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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Perry Will Be The Nominee

Perry Will Be The Nominee

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Now that he has announced he is running (see this nauseating interview with Halperin), I guarantee you that Perry will be the nominee. He’s the right kind of ignorant, bigoted, religious nut that will attract the religious fanatics, he’s a gun loving cheerleader who speaks the secessionist code and the teabaggers will love him, he’ll talk constantly about deregulation and lower taxes and the money will be on board, and as you can see from this syrupy sweet interview with Halperin (Actual interview questions: “Does any aspect of running for President intimidate you? Does any aspect of it excite you or enthuse you? How does your faith inform your interest in being in public office? Is it your hope, if you become a candidate, that even voters who disagree with you on social issues will find your record and argument on jobs so compelling that they vote for you even though they did disagree with you?”), the only decision for the media bobbleheads is whether they will spit or swallow. In Halperin’s case, he went with gargle and swallow.

So brace yourself for a year’s worth of stenographers wistfully discussing Perry’s tan, accent, or whatever it is they will choose to fall all over themselves with this time.

Reader Interactions

280Comments

  2. 2.

    Omnes Omnibus

    the only decision for the media bobbleheads is whether they will spit or swallow. In Halperin’s case, he went with gargle and swallow.

    Christ, mate, I just had breakfast.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    He’s definitely going to make it tough for Romney.
    I feel kind of bad for the political media crews. How the hell are they going to choose between shoulders you can land a plane on, and that good lookin’ cowboy with the awesome hair?

  4. 4.

    gbear

    As soon as people start hearing him talk on a regular basis his popularity will plummet. The way he talks sounds too much like Bush.

  5. 5.

    Trentrunner

    Let’s see: An incurious religiously fundamental C-student Republican Texas governor wants to be president.

    What could possibly fucking go wrong with this?

    And if Obama can’t beat this dude-even if unemployment is 20%–he deserves to lose.

  9. 9.

    R-Jud

    So brace yourself for a year’s worth of stenographers wistfully discussing Perry’s tan, accent, or whatever it is they will choose to fall all over themselves with this time.

    The hair, yo, the hair.

    Judging from my own anecdata, this pleases me. My goony fundy aunt (I honestly liked her better twenty years ago, when she was still a hippie and would read my aura) still insists that George W. Bush was one of our greatest presidents because he is a “good Christian”, but she flat-out despises Perry. “He’s so fake!”

  10. 10.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Corner Stone: How is this even a question. Romney is weird. QED.

    Also, as a Texas native, let me just say – we gave you Molly Ivins, SRV and Bill Hicks, for FSM’s sake!

  14. 14.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    Frankly, he is the strongest candidate of the bunch, and he will be a legitimate threat in the general election.

    We can’t afford to not take him seriously.

    One of the things he’s going to run on is how Texas weathered the recession better than most of the rest of the country, and how our low-tax, low-spending culture is responsible (Texas ranks 50th in the nation for per-capita state spending). He’s not going to mention the $15-27 billion deficit for the 2012-2013 biennium that we’re staring at as a result.

    That’s something he needs to be hammered on early and often.

    Re: secession. Secessionist rhetoric is a popular campaign tactic here. It’s not taken seriously except by a relative few people, and they’re not in a position to do anything about it.

  15. 15.

    artem1s

    so the GOP will be tripling down on the Texas Stoopid? How nice. So who wants to take bets on which states they rig the votes in this year? I’m thinking King John hasn’t done nearly enough damage in Ohio to please his Galtian overlords but unfortunately for him, even John Husted thought the new voter ID requirements were too draconian. Could it be they let one of the sane 27% Republics into the smash and grab party? Since Taft effectively ruined the state economy all of our seniors are now likely to be effected by suppression laws that would normally only disenfranchise the unter menschen. Too bad.

  16. 16.

    Alex S.

    Agreed. Well, the Romney-Perry battle will be entertaining, but Romney can’t win. Perry might promise Michele Bachmann some kind of position (maybe even VP) to capture her voters. However, she has already crossed the peak of her campaign and the knives are out for her. Herman Cain will lose his remaining few voters and they’ll go to Perry as well. If Giuliani actually enters the race Romney will lose a small but important share of his constituency. In fact, this might be over quickly because Perry would be able to win Iowa and New Hampshire in quick succession. Perry is the perfect personification of the present GOP.

  17. 17.

    Steve M.

    Whew — Halperin finally gets to lick flop off a right-wing Daddy’s cowboy boot again.

    He must feel the way you and I feel when we get laid after a long dry spell.

  19. 19.

    Exurban Mom

    I just threw up in my mouth a little. We were watching coverage of his prayer rally on TV last night, and both my husband and I had the same visceral negative reaction to his very visage that we used to have when GWB was on TV. He makes me want to throw things at him.

  20. 20.

    hildebrand

    How do people get sucked in by this type of vacuous, mean-spirited, bunglers? His complete and utter callous disregard for sound governance has run Texas straight off the cliff – our university will be suffering the effects of his asinine budget malfeasance for years to come. He has crippled this state.

    Yet people in the media are going to reward this knave simply for…well, I don’t know. I don’t know why anyone would think this cruel bastard should govern anything more complicated than a kid’s lemonade stand, let alone something where his foul, fetid contemptuous soul could actually affect someone’s life. Can even our press corps be that willfully blind? That blazingly clueless?

    This guy is dangerous. A blight on contemporary America. Used car salesmen feel the need to wash their hands after speaking with him. Executioners find him repellent. Dogs would piss on his boots, but they don’t, because they can sense cruel bastards a mile a way and don’t want to get shot. I have the desire to walk up to him and puke on him, but wouldn’t, because it is too good for him. To quote from the band Modest Mouse – ‘Who would want to be such an asshole?’

  21. 21.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I saw him speaking for the first time a week or so ago and was shocked at how many of Danger Monkey’s mannerisms he’d adopted.

  22. 22.

    General Stuck

    I called this when he first claimed to be serious about running. He is acceptable to every single padded room in the wingnut asylum, like no other candidate from the GOP. As a matter of Pure optics, he has the look of a US president, and touches all the right bases in the right wing world, especially with the all important evangelical voters, who are very picky, and prone not to bother voting unless the candidate is stamped baby jeebus approved.

    Romney just has too many impure thoughts and deeds for the average true believing republican primary voter, and those will come front and center in their debates, and break all records for wiggling out of one flip flop too many.

    While I think Perry will take the nom, my sense is what little we know about him, will give way under the POTUS candidate microscope, in the GE, a shit ton of weird and crazy unknown at this time. (although there is plenty that is known at this time). I don’t think he is as stupid as some claim, and has a solid media team, that is also loyal.

    But scratch the surface a little, and I bet you will get a mean spirited vindictive sumbitch, that is an overtly hyper aggressive asshole, that GWB was able to temper when he needed to for the cameras.

    I wouldn’t be surprised to see some jaw dropping personal scandals getting dragged out of his closet as well, for a GE. And being from Texas will not help him with those who still blame Bush for the econ straights we are in, nor his Texas swagger that will remind folks of cocky shitkickers that got us into Iraq.

    In short, I would rather face Perry in the GE, than Romney, which is a bottom line good thing. Romney would soak up a lot of all important indie swing voters, that aren’t large in number, but enough to swing elections one way or the other.

    And it would be sweet justice to have a full airing of the innocent man Perry personal sent to the gallows, rather than admit he and Texas were wrong.

    All the usual caveats apply when a liberal tries to make sense of the planet wingnut. And I disavow the good possibility of being full of shit on this topic.

  23. 23.

    Carl Nyberg

    If the GOP nominates Perry, I don’t want to hear a word about how Bush wasn’t a “conservative” and the Bush debt is not the responsibility of “conservatives”.

  24. 24.

    Poopyman

    Bring it on. I’m pretty sure the nation as a whole doesn’t have the stomach for another incurious halfwit Texas governor, but at least people felt that they would rather have a beer with Bush. I’m getting no such vibe with Perry. In fact, more like R-Jud’s aunt up at #9.

  25. 25.

    kindness

    Why is it that I see another ‘I can’t believe I’m being beaten by this ________’ in our future? I mean really….

    I’m not that scared yet though. In my mind, Perry is just a bridge too far for now, especially after the last wing nut Texas Governor who just recently finished trashing the place.

  27. 27.

    Rommie

    If the good old US of A votes in *another* Texas governor after 8 year’s worth of the last one, could you blame the FSM from raining noodly destruction down on the country?

    Hopefully his primary opponents won’t be shy about pointing out the consequences of the last Texas Guv. Not to mention the whole Treason in Defense of the Rich thing…

  28. 28.

    MattF

    The only remaining question is how long before the media get Perry into a flight suit. I give ’em a month.

  30. 30.

    japa21

    I will immediately, if he is elected, petition all my state legislators to have Illinois secede.

  31. 31.

    wrb

    Calling for succession from a country captured by a black muslim sooc.ialist isn’t treason, it is American patriotism.

  32. 32.

    homeruk

    I never cease to be amazed how prescient the West Wing was; didn’t some folksy governor a la Perry run against Jed Bartlett, when everyone thought he didn’t have a hope in hell of being re-elected. Of course, politics isn’t how Sorkin imagines it, but the broad parameters are eerily similar. I just hope that Obama crushes Perry in the debates on the basis that “so long as he was going to be seen to be arrogant and elitist, might as well use it to good effect”.

  34. 34.

    vtr

    @arguingwithsignposts …and Steve Frumholtz, John Graves, Buddy Holly, Nolan Ryan, Townes Van Zandt, Howard Hughes, Don Meredith. So what went wrong?

  36. 36.

    burnspbesq

    I know it’s early, but I am having some difficulty seeing how this is good news for John McCain.

  39. 39.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    If Texas secedes, is he still eligible to be President? What if he’s already President and Texas secedes? Is he required to step down?

  40. 40.

    Napoleon

    @gbear:

    As soon as people start hearing him talk on a regular basis his popularity will plummet. The way he talks sounds too much like Bush.

    Bingo – plus I think it is a great thing for the Dems the more they can identify the Rep with the South.

  41. 41.

    Hunter Gathers

    How long before Ben Smith and Johnathan Martin write the inevitable column quoting Obama officials about Perry’s record that will seamlessly blend into ‘While no Obama officials raised the specter of Governor Perry’s sexual orientation, it does not take a very large leap to go from questioning his policies to asking about Perry’s long-rumored affair with his former Secretary of State.’

  43. 43.

    aimai

    @Corner Stone:

    This reminds me of a wonderful line from S.J.Perlman, quoted from an old serialized fan fic of the 50s:

    “He had a mop of red curls, blazing blue eyes, and shoulders like a mack truck. If there was a body linking these goodies together, the author neglected to mention it.”

    aimai

  44. 44.

    Han's Big Snark Solo

    the only decision for the media bobbleheads is whether they will spit or swallow. In Halperin’s case, he went with gargle and swallow.

    Are you trying to make fun of the fact that Perry is a closeted gay? Hey, “wide stance” Republicans need a candidate too!

    The thing is, enough big money Republicans are aware Perry is a “Friend of Dorothy” and that will make fund raising difficult. He won’t win, today’s GOP won’t stick with Reagan’s 11th commandment and the money that is the soul of the GOP won’t flow to a candidate with such massive “closet” issues.

  45. 45.

    Maude

    We are going to end up with a whole slew of also rans from this.
    Perry might stumble a bit and that would be good news for McCain.

  46. 46.

    Citizen_X

    @Corner Stone:

    He’s definitely going to make it tough for Romney.

    Well, you know what blood-soaked old Henry Kissinger said about the Iran-Iraq war: “I hope zey kill each ozzer.”

  47. 47.

    Zifnab

    My money was on Romney/Perry ’12 to be honest. I don’t think Perry will break out in Iowa or New Hampshire. And the money boys have South Carolina locked up tight enough – as demonstrated by Nikki Haley’s victory.

    The big states – New York, California, Florida – will go to Romney. And once he gains momentum, Perry will be an after-thought, like Huckabee was.

    But he’ll capture the Tea Party support. A smarter, savvier, more politically connected Sarah Palin is just what Romney needs to secure the Tea Party vote.

  50. 50.

    Tokyokie

    Perry is a multimillionaire who’s never held a job in his life outside elective office. A crook, pure and simple. Which is to say he’s the perfect free-market candidate because every position he holds is based exclusively on which side’s paid him the most money. Mittens’ operatives are already sharpening their knives for this line of attack. He might win the GOP nomination, but he’ll be severely wounded.

  51. 51.

    Davis X. Machina

    How do people get sucked in by this type of vacuous, mean-spirited, bunglers?

    A lot of Americans like vacuous, mean-spirited bunglers. Vacuous, mean-spirited bunglers speak to something deep within them, perhaps because they’re also vacuous, mean-spirited bunglers.

  54. 54.

    aimai

    @efgoldman:

    You know, I’m not sure I agree with this. I can’t believe any of the republicans will go after Perry on the gay rumors–Michelle Bachmann isn’t going to do it because of her vulnerability on her husband. Pawlenty isn’t going to do it because he’s a god damned wimp who seems to be more likely to swallow his own tongue out of nervousness. Mitt isn’t going to do it although he might try to get his surrogates to do it. Palin and Perry have an agreement so she won’t do it. And I’m guessing it wouldn’t make a dent in the true believer voters because they simply assume that all information that is discomforting is a lie and a satanic trick.

    aimai

  55. 55.

    Zifnab

    @homeruk:

    I just hope that Obama crushes Perry in the debates on the basis that “so long as he was going to be seen to be arrogant and elitist, might as well use it to good effect”.

    Wasn’t winning the debates what lost Gore the Presidency?

  57. 57.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @vtr: Holy shit, how could I have forgotten Townes? And Steve Earle, also too.

    ETA: and Willie!

    Apparently, it’s only the Texas politicians who go national these days (disregarding LBJ and Ike) who are fucked.

  58. 58.

    sherparick

    Well, he moves Richard Nixon down to 2d place in wicked, evil men/women who have aspired to hold the office that can destroy the world. He certainly will have “it takes balls to execute innocent man” vote. http://camerontoddwillingham.com/

    That Halperin thinks questions about this matter and the over the top racial Christianists Perry associates with are beneath him tells us that he to is a real “dick” to borrow a phrase.

    I would like to say that there is no chance that Perry could become President. But with President Obama channelling Chancellor Heinrich Bruening at the moment, I can’t say that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Br%C3%BCning. In Perry and Bachman, are we hearing the sounds of the wings of real life “Nehmiah Scudder?” http://issuepedia.org/Nehemiah_Scudder

    (It is to be remembered that much of the “Future History” stories Heinlein wrote was when he was married to his first wife and was a “Roosevelt Liberal,” and then swung to the right under Ginny’s influence.)

  59. 59.

    mk3872

    Just another media hard-on for a Texan, ala GW Bush. Ya know, he’s a real ‘Murkin who wears cowboy boots!

    The classic media wistful imagination of a president who resembles John Wayne and the Wild West fantasies of juvenile media types.

  61. 61.

    4tehlulz

    I cannot believe that Mark Halperin failed to ask the key question: “Governor, do you have a tire swing?”.

  62. 62.

    Corner Stone

    IMO, the “secession” and the execution issues are in no way a hamper on a Perry candidacy.
    In fact, I believe they’ll play out as strengths to the type of voter who would choose a “Rick Perry”.

  63. 63.

    mk3872

    Why on Earth would someone who supposedly loathes the Federal Gov’t enough to want to secede from the United States want to HEAD the Federal Gov’t ??

  64. 64.

    Poopyman

    @burnspbesq:

    I know it’s early, but I am having some difficulty seeing how this is good news for John McCain.

    The Republicans of 2012 will make people look back fondly on McCain’s campaign.

  65. 65.

    Billy

    Could not agree more. It’ll be Perry, and I think he’ll pick Huntsman as VP –selling him as a kind of VSP problem-solver within the larger framework of dominionism. That will be a tough ticket.

  66. 66.

    wrb

    @Exurban Mom:

    both my husband and I had the same visceral negative reaction to his very visage

    A winner then. I’ve noticed that those that provoke the strongest viscerial negative reaction in me even before I know much about them (Reagan, Bush) win both elections and adulations.

    Strange that people can be wired so differently.

  67. 67.

    mk3872

    @Corner Stone:

    But why would someone who so detests the federal gov’t want to be the PRESIDENT? He would then be the HEAD of the wicked federal govt …

  68. 68.

    Woodrowfan

    If Perry is the nominee how many Firebaggers will try to tell us that there really is no difference between Perry and Obama?

  70. 70.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Bush ball washer Halperin thinks Guv. Goodhair’s scrotum tastes Presidential?

    This is news?

  71. 71.

    Davis X. Machina

    @mk3872: There’s an old AP-US History truism: Mediocre, or worse presidents want to be president to be someone. Good, or great presidents want to be president to do something.

  72. 72.

    HmotherfuckingK

    To reiterate what others have said, something I can’t believe the media hasn’t mentioned is that Perry sounds almost EXACTLY like George W. Bush. The tone of his voice, the rhythm … I have a feeling that when a national audience outside of the bigoted mall walkers who know about him now finally listens to him, we’re going to hear a collective “Oh God, not again.”

    Or not. Fucking fruit flies seem to have a better memory than voters in this country.

  73. 73.

    Beta Magellan

    @homeruk: Why do you think Perry will agree to debate Obama?

    I see this next election as being completely debate-free, being fought from a safe distance with attack ads.

  76. 76.

    bkny

    those village magpies do love those good ol’ texas boyz… those manly men who whack shrubs; shoot coyotes with a handgun (willie geist jacking off to that little tidbit this morning); and otherwise strut around in the cowboy boots — true redwhiteandblue murkins…

  78. 78.

    Citizen_X

    both my husband and I had the same visceral negative reaction to his very visage

    That’s it, then; he’s the nominee. The Primaries aren’t even necessary, because “He pisses off libruls!”

  79. 79.

    Zifnab

    @jwb: You know, I wish that was true. But every four years, we just can’t help but vote to keep in him.

    I would have taken Governor Hutchinson over Governor Perry any day. Sadly, Hutchinson was a pathetic campaigner in this glorious new Tea Party Era and had too much of that Washington stench around her.

  80. 80.

    Jamie

    Yikes! So now we want to elect another Texas governor to be President. And remember, Texas is a particularly weak Governor sort of state.

  81. 81.

    mk3872

    Will anyone take his supposed Texas success seriously?

    I mean, Texas has prospered by balancing its budget on Federal hands-out and oil $$.

    How many other states in the nation can rely almost exclusively on oil companies ??

  82. 82.

    Beta Magellan

    @Billy: Nope, he’ll pick Daniels, who combines a moderate reputation with having signed off on barring PP funding.

  83. 83.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Corner Stone: Given the beltway media’s worship at the altar of The Gut, and life membership in the Cult of Toughness, I would expect these to be played as strengths.

    Clinton’s comments about “Strong and Wrong” were supposed to be a critique of the electorate, not a sketch for a platform. The press corpse seems to have missed that bit.

  84. 84.

    kindness

    @Billy: Naa, Huntsman won’t work for the Dominionists because he practices that cult LDS religion. It’ll be Bachmann.

  85. 85.

    Zifnab

    @mk3872:

    How many other states in the nation can rely almost exclusively on oil companies ??

    Alaska, for one. And I’m sure Florida is looking sideways at all those untapped gulf oil fields. Alabama and Mississippi likewise run on oil revenues captured from the Gulf.

    They’d all love a President willing to abolish the EPA and “Drill, baby, drill!”

  89. 89.

    patrick II

    So I guess this makes Romney the new Hillary — the front runner with money and expectations who has taken their turn in line only to be pushed aside by some upstart with more charisma. Hope there will be Rombots on Red State saying coulda woulda shoulda.

  91. 91.

    Jamie

    mk -Well, I guess that depends on what you mean by perfect. I agree it would be a memorable presidency, but not in a good way.

  92. 92.

    norbizness

    I’m not saying shit, because I wished GW on the rest of the country 11 years ago just so he’d get out of the Governor’s Mansion. It can get worse; it always gets worse.

    Knowing the GOP primary voters (I keep four or five as ‘friends’ on Facebook), they might just do it. The business community probably sure as hell wishes the nomination would go to somebody who had a better shot at winning, but that’s what you get for allowing the Moral Majority/Tea Party/whatever incarnation they adopt next to run amok.

  93. 93.

    dmsilev

    On a related note, the next episode of the Running of the Clowns is tonight with an Iowa debate. Someone stuck a knife in Romney’s back yesterday with those stories about how he boasted about raising taxes back when he was governor of Sodom and Gomorrah Massachusetts. Should be amusing to see which of his rivals brings up that bit of apostasy.

  96. 96.

    redshirt

    Well, if Perry is President, magically all the anti-government hoopla will swiftly fade away as Fox transitions immediately to “SUPPORT OUR PRESIDENT YOU LIBERAL TRAITOR COMMIE!”

  97. 97.

    mellowjohn

    to paraphrase daddy bush, “read my lips: no new texans!”

    btw, tweetie went full-bore drooling on goodhair last nite. i almost expected him to start talking about english leather again!

  98. 98.

    Paul in KY

    If he’s like GWB, he’ll go on & on about being governor of the great state of Texas, etc. etc.

    Many voters look at their own governors & the power they wield & think Texas is the same way. Pres. Obama’s team will have to find out a pithy way of showing these people that the Texas governor is basically a figurehead.

    VP Gore’s team was never able to get that across.

  99. 99.

    moonbat

    @mk3872: Well, he’ll dress it up in the usual Republican code phrases such as “Reign in government spending,” “Get government out of people’s lives,” but if people have been paying attention over the past year, that basically means destroy the social safety net and make the federal budget all about corporate giveaways, defense spending and “spreading the pain” to the poor, who, you know, outnumber the rich by a large margin.

  100. 100.

    DaBomb

    @General Stuck: Another thing about Perry is… he is not popular in the state. The last two times he has won, it has been with 39% to 40% percent of the vote. The 60%-61% of citizens don’t vote or vote for the other three candidates on the ballot. So he doesn’t have overwhelming support here.

    Plus there have been rumors for years concerning his sexuality and the hypocrisy of his behavior, also he use to be a democrat, a conservative one. He was voted into office during the Democratic stronghold in the Texas legislature in the mid to late 80, even very early 90’s. He was very favorably towards Hillary Clinton when she was first lady and helped Al Gore out during his failed Presidential Campaign of 1988.

    He is a Bush sound alike with better hair and just as much false bravado. The guy is a complete and utter douche.

  101. 101.

    Blue Neponset

    I am not so sure. Perry’s Jesus freak cred isn’t going to get him that far in blue states The Texas Gov will do well in places like OK and SC but a Romney win in NY makes up for that and then some. Also, Perry will lose votes to the other Jesus freaks like Bachman and Palin, if she enters. Romney won’t have to split the “sane” Republican vote with anyone.

    Perry isn’t going to have an easy time winning the nomination.

  103. 103.

    JM

    @hildebrand:

    How do people get sucked in by this type of vacuous, mean-spirited, bunglers?

    Easy: they want to be them. Stupid, cruel, and incompetent but still in charge, fucking other people at will.

  104. 104.

    Chat Noir

    @homeruk:

    I never cease to be amazed how prescient the West Wing was; didn’t some folksy governor a la Perry run against Jed Bartlett, when everyone thought he didn’t have a hope in hell of being re-elected.

    “A .22 caliber mind in a .357 Magnum world.” This could describe any of the chuckle-heads currently running for the GOP nom.

  106. 106.

    abo gato

    Well, lots of people in Texas hate him. A local news show a couple of days ago had a poll on their 6 PM news…..72% of the responders said they would NOT vote for Perry. In San Antonio. But having said that, he still scares me.

    He does have some baggage that needs to come out. Killing an innocent man may be better than his gay rumors. But, again, killing innocent people seems to be a feature for R’s not a bug.

  107. 107.

    Yevgraf

    As a southern white guy, I hate fucking southern white guys. We should not be allowed to vote or hold public office, as we’re generally so bad at it.

    It is a deep cultural defect among the Scots-Irish – we rob everybody blind while maintaining a smarmy, pharisaic insistence that we’re oh-so-noble. I hate our accents, our food, our cultural roots in the vilest portions of the filthy death cult that is fundamentalist Christianity. When any of us tries to rise above our cultural upbringing, our own folks will pull us down.

    Gah.

  110. 110.

    Midnight Marauder

    Some of us have been anticipating this for quite some time, and as such, have planned accordingly. So this thread seems to be as good a place as any to announce that I own the domain http://www.rickperryisanasshole.com. And the plan is to turn it into a repository documenting every asshole thing this asshole has ever said and done, in the hopes that it goes viral and the knowledge is widely disseminated. For those in need of a mission statement or the like, I present you with this:

    Rick Perry is an asshole. He is also the Governor of Texas and currently running to be the 2012 presidential nominee of Republican Party.

    So, if you have (or from henceforth, come across) any facts, stories, article, pictures, etc. of Governor Goodhair doing his standard issue asshole thing, please forward them to [email protected].

    We know this asshole is going to be the nominee. We know this.

    So let’s get to work burning this asshole’s presidential campaign to the ground before it even begins.

  111. 111.

    Comrade Dread

    He’s the conservative’s new Messiah: the second coming of W, with minimum wage jobs (and no health insurance) for all.

  112. 112.

    Citizen_X

    @Paul in KY:

    Obama’s team will have to find out a pithy way of showing these people that the Texas governor is basically a figurehead.

    Courtesy, I think (help me out here), of Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock*: “Basically, the [Texas] Governor does a lot of ribbon cutting.”

    *Now THAT was a powerful Texas pol.

  120. 120.

    Jinxtigr

    I agree that secessionist talk and murdering an innocent man won’t cost him Republican votes.

    BUT.

    Did my eyes deceive me or is part of his problem that he’s run up huge deficits in Texas?

    Hasn’t Obama just positioned himself, credibly even to some rightwingers, as attacking deficits even to the point of upsetting firebaggers and blowing smoke- i.e. reality doesn’t require any such thing, yet he’s spinning it to look like he buys that deficits are Teh Bad?

    I wonder if that’s being set up on purpose.

  121. 121.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    america loves the bullshit. texas mythology is localized american mythology. if perry wins the nom, the tea party is easier than bristol palin after her 4th wine cooler.

    i just don’t see it, the tea party wants to win, they will make romney their man. it will be over quick.

  124. 124.

    boss bitch

    @Jinxtigr:

    Hasn’t Obama just positioned himself, credibly even to some rightwingers

    There are other voters besides right wingers (and independents) who care about the deficit. There are Democrats in the party who don’t like to see that 14T amount hanging over our nation’s head.

  126. 126.

    NobodySpecial

    So Perry unifies the GOP. Big whoop.

    Now show me the math where Perry comes up with an extra six million votes, many of them minorities, to give himself a chance to win the GE.

  128. 128.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @sherparick: =
    Man, don’t mention Heinlein to me. I *will* start frothing venom. Writing juvenile sex-soaked wish-fulfillment cross-genre fanfics about your own books is… well, I’m not sure how to translate it to a non-artistic metaphor. It’s bad, and I LIKED The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress!

    @boss bitch:
    While it’s not my priority during a recession, his point that it has to be addressed sooner rather than later was well made, I thought. I just wish people would have paid attention to how he wanted to address it. I WANT to raise taxes on the rich and cut the military budget.

  129. 129.

    chopper

    well, romney just shit in his magical underwear.

    all perry’s talk about being ‘no different than W’ is going to come back to bite him in the ass. W is still radioactive with 70% of the population.

  130. 130.

    David Hunt

    As a life-long resident of Texas, I’d like to sum up my feelings for Rich Perry.

    I wouldn’t piss on him if he were on fire.

  133. 133.

    Joseph Nobles

    I don’t see how we get through a Perry presidential run without Molly Ivins.

    @Samara Morgan: No way Palin takes number two in a national ticket again, and neither would Perry. Non-aggression between these two means Palin’s not running.

  134. 134.

    Cat Lady

    @Yevgraf:

    Well I guess you weren’t one of the commenters at Sully’s yesterday who in high dudgeon denounced as a Southerner another reader’s characterization of Southerners the same way as you. I believe you. I’m going to admit it – I’ve been all over this country, but I’ve never been through the south and hope to never have to, and don’t care if that makes me an asshole. I can live with that.

  138. 138.

    Stefan

    @Zifnab:

    People seem to forget this, but Gore actually won the election. It was having five Republicans on the Supreme Court that lost Gore the presidency.

  142. 142.

    Pat In Michigan

    Cole,

    I would not be so quick on that. I’m not that sold on him. I’m a Baptist Christian and I find some of his “religious” connections troubling.

    Just like I did Obama’s.

    Thanks,

    -Pat

  144. 144.

    Corner Stone

    IMO, Perry won’t be able to pull together the early $30M or so he will need to be credible hitting the home stretch next year. He’s left it pretty tight.

  147. 147.

    MikeJ

    Rick Perry:

    “There’s a lot of different scenarios,” Perry said. “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”

    Amendment 14:

    Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

    Supporting secession sounds like supporting rebellion to me.

  148. 148.

    Blue Neponset

    @boss bitch:

    There are Democrats in the party who don’t like to see that 14T amount hanging over our nation’s head.

    I know. It’s pretty sad we have to deal with these morans in our own party.

  150. 150.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Corner Stone:
    That raises a point that’s been interesting me. Between Citizens United and SuperPACs, the ultra-rich are going to be able to funnel as much money as they want into this election. What they’re not going to be able to do is funnel it directly into the GOP’s campaign machine. Particularly with the Kochs acting against every other rich person’s interests, I’m wondering if all that extra money won’t be spent cross-purposes and tapped out in the primaries.

  153. 153.

    Billy

    @Beta Magellan: That is also a strong possibility, for essentially the same reason. I would certainly bet on one of those two. He’ll need someone reasonably urbane, of the Jeb faction.

  154. 154.

    Nutella

    @Tokyokie:

    Perry is a multimillionaire who’s never held a job in his life outside elective office.

    The biggest anti-government, pro-business posers are the ones who know nothing about business because they’ve been battening on the taxpayers all their lives. Bachmann has never held a non-government job, either.

  155. 155.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Pat In Michigan:

    Pat…you sound like an actual Baptist, not a Southern Baptist…Baptists who insist on, Roman Catholic like, imposing a dogma on everyone that Baptism was created as a reaction to.

  156. 156.

    TooManyJens

    @eemom: There are too many people in this country who will assume that if Willingham was arrested, let alone convicted and executed, then he must have been guilty. And they’ll be mad at you because your namby-pamby liberal ass is siding with a killer over good red-state American justice.

    Or maybe I’m just pessimistic this morning.

  157. 157.

    Amir Khalid

    Mark Halperin’s questions to Rick Perry are so soft you could make them into a teddy bear. Sod the questions about personal faith, how confident he feels about running, Mrs Perry’s feelings, yadda yadda yadda. Those questions are fit only for People magazine to ask. This is what I want to know:

    1. You’ve been late declaring your candidacy. Some of the best Republican campaign people have already committed themselves to candidates who declared earlier. Can you still put together an organization that can help you win the nomination and the general election?

    2. How is your policy agenda different from that offered by the other Republican candidates?

    3. You say you’re close to Bush 43, whose presidency is widely considered a disaster. What do you think he didn’t get right during his two terms, and how would you have done it differently?

    4. As Republican nominee for President, you would likely be running against the incumbent President Obama. What is the most important domestic issue before America now, and how would you handle differently from Obama?

    5. Same as question 4, this time for foreign issues.

    When the media face a Presidential candidate, they are interviewing him for a job, Goddamnit. Not for a celebrity photo spread.

  158. 158.

    Violet

    I just can’t believe the American people will vote for GWB #2. I believe the Republican primary voters will vote for him, but in the general? I just don’t think the American people will go for a Texas governor again so soon.

    Perry looks and sounds a lot more like W than he used to. It’s kind of creepy. I think that’ll put people off more than any of the idiot pundits can imagine.

    Also, too, Texans don’t like Perry very much. A lot was made of how popular Palin was in Alaska. Will the American people wonder why Perry isn’t popular at home?

  159. 159.

    Davis X. Machina

    Given recent GOP practice, the ticket will either be Mean/Stupid (2008) or Stupid/Mean (2000/2004).

    I’m not sure Perry needs a running mate.

  160. 160.

    Joe Max

    @gbear: “As soon as people start hearing him talk on a regular basis his popularity will plummet. The way he talks sounds too much like Bush.”

    I agree. I think there’s still a good bit of residual Bush Derangement Syndrome and it’ll hurt him with the non-teabagger electorate. What, another bible-thumping Texan? Seriously? Look at the display of Christopathic buddies of Perry’s that Maddow ran on her show last night. It was like a parade of inverse Jeramiah Wrights. All the DNC has to do is keep that on endless loop until election day.

    Sure, maybe he’s more likely to get the nomination than Mittens is, but in the general I think Mittens would be harder to beat.

  161. 161.

    Corner Stone

    @Frankensteinbeck: I think most of us understand, at least thinly, that running for president is damned hard work. And that work takes teams of people and organizational structure, slogging it out every day.
    IMO, you can’t just now start sending operatives to 4 or 5 key states. And I think if they had been operating we would’ve heard more of a sniff about it.
    So I have to believe, at this point, that Perry’s going to burn brightly and quickly and fade out.
    Like a Fred Thompson with much better visuals.

  163. 163.

    wrb

    @Barry:

    We see a second GWB administration, but starting with an already ruined country.

    Much worse. The current bunch are way more radicalized. They won’t stop with undoing ACA and eliminating taxes on wealth, they will go after the Voting Rights Act and everything that came out of the New Deal.

  166. 166.

    lamh32

    So I guess this means Halperin MSNBC “hiatus” will be over so that he can talk about his interview with Guv “Goodhair”.

    I expect to hear alot of Mark glad to have you back from tweety and joe scar!

  168. 168.

    Judas Escargot

    @Nutella:

    The biggest anti-government, pro-business posers are the ones who know nothing about business because they’ve been battening on the taxpayers all their lives. Bachmann has never held a non-government job, either.

    Nor Ryan. And Norquist’s been a lobbyist/activist since college, he’s never produced anything either.

    A shame that FDR’s “Economic Royalists” doesn’t work for the modern ear, it was a good (and accurate) framing.

  170. 170.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @wrb:

    They are bound and determined to turn this country into a neo-feudal paradise, like Honduras or Guatemala.

    That is their ideal.

  171. 171.

    lamh32

    Someone suggested a Perry/Romney ticket, but would either dude want to be 2nd fiddle to the other??? I can see Romney being okay with that (I don’t think dude has much a a spine at all, and self-pride, please, not flip-flopper Mitt). I dont’ see Perry being okay playing 2nd banana to anyone of the current crop of people. And I don’t think his ego is small enough to put someone smarter or more charismatic as his #2, so that’s an out for Bachmann or Palin. So I can see Perry/Huntsman working, that 2 “great white hopes” for GOP and conservative white dems to hang their hats on, a religious nut and a “moderate” on the same ticket.

  173. 173.

    rea

    If only we still had Molly Ivins around to comment on the candidacy of the man she called “Governor Goodhair.”

  179. 179.

    lockewasright

    Hopefully he does get the nod. I think he’s easier for the president to beat than Mittens is.

  180. 180.

    MazeDancer

    @gbear: @Napoleon:

    Perry’s sounding just like, grimacing just like, and having that same cruel, self-absorbed vibe as Bush is so significant. Have been saying this for weeks since the first time I saw actual video. Note Colbert’s highlighting those weasel snarls in his “PArry” commercial.

    “Not another one!” is going to be the major reaction.

    We live in a Pop Culture. (Which, alas, our brilliant President doesn’t seem to understand. Passion=strength, Mr. Obama, that’s why hungry people want to see some. It doesn’t have to be mean, just engaged.)

    Elections are a Reality TV Show where everyone can participate. The candidates all get labels as certain “characters”.

    Perry=W gonna be hard to change.

  181. 181.

    Nutella

    @Violet:

    A lot was made of how popular Palin was in Alaska.

    And that was a lie. She was fairly unpopular by the time she was nominated for VP. The press and Rs will lie about Perry’s popularity at home, too, and get away with it.

  182. 182.

    bkny

    gotta give tweety some props — he has been consistent bring up perry’s secession talk. last nite michael steele was laughing while matthews spoke about that and matthews did not appreciate it. his closing remark was: 600,000 americans died in the civil war; but keep on laughing, it’s so funny!

    he also flat out called perry stupid and clueless about american history.

  183. 183.

    Rorgg

    I’m kind of excited about this because he just might win the nomination, and I can’t for the life of me imagine him winning the general, with the vocal and facial similarities to Bush43, mixed with Smarmy Televangelist. It’s just a big old pile of “does not play outside the South”

  185. 185.

    Legalize

    Re Perry v. Romney – Like every time Michael Vick takes the field, I’m rooting for injuries.

  186. 186.

    Violet

    @lamh32:
    I disagree. I think Romney wouldn’t go for #2 because after running for Pres for ages, he’s just not going to be happy settling for being second fiddle.

    I can, however, see Perry accepting the #2 spot. That would set him up well for a run in 2016. Or, if Romney won, he’d be in a good position to run for Pres in 8 years time. (Or would he be too old then? Not sure.)

  187. 187.

    shortstop

    The positive reviews of his hair have got to stop. Yes, it’s nice and thick, but he wears it in a cut that was last acceptable in the early 1990s.

    ETA: He won’t be the nominee. It’s Romney and it’ll be a two-point race, horrifying as that is to contemplate.

  189. 189.

    wrb

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    It is going to be one wild election. I don’t see how Obama has one serious tool for improving the economy that isn’t rendered unusable by either the right or the left, so the economy will likely suck and voters will be angry with him for not fixing, and for not their tool of choice to do so, and will want him out.

    But at the cost of risking the existence of social security and medicare while rewarding the banksters?

    Passions will be high and in conflict. Enough to make a person nauseous. Or just explode.

  190. 190.

    Zifnab

    @Stefan:

    People seem to forget this, but Gore actually won the election.

    Gore won the “popular vote”. Sadly, that was not sufficient to win the election.

    As for the Florida recount, I read about that going any number of ways. The SCOTUS stopped the recount process while Bush was ahead. It’s unclear whether Gore would have caught up again.

  191. 191.

    mk3872

    @moonbat: I agree with you 100% of the what the consequences will be.

    But what I don’t understand is what PERRY will get out of that.

    What’s in it for Perry to destroy the federal government?

    He doesn’t appear to be the same Koch Tea Party lunatic activist that say, Palin or Bachmann are …

  192. 192.

    Violet

    @MazeDancer:

    Perry’s sounding just like, grimacing just like, and having that same cruel, self-absorbed vibe as Bush is so significant. Have been saying this for weeks since the first time I saw actual video.

    Yes, it’s freaky how much he looks and sounds like W. He didn’t used to. He’s changed how he moves or looks or sounds or something. Some of it is because he’s aged, as well. He used to be a little more Pretty Boy Perry. These days he looks a bit more Grizzled Cowboy. And along with that, he seems to have adopted a lot of W’s mannerisms and style of speaking.

    It’s uncanny how much he looks and sounds like Bush. I really don’t think the American public will vote for him again. The Republicans might, but the general public? Not gonna happen.

  193. 193.

    rikyrah

    how does one exactly run to lead the country that they wanted to secede from only a few months ago?

    just asking

  194. 194.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Zifnab: In addition, I think it is fair to say that more people went to the polls to cast their votes for Gore than Bush in FL. Butterfly ballots, the old Jewish Buchanan voters, etc..

  195. 195.

    Sentient Puddle

    I might be misremembering things, but wasn’t it supposed to be a big fucking deal when Newt Gingrich officially got into the race?

  196. 196.

    Monkey Business

    Rick Perry: Republican, Governor of Texas, barely graduated from Texas A&M, Evangelical Christian, and once alluded to seceding from the United States.

    The man is literally an empty suit and a bag of hair. He’s going to make it through the Republican nomination process. He’s got Bachmann crazy without the baggage, and Romney optics without being “weird”.

    But he’s going to get fucking stomped in the general. It’s going to be a year of “Remember what happened the last time we let a stupid religious Republican Texas Governor take the White House?” and “Rick Perry: George W Bush times 1000”.

  197. 197.

    The Spy Who Loved Me

    The real question is whether or not Perry has the ability to lift others with his soaring rhetoric and uncanny ability to use a teleprompter. If he doesn’t possess those abilities, the press will continue their love affair with Obama.

  198. 198.

    wrb

    @gbear: “As soon as people start hearing him talk on a regular basis his popularity will plummet. The way he talks sounds too much like Bush.”

    I fear this won’t hurt. By last December Bush’s popularity had risen 25% since he left office and was higher than Obama’s. It is probably higher now.

    Remember those “Do you miss me yet?” .

  199. 199.

    El Tiburon

    As a Texan, let me just say: you think you hate him now? Just wait.

    Let me add: I don’t think he has the temperament for the national stage and spotlight. He has bee too insulated for too long here in Texas.

    He’s really a junior varsity guy who was handed the starting Quarterback position just ’cause he was a white guy and part of the establishment. He is more ignorant than Sarah Palin and George W. Bush. At least Palin and Bush could appeal to non-wingnuts and loons. Rick Perry will not and cannot appeal to anyone outside the 30%.

    Take it to the bank.

  202. 202.

    Myles

    Well, given that he’s going to be the nominee, I think we can at least manage a defence of Rick Perry (alluding somewhat to John Rawls)…

    (Posted previously on Matt Yglesias’s blog)

    “The great genius and import of Rawls, by the way, is his (what I think is, in a sense, possibly definitive) reconciliation of egalitarianism with efficiency and wealth (in the economic sense). We learn in economics, of course, that egalitarianism and efficiency trade off against each off, but among the tradeoffs Rawls found one that, I think, ought to be mutually satisfactory to reasonable people on either side. He recapitulated the essence and goal of egalitarianism, the improvement of the lives of the least advantaged, in a perhaps more philosophically lucid manner: instead of unreliable and ever-shifting metrics that are relatively based, he re-stood the goal of egalitarianism on an absolute and thus firm basis.

    And what’s more, Rawls, like Rick Perry, did so in a way that prioritized in an absolute way the absolute maximization of one’s fundamental aim. Whereas Rawls, through his difference principle, prioritized in a categorically imperative way the absolute maximization of the welfare of the least advantaged, Rick Perry, in his discussions on possibility of Texan secession, did so in a way that prioritized, also in a categorically imperative way, the absolute maximization of the welfare of the state of Texas. He does not commit, you note, the secession of Texas, and nor does he commit to non-secession. Rather, he makes a conditional statement the intention of which is to produce an outcome, conditional upon exogenous conditions, that maximizes Texas’s welfare. Thus, while his position on the political status of Texas is conditional, this conditionality, like the conditionality of Rawls’ difference principle, is premised on the categorically imperative maximization of Texan welfare.”

  203. 203.

    Martin

    @Violet:

    These days he looks a bit more Grizzled Cowboy.

    And that’s what’s going to give the villagers the permanent hard-on for the guy. I do not know what it is about the illusion of rugged individualism that makes DC pundits think that the Marlboro Man is the key to America’s salvation.

  208. 208.

    NonyNony

    @Martin:

    And that’s what’s going to give the villagers the permanent hard-on for the guy. I do not know what it is about the illusion of rugged individualism that makes DC pundits think that the Marlboro Man is the key to America’s salvation.

    Many of them seem deathly afraid that they’re “out of touch” with the “common man” in the “flyover states” and so they need to fetishize all these things that they think us commoners out in the sticks love.

    Frankly the DC and NY press corpse and DC punditry in general would do well to have an infusion of reporters from Toledo, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Denver and a few other midwestern cities swoop in and add their voices. Because maybe some of those folks wouldn’t fetishize things that the folks who actually LIVE in these states know is a mark of the stupid and/or the pandering, and not anything “authentic” at all.

  209. 209.

    Zifnab

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s definitely possible. The Florida election was a mess, and while I’m not a big fan of the current electronic voting system, I’m a huge fan of electronic voting + paper receipts over the punch cards and butterfly ballots and other confusing measures.

  212. 212.

    Eykis

    @Citizen_X:

    As a native Dallasite, college in Austin in mid-70s, when Kinky Friedman’s brother was Mayor of Austin, even, Bob Bullock was head of the Texas Railroad Commission.

    Having worked in the field of oil and gas law, the TRUE POWER of Texas lies with the Railroad Commission.

    Bullock was a wildman, but at least he was not a Teabagging Fewl XtianEvangelibannic moran………..

  213. 213.

    The Spy Who Loved Me

    @Cris (without an H): Hey, I resent that. It was my first teleprompter joke ever! You’ve confused me with someone else. But you’re right – it was a little stale. I should have stopped with “soaring rhetoric”. My apologies.

  214. 214.

    Cris (without an H)

    @Monkey Business: It’s going to be a year of “Remember what happened the last time we let a stupid religious Republican Texas Governor take the White House?” and “Rick Perry: George W Bush times 1000”.

    Do not underestimate the number of people who think stupid-religious-times-1000 is a good thing.

  215. 215.

    Suffern ACE

    @Nutella:

    Hmmm, Perry coming in this late probably does mean he’s running for VP.

    The only reason we think Perry is “Late” is because the press has decided that the Ames Straw Poll is an important milestone, that the Iowa Republican Caucus is the mostest important milestone, and have been reporting on the horse race in Iowa since January 2009.

  218. 218.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman: Hey, EFG, I’ve been meaning to ask you for ages and ages but keep forgetting: what, exactly, does “GOPB” stand for (or, more accurately, what does the “B” stand for)? I’ve checked Google and the BJ Lexicon to no avail.

    Thanks!

  219. 219.

    shortstop

    @Suffern ACE: That seems like a distinction without a difference, since the press has long been the determinant of how long these campaigns should run.

    Those bastards are also the ones who got the Christmas stuff into stores right after Labor Day, I bet.

  221. 221.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Omnes Omnibus: All that is true, but you can’t blame all that funny business on the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the voters’ intent is not measurable.

    I don’t know why they stopped the recount, but what I remember is that no matter what the totals were (they seemed to bounce up and down by a few hundred or thousand votes every few days), Bush was always ahead in Florida.

  223. 223.

    Hal

    @rikyrah:

    how does one exactly run to lead the country that they wanted to secede from only a few months ago?

    This, a thousand times. Perry should be disqualified and deported to Canada. (Sorry Canada.)

  227. 227.

    matryoshka

    Hmmmm. . . I wonder what would happen if thousands of people started Googling “Rick Perry gay”? I just did, and there is some fabulous reading out there.

  228. 228.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @John Weiss: Father was a President; Grandfather, a senator. That kind of pedigree. Plus, a few generations of prep school and Yale.

    ETA: Also too, IIRC, he has a Franklin Pierce as an ancestor on Babs’s side.

  229. 229.

    mds

    @wrb:

    I don’t see how Obama has one serious tool for improving the economy that isn’t rendered unusable by either the right or the left

    We’ve already seen how the right has rendered various economy-improving measures unusable, but out of idle curiosity (since there aren’t enough flames rising from this thread), what economy-improving measures available to Obama have the left rendered unusable?

  230. 230.

    John Weiss

    @Jamie: You’re right. Texas, as several other states that endured “reconstruction” with Yankee um – Northern appointed governors arranged things so the governor had little power. In Texas, it’s the lt. governor who has the real power.

    Rick Perry is a posturing ass and Texas would be much better off without him. If he were elected President only Texas would be better off.

  233. 233.

    John Weiss

    @Omnes Omnibus: What are you a royalist? Daddy bought his degree. Daddy bought him a nice safe job in the AF reserves during the Viet Nam “war”. He was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father was a spook. His grandfather was a Nazi sympathizer. He has a ‘pedigree’ alright. Sorta like shit on my shoe has a pedigree.

  236. 236.

    NobodySpecial

    @mds: Don’t use logic, this is the new BJ meme that ‘both sides do it’ when it comes to screwing over the President.

  238. 238.

    NonyNony

    @John Weiss:

    Dude, dogs have a pedigree. Saying that a person has a “pedigree” is not exactly a ringing endorsement.

    In fact, I took GregB’s original comment as a jibe – one of W’s selling points to the Republican elites and the Republican moderates was his father’s experience in office and connections. Perry ain’t got those, so he’s W without some of W’s advantages.

  239. 239.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @John Weiss: You asked what kind of pedigree he had. I told you. Don’t assume that that makes me think any better of him. It, however, is one of the reasons that the courtiers in DC saw him as acceptable, which, of course, is the point the original commenter was making. Ass.

  240. 240.

    shortstop

    @John Weiss: Either that or even the sluts won’t do ya. I kid! I kid!

    @NonyNony: That’s exactly what it was, and it was dead on. Years in Midland or not, the Bushes/Prescotts/Pierces are 100 percent eastern establishment with all the open doors that entails. No one here is saying that’s good. But that’s how it is.

  241. 241.

    2liberal

    if perry is the nominee he won’t have the benefit of people associating him with his war-hero CIA-leading father as happened with Dubya

  244. 244.

    John Weiss

    @NonyNony: You’re right. Dogs have pedigrees. So would humans if they were selectively bred for millennia. The idea of a human pedigree is ridiculous.

    Just sayin’. Don’t mean no harm.

  246. 246.

    TenguPhule

    How many other states in the nation can rely almost exclusively on oil companies ??

    Alaska.

    Palin/Perry 2012

    Because the FSM hates us all.

  247. 247.

    Rabble Arouser

    @matryoshka: No kidding, I just entered “Rick Perry” in my browser’s search field and “Rick Perry gay” was the second suggestion. Wow.

  250. 250.

    TenguPhule

    He is more ignorant than Sarah Palin and George W. Bush.

    Impossible. Texas would have been sucked beyond the event horizon of stupid from that literal black hole of non-intellect. It would mean creationism on par with evolution in schoolbooks….oh….well fuck.

  252. 252.

    matryoshka

    @Rabble Arouser: Did you read the account in the comments section of FITS News article? Go there and read what Robert Morrow (describes himself as “3 time delegate to the Texas state Republican convention and a local liberty activist”) has to say. With emails, direct quotes, and everything.

  254. 254.

    Exurban Mom

    @wrb: Good lord, I hope he’s not a winner. I might have to find some sort of job teaching abroad for a few years.

  255. 255.

    cokane

    I doubt it to be honest. Smart money is still on Romney. Many people still have no idea who Rick Perry is.

  256. 256.

    James E. Powell

    @eemom:

    I’m just going to keep talking about the innocent man he sent to the death chamber and see if anyone listens.

    You realize, don’t you, that most Americans, especially Americans who vote, will refuse to believe that an innocent person was executed? And even if there is any doubt, that they will simply view Perry as ‘tough on crime’ and that’s a good thing? And that Americans do not care about killing innocent people and in fact consider doing so a sign of strength? (See, e.g., Iran & Afghanistan.)

  259. 259.

    James E. Powell

    @Paul in KY:

    On the social pedigree thing.

    The Village disparaged Bill Clinton’s actual working class kid makes it to the White House story, considered him ‘not one of us,’ white trash.

    The very same people embraced and sang the praises of the ‘authentic’ West Texas cowboy rancher George W. Bush, a complete phony, a rich boy repeatedly propped up and bailed out by his daddy’s rich friends.

  261. 261.

    NovShmozKaPop

    At least Perry’s candidacy would keep the arena cleared of trash – another installment of the Civil War, pure and simple.

  262. 262.

    bob h

    I just can’t believe the American people will vote for GWB #2.

    Violet, long experience tells me there is simply no bottom to American politics. The unimagineable will happen.

  263. 263.

    bob h

    I just can’t believe the American people will vote for GWB #2.

    Violet, long experience tells me there is simply no bottom to American politics. The unimagineable will happen.

  264. 264.

    Q.Q. Moar

    It just occurred to me that Perry could really shake up the race by coming out of the closet now. In a ‘only Nixon can go to China’ ploy that would blindside his political opponents, Perry could announce that he’s the first gay conservative candidate for president.

  267. 267.

    Blogasita

    I know this is buried WAY at the bottom of a comments section, but 2 important things to keep repeating about Perry from a Texan:

    1. (For the General election) The jobs miracle in Texas is mainly for minimum or low wage jobs. Come to Texas if you want to serve tacos, work at Walmart, or shuffle papers at a low wage (the latter is what I do).

    2. (For the religious nut primary) The San Antonio Express News and NPR did a interesting story that got NO play nationally. They looked at the tax records for ol’ Rick and found that Mr. Religious (ha,ha – that’s been a VERY recent conversion) doesn’t tithe at any church. He doesn’t even come close for any charitable giving, period. He’s a cheap motherfucker, which Texans know. But it’d be nice if someone could ask him about in the press (again – ha, ha). But if it gets loud enough on the blogs, a lot of people will know about these things and he’ll have to start answering a few hard questions. Maybe.

  268. 268.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @John Weiss:

    From Dictionary.com:

    “pedigree
    [ped-i-gree]   Origin
    Pedigree

    ped·i·gree
       /ˈpɛdɪˌgri/ Show Spelled[ped-i-gree] Show IPA
    noun
    1.
    an ancestral line; line of descent; lineage; ancestry.
    2.
    a genealogical table, chart, list, or record, especially of a purebred animal.
    3.
    distinguished, excellent, or pure ancestry.
    4.
    derivation, origin, or history: the pedigree of a word.
    Origin:
    1375–1425; late Middle English pedegru < Anglo-French, equivalent to Middle French pie de grue literally, foot of crane, a fanciful way of describing the appearance of the lines of a genealogical chart

    Related forms
    ped·i·gree·less, adjective

    Synonyms
    2. Pedigree, genealogy refer to an account of ancestry. A pedigree is a table or chart recording a line of ancestors, either of persons or (more especially) of animals, as horses, cattle, and dogs; in the case of animals, such a table is used as proof of superior qualities: a detailed pedigree. A genealogy is an account of the descent of a person or family traced through a series of generations, usually from the first known ancestor: a genealogy that includes a king."

    FWIW I didn't introduce the word to the conversation and it wasn't used incorrectly.

  270. 270.

    shortstop

    @John Weiss: No one but you had any trouble understanding what it meant. Why not stop digging now? It’s gotta be getting dark down there.

  271. 271.

    fuckwit

    Gargle and swallow! That’s perfect!

    That’s what we have, not the MSM, or the SCLM, but the G&S media– the Gargle and Swallow Media.

  272. 272.

    Admiral_Komack

    @rikyrah:

    Great minds think alike.

    I was thinking something along those lines a day or two ago at weeseeyou.com.

    Of course, the courageous MSM won’t ask him about it.

  275. 275.

    Deb T

    Is there a Mrs. Perry?
    How come Edward’s hair made him the Breck Girl and Perry’s hair is considered debonair?

  276. 276.

    Violet

    @Deb T:

    Is there a Mrs. Perry?

    Yes, her name is Anita.

    How come Edward’s hair made him the Breck Girl and Perry’s hair is considered debonair?

    In Texas, Perry is known as “Governor Good Hair” among other nicknames, so his hair doesn’t go without comment. I think Edwards paid for that video of him combing his hair. It reinforced the “pretty face with pretty hair” accusation underlying the “Breck Girl” nickname.

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