the past few months as a sign of weakness. In fact, it’s a sign of strength. Everyone is calling the field weak. Maybe it’s that there are a lot of facets to being President and actually we know that each and everyone of the candidates on the dais are better than the current occupant of the oval office. Republicans just want to let them macerate and pick the best one. The field may be stronger than the congnescenti think.
I haven’t picked a horse to back, but I know who I am a bit sour on for this run. Ace has laid out a compelling case for Perry. No matter who the Republicans pick, the Democratic media will accentuate his/her negative. No VP candidate will make up for that negative. Sarah Palin was picked to energize the type of conservative voter that has contributed to Rick Santorum’s recent rise in Iowa. Even her magnetic personality wasn’t enough to save McCain.
Ace writes, “the election will actually turn on… Jobs.”. I don’t disagree, this election is going to be all about economics vs Obamanomics. However, because of the American Idol format of the average person’s information gathering, one sound bite can make you look stupid.
At Red State, he shows some interesting facts about Perry,
-67 tax cuts for a total taxpayer savings of $14 billion.
-Fewer government employees per capita than when he took office.
-Perry has consistently scored a solid “B” rating from the Cato Institute on spending.
These are good stats. Romney can’t say that about his time in Massachusetts. Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman is the only other candidate with good economic stats. Huntsman blew it by insulting the Republican base and being positive on global warming. The other candidates were never executive office holders, so we don’t know how they lead. Obama had never served in an executive role either, anywhere. Leadership skill isn’t an arrow in the Obama quiver.
Again, I worry about debate gaffes, and Perry’s ability to respond to the lies Obama will spin. Perry isn’t a slow thinker. He is a considerate thinker. Some very great leaders that I have known in my time take a while to consider issues before they act on them. That’s often a very good quality. Being able to quip hyper quickly isn’t necessarily a sign of leadership even though at the time that person seems like the smartest person in the room.
The one knock on Perry is that his poor debate performances and periodic campaign trail gaffes will open him to the same vulnerabilities in office as President Bush: an inability to respond to criticism or explain his own policies. That’s a fair concern, but it should not be overstated. First, Perry’s reputation in Texas is very different from Bush’s. Bush was all about bipartisan bonhomie; Perry has left the state littered with the political corpses of people who stood in his way. Remember Jim Hightower, the left-wing talker who coined the phrase “the only things in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos”? Perry ended his political career 21 years ago. Maybe Perry’s not Demosthenes, but he knows how build a team that gets his message out and go after his foes.
Second, debating skill takes on outsize importance in the primaries, when candidates have to stand out on a stage crowded with 7 or 8 people who all agree with each other 80-90% of the time. All Rick Perry needs to do is step onstage and everyone will know how he’s different from Barack Obama.
We saw what the media did to Sarah Palin. They were so afraid of her that they trashed her so badly that she is unelectable with the mainstream right now. In the next election cycle, who ever the candidate is should expect to be treated even more harshly. The race card will be played over and over. I can hear stories featuring people saying that you are a racist if you don’t back Obama.
This is going to be one of the less civil campaigns in American history. Civility went out the window a long time ago. The tell for you was when Obama called for a more civil tone at the Giffords service. Immediately, the far left went the other way. That’s all in the rear view mirror now. The only important thing to the hard lefties is re-election of Obama. They know the House is lost, and the Senate is probably lost. Desperate people do desperate things. The left is desperate.
Our economic and foreign policy environment calls for extremely thoughtful and decisive leadership. It requires a person that is deeply in touch with what they truly believe. Perry strikes me as that person. Romney has beliefs too-but Romney is more consensus and data driven. As long as he is taking advice from the right people, and looking at the data with the right frame of reference, Romney will be okay too.
Clearly, I am still ruminating about the candidates. The Florida primary will be a big key to me. It’s easy to talk to the first three states because there are a lot of cultural and geographic quirks that make each state easy to relate to. People in Des Moines think a lot like Iowa City people.
None of the states are very populated.
Florida is a different animal. Miami is a lot like New York, and the panhandle is more like Mississippi. Young people, old people. The economic crisis in real estate hit them hard.
Let’s see how the votes go there.
RINORomney—Not thanks.
Riccardo Pherry and all his Mehhiccan millions—him neither.
Ah, the “intelligent” post that adds to the conversation. /S
Too bad.
Probably, if Gov. Perry was not so weak in the initial
debates — and against the liberal, RINO Romney,
who was always laying his hands on Perry (literally
and figuratively) then he might have still been in the race.
Tax cuts mean NOTHING when you share a common vision for open borders with Mexico... because after amnesty passes, the republican party will never win another election.
Gov. Perry is the one that royally rattles Mitt (did it 2 memorable times in the debates). None of the others do.
I agree with the author, I think a wise man thinks about what he's going to say before he blurts something out.
Your post is a lie. Gov. Perry has fought from the state level (with state money and people) in an attempt to keep the INTERNATIONAL border closed and safe.
Perry has been rebuffed by the federal government whose job it is to protect our borders.
Rick Perry wants the border sealed, the cartels killed off and NO amnesty. The only way it is going to happen, is if Perry is elected president.
The problem Perry has is the ability however small for the Obama campaign to link him to George Bush and make the election about Bush again..........
Gov. Perry has the “right” enemies — media, big lawyers, big education, big government, K-street, environmentalists, public sector unions, NOW/feminists, globalists, anti-war activists, anti-Israel and the rest of the usual Leftist superstructure.
The fact that this is a total lie, makes it easy to refute. The West Texas "cut spending and regulations" governor, Rick Perry, is not like the Northeastern RINO transplanted to the oil patch, big-government Bush family.
Romney is the DNC pick for the GOP candidate so he is out of the question...........
Paul is just a nut case.
Bachmann right or wrong can get no traction at all.
Leaves Gingerich or Santorum
At this point gotta go with Santorum.............
Ouch, that’s gonna leave a mark.
Congratulations, CW.
Rick Perry lost in Iowa, which the author had a pretty good idea would happen, and therefore by the force of logic, he wrote, and you have constructively posted on FR, a reductive argument for ....... ....
Way to go!
Perry is still my first choice, despite the fact that he can't get traction. If he were governor of any other state but Texas, he might get a second look by many who were disappointed with Bush. Too bad.
He cancelled all his events in South Carolina today. He is dropping out. It might not be until this afternoon after Bachmann at 1100 but he is done.
My post speaks to Perry’s own words about sharing Vicente Fox’s vision of an open border. It also speaks to Perry’s habit of ascribing the rights of American citizens to illegal aliens, which is the definition of amnesty.
Perry can speak all he wants about closing the border now that it is fashionable to do so, because a closed border means nothing when you grant amnesty. He’s a big-government, amnesty-favoring, Bush-era globalist, which is why CONSERVATIVES ARE NOT VOTING FOR HIM.
Why are we fighting about somebody so insignificant as loser Perry. He is a cooked goose and I knew this would happen from first debate. He did what I knew he would do. He is crying down in Texas and will drop out soon. He thought he was going to be a coronation without having to work. Clearly not ready for prime time. Go President Santorum!
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