Perry stands ground on Turkey
Given an opportunity to revise (back down or retract) his comments he made in Monday’s Republican debate linking Turkey to “Islamic terrorists,” Texas Governor Rick Perry stood his ground on Tuesday.
The Republican presidential candidate made no apology for nearly touching off an international incident with his take on the long-time U.S. ally. Perry defended his view in a CNN interview, hours after Turkey’s response.
Here’s the video:
Perry freezes – normal guy or doomed presidential candidate?
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry drew a blank at the Michigan debate while trying to make a point about cutting government waste.
Afterwards, his campaign spokesman said it was an error of style not substance. Tony Fratto, former President George W. Bush’s spokesman, tweeted: “Perry can end his campaign right now.”
The affable Texas governor said he would eliminate three government agencies if elected president — but he could only name two.
“It is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education and the, what is the third one there, let’s see,” Perry said during the debate.
Prompted by a moderator, Perry tried again. “The third agency of government I would do away with — the Education, the Commerce and let’s see. … I can’t, the third one, I can’t, sorry. Oops,” Perry said.
After the debate Perry told reporters: “It was embarrassing, of course it was, but people understand our conservative principles are what matter.”
“people understand our conservative principles are what matter.”
It doesn’t matter that I’m an idiot. Just remember I hate gays and abortions.
I wonder if conservatives would support abortions of gay babies?
Rick Perry’s animated speech
A video of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s speech Friday in New Hampshire became a popular online and cable television attraction, with viewers drawn in by the Republican presidential candidate’s animated performance.
The head of the group that hosted the event says Perry’s speech was well received by the audience and that there was nothing wrong with the governor, thehill.com blog Ballot Box reported on Tuesday.
“When I started seeing all of the blog stuff going up on Sunday and the video going viral it caught me by surprise,” Kevin Smith, the executive director of Cornerstone Action. “He was definitely more animated than we’ve seen him during the campaign but the reports that he was buzzed or whatever never crossed any of our minds.”
Star-Telegram.com’s Politex blog says “a spirited and giggling Gov. Rick Perry showed up to deliver a speech in Manchester.”
Huffington Post says the Republican presidential candidate’s performance was “unusually expressive.”
Perry spokesman Mark Miner said in an email to the Huffington Post: “The Governor is passionate about the issues he talks about.”
Here’s the 8 1/2 minute video edited down from a speech that ran over 20 minutes.
He will be great at State of the Union Speeches. Both sides of the aisle laughing their heads off.
He will be remembered as President Comic Relief.
Team Bachmann lays out “Path to Victory”
From victory in the Iowa straw poll to lesser rival in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Michele Bachmann may be down but don’t count her out.
The Minnesota Representative is right on track on her “Path to Victory” that began with her win in Iowa, Team Bachmann Campaign Manager Keith Nahigian says in a video outlining the campaign strategy.
From Iowa, the campaign’s path to the nomination winds through New Hampshire and South Carolina, the crucial early states in the presidential primary races.
A Tea Party conservative, Bachmann has seen her support sliding since Texas Governor Rick Perry (who also has Tea Party support) entered the Republican race and shot to the top of the polls.
On average, Bachmann has 7.5 percent support compared with 27.7 percent for Perry, the current front-runner in the Republican field, according to recent polls.
But Team Bachmann doesn’t seem all that concerned about who’s up and who’s down at this point in the race.
“This is a state-by-state marathon that we need to be able to run our own race at our own pace, and you’re going to see people come in front of us and behind us…” the campaign manager says, “But we’re on the exact path that we’ve designed, the exact path to victory.”
I believe that if she wants a path to victory she should go back to Junior High and High School to learn History and Political Science.
Every time I heard her, the only thing I thought was how could someone so ignorant of the facts get as far as she has. That probably says a lot about people supporting her at the same time.
Perry still leads Republican pack – CNN/ORC poll
Rick Perry is still the front-runner in the field of 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls, according to a new CNN/ORC International Poll released on Monday.
The Texas governor’s latest debate performance — rated shaky by some political analysts — apparently did not disappoint actual potential voters who support him.
Perry leads his nearest opponent, Mitt Romney 28 percent to 21 percent among Republican voters, according to the poll taken over the weekend — after last Thursday’s Republican debate in Orlando, Florida.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has 10 percent support. The other declared Republican candidates trail far behind in the single digits.
That’s with Sarah Palin in the lineup.
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has hinted about it but has not decided whether to join the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. When she’s not presented to the poll respondents as an option — Perry gets 30 percent backing; Romney 22 percent and Gingrich 11 percent.
In a head-to-head race between President Barack Obama and Romney, the poll shows voters almost equally divided. Forty-nine percent of all respondents said they’d be more likely to vote for Obama — the Democrat — while 48 percent said Romney would be their choice.
Proof positive Americans need to spend less time watching/listening/reading partisan ‘news’ and ‘information’ sources and more time researching facts.
Based on his performance (so far) and the tax bills he’s signed into law, the perpetuated war efforts/spending, and even the healthcare legislation, Obama is the best Republican money can buy.
And yet, wingnuts and yahoos still think he’s a liberal. Amazing.
And so, wingnuts and yahoos get duped into believing a guy like Rick Perry would make a swell president. Go figure.
Only in America.
Perry vs. rivals in Republican debate
There were eight candidates in the first big Republican debate of the 2012 campaign season.
Two of them dominated the stage from the start in a contest over who has created more jobs.
And the winner is….. Mitt Romney, according to his campaign.
“Mitt Romney won tonight’s debate because he demonstrated that he is the only candidate in the race who can return the country to economic prosperity. Career politicians got us into the mess and it will take someone with experience in the real economy to get us out,” the campaign’s communication director Gail Gitcho said in a statement released after Wednesday’s debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
While the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign claimed victory, Rick Perry was the man in the spotlight.
All eyes were on the Texas governor as he made his debut on the national stage — and when it was over Perry said in a post-debate statement he was pleased to have been able to introduce his “conservative philosophy and pro-jobs record to the American people.”
Perry’s campaign said it was a “strong performance.” The new front-runner in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Perry came out swinging, writes Reuters’ Steve Holland.
What the article calls “over confidence” is in fact simple arrogance. Perry has proven time after time that he will not be deterred from pursuing his personal goals by the needs of Texas or Texans. He lies, he takes bribes, and he games the system. He repeatedly says one thing and does another.
A case in point is the tough new immigration bill he signed. It imposes sanctions against employers for hiring illegal aliens. Specifically exempted from that bill are, gardeners, grounds keepers, nannies, and domestic servants. As CNN notes:
It is a tough immigration bill with a soft side that protects those who hire unauthorized immigrants “for the purpose of obtaining labor or other work to be performed exclusively or primarily at a single-family residence.”
Another case in point, Rick and his buddy Phil Gramm tried to convince the Teacher Retirement System to allow UBS bank to buy “dead peasant” life insurance on retirees. The plan was for UBS to purchase the policies, then bundle them up into securities and sell them to investors (sound familiar?). The state was to receive a commission on the sales. Fortunately, TRS didn’t allow this to happen.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25 /rick-perry-texas-life-insurance-scheme _n_935666.html
Then there is the Gardasil debacle. After accepting a reported $6000.00 “campaign contribution” (aka bribe) from Merck, Perry issued an executive order that required every Texas girl entering the sixth grade to receive Gardasil as a condition of attending school. Fortunately, this outraged conservative Texans and the legislature met to undue the executive order. Perry claimed he did it because he “hates cancer”. Of course the “campaign contribution” had nothing to do with his decision.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/noelle-cig arroa-perese/our-new-tv-ad-against-gov_b _653306.html
However, there’s more to the story,
http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/55466 51.html
What I’ve given here is just the tip of the Perry corruption iceberg. Read up on the “Trans-Texas Corridor” and Perry’s raping of the public schools.
If after doing your due diligence as a citizen and voter you can still support Rick Perry for POTUS, then we are surely doomed.
Big campaign bucks don’t always spell victory
Expectations for massive fund-raising in the 2012 election may obscure one point — big bucks don’t always lead to victory. And in fact, too much spending — especially in the form of too many advertisements — can turn off voters.
There have been several notable examples of heavy, but ultimately fruitless, outspending in recent elections.
In the 2010 midterms, Republican Meg Whitman, the billionaire former chief executive of eBay, spent $140 million of her own money, or about $43 per vote,to campaign for governor against Democrat Jerry Brown. Brown spent $7.50 per vote to defeat her by 12 percentage points, in a race that was a rare bright spot for Democrats in elections that saw most Republicans sweep to victory.
Another Republican, wrestling executive Linda McMahon, also spent lots of her own money last year — lending her campaign about $50 million — or about $100 per vote — in losing by 12 percentage points to her Democratic rival Richard Blumenthal.
But big spenders don’t always lose. Jon Corzine, a liberal Democrat who made a fortune as a Wall Street executive, spent $60 million of his own money as he won his U.S. Senate race in 2000, his first run for public office. That race broke the previous record, set by Republican Michael Huffington as he lost his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in California in 1994.
Michael Malbin, executive director of Washington’s Campaign Finance Institute, said Huffington’s race was infamous because his poll numbers dropped as his spending on advertisements increased. “There are plenty of examples of people who spend way more and lose,” Malbin said. “… In the end, the voters will decide which message they like.”
Despite their reputation as the wealthier party, it is by no means always Republicans who spend more money in losing campaigns.
Perry, Bachmann shine star power at Iowa dinner
Newly-minted Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry (and his black campaign bus) rolled into Waterloo Sunday, where the Texas governor made a campaign pitch to Iowa voters.
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann showed up at the same event. They weren’t on stage together but Perry ending up sharing the spotlight.
Perry spoke first at the Black Hawk County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner and acknowledged another Republican presidential hopeful in the room, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum .
Fresh from her weekend victory in Iowa’s Republican straw poll in Ames, Bachmann (blue bus with white lettering and red stars) managed to fit the GOP fundraiser into her Sunday schedule but she said it had nothing to do Perry appearance in her hometown.
Bachmann told Radio Iowa the dinner was something she had always hoped to put on her schedule.
“I had a family reunion … north of Waterloo today,” she said.
He and Bachmann may be intra-party rivals, but Perry kept his focus on their mutual opponent: President Barack Obama, whose vulnerabilities include stubbornly high unemployment.
I agree with the previous poster. I’m not a fan of the tea party, but if you want to report facts instead of spin, these faux tea partiers (Bachmann, Perry, et al) have usurped Ron Paul’s message, one that he has been making for years.
Where’s the reporting on Buddy Roemer, Gary Johnson, Jon Huntsman, or any of the other candidates? When Jon Huntsman gets mentioned, it’s always in conjunction with Mitt Romney. And don’t get me started on the Sarah Palin/Michele Bachmann comparisons.
There really is a hunger out here for smart reporting. We can catch all the scoop on “Bachmann’s Birthday Blunder” on TMZ or other reality show programs/newscasts. I hold Reuters to a higher standard.
Governor Perry’s call to prayer
Financial debt. Terrorism. Natural disasters — all big problems for the United States.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, a potential Republican presidential candidate, thinks prayer might help.
“There is hope for America… and we will find it on our knees,” Perry says in an invitation to fellow Americans to join him for “a solemn gathering of prayer and fasting” for the country in August in Houston.
“Right now, America is in crisis,” Perry says in a message on The Response web site. “We have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters. As a nation, we must come together, and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles.”
When Texas was in the middle of a wildfire crisis in April, Perry issued a proclamation calling for three “pray for rain days.” The Mississippi-based American Family Association, a conservative Christian activist group, is footing the bill for the prayer gathering. But it was the governor’s idea. - Eric Bearse, a spokesman for The Response, said on Sunday: “The governor told the American Family Association about a month ago that we need to call Americans together for a time of prayer.”
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (Perry at Conservative Political Action conference, Feb. 2011)
I have met Rick Perry. Guy gave me the creeps with his shifty eyes and fake smile. I would no more consider him a man of faith than I would any other televangelist.
GOP presidential field – looking Perry promising?
With polls showing President Barack Obama beating any current 2012 Republican presidential hopeful, some party leaders are casting around for additional contenders, especially those who are well-known and might appeal more to the party’s most conservative wing.
One name that has come up repeatedly is Texas Governor Rick Perry, a conservative Republican and rising star in the Tea Party movement who fueled speculation last year that he might run for the White House by going on a national tour to publicize his book “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington,” which takes aim at what he sees an intrusive and expansive federal government.
Perry has in the past emphatically said he will not run, but he more recently has seemed to be leaving the door slightly open by saying for now he is focused on Texas’ legislative session, which ends on May 30.
“I have said multiple times I’m not going to get distracted from my work at hand and I’m not going to get distracted today,” he said on Tuesday when he was asked if he would run.
He also is known for saying in 2009 that Texas might secede from the United States, a remark that Democrats criticized as unpatriotic, but which has endeared him to many conservatives, particularly in southern states where many Republicans are particularly hostile to Washington.
With former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour saying they will not join the 2012 Republican field, there is also appetite for a fiscal and social conservative from a southern state. The two current Republican front-runners, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, are former governors of Massachusetts and Minnesota.
Remember where Bush came from. The Ivy league, like the imposter Obama.
oops – sorry – i meant perry! my bad.