Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
Peter Robinson ·
Aug 26, 2011 at 9:00am
From Andy Ferguson's utterly
brilliant cover story, "Rick Perry Enters the Ring," in the current issue of The Weekly Standard:
The mere fact...of him...must seem to America's liberals as an explicit and deliberate provocation--their worst nightmare come horribly to life. He's a governor of Texas. He has a funny accent. He got lousy grades in school. He not only owns guns, he shoots them. He'll soon be wearing cowboy boots again [as soon as he recovers from his recent back surgery]. He shows no sign of having read Reinhold Niebuhr. And he might win.
- Comment (21)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (0)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
The Reinhold Niebuhr comment is vintage Ferguson.
Next question: Does Perry even know who Keynes is? If he doesn't, he has my vote.
Finally, I'm a rural farm guy who grew up wearing cowboy boots (we called them s***kickers). When I came to the big city, I left the boots behind. If Perry wins, I'm buying a new pair.
Edited on Aug 26, 2011 at 9:19amJul '11
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
And the trial lawyers despise and fear him. Let the games begin.
Jul '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
Not to mention the fact that he looks presidential; he has a leadership, or as we were taught in the military, command bearing. There are no other candidates that contrast with such delicious sharpness to the current beta-male-in-chief. This must drive liberals absolutely nuts, of which the recent attempt at slander by Ed Schultz is hard evidence.
Edited on Aug 26, 2011 at 9:28amOct '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
And here's the link. No charge, Peter.
Dec '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
So everyone else is finally figuring out what I've been saying for a while. He is the antithesis of Obama. His enemies list is just more proof.
Jul '11
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
You do have to admire him for the enemies he makes. From the (sympathetic) article, however, is the following red flag (emphasis added):
Perry isn’t anti-government; he is anti-federal government. (Whether he’ll remain anti-federal government when he’s running it can’t be known.) He is after all a man who has spent his entire professional life working for the government as a state legislator and executive. You might even call him a big-government conservative whose reach is constrained only by the Texas border. A better tag would be “Conservative Democrat circa 1960”: a politician always happy to accommodate the interests of businessmen and never shy about deploying the resources of his government in causes he likes. Perry’s greatest failure as governor, to cite one example, was his plan to build a vast trans-Texas transportation network of new roads and rail lines. The plan would have allowed the state to wave around its power of eminent domain like a two-by-four, an exercise unprecedented in state history. Perry couldn’t overcome opposition from landowners and conservatives who objected to what Tea Partiers might call a “land grab.”
Yikes.
Jul '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
You have fingered my favorite aspect of Perry's candidacy. The heads exploding at his every success. Another eight years of presidential addresses delivered in Texan. It's like a Cindy Sheehan full-employment act.
I'm with Cobalt on the reservations, but the entertainment potential is awesome.
May '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
Let's not discount that he also seems to be an explicit and deliberate provocation to many on our side of the aisle (another reason I'm inclined to like him).
Dec '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
So, reading the comments the question naturally arises: what's has made us so combative?
Jun '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
Yes, the enemies he attracts make me smile. Especially trial lawyers. Still have major reservations, including those Cobolt has noted & Gardasil.
I'm fine with cowboy boots & hats, accents or drawls, and a bit of a macho strut. Shocked at his horrific college transcript, although I'm well aware that you can't be stupid and be an Air Force pilot. Not a fan of that televangelsit style he puts on when praying. He's on a roll --- that's for sure.
Jul '11
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
I can't speak for us, but, personally, I'm sick and tired of Republican candidates pulling their punches for fear of being portrayed as "mean", "uncivil", or otherwise offensive to the oh-so-delicate media. Barry Goldwater had the right spirit - you don't ever win by surrendering before the fight begins. Democrats have much more leeway since the media will typically overlook many of their sins - so they can land a lot more punches that can sway independents. One of the reasons Perry is so appealing is that he gets this and is not afraid to "muss up his hair", in the words of Gen. Turgidson. Romney, on the other hand, comes across as very reluctant to muss his hair up - both figuratively and literally! - and is a weaker candidate for it.
Jul '11
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
A similar theme today from Jonah Goldberg:
Let’s cut through the clutter: A lot of people on the East and West coasts are bigots and snobs about “flyover types.” They equate funny accents with stupidity, and they automatically assume someone who went to Texas A&M must be dumber than someone who went to Yale. Overt displays of religion trigger their fight-or-flight instincts, causing them to lash out irrationally.
My favorite example? When John McCain picked Palin as his running mate, University of Chicago professor Wendy Doniger wrote that Palin’s “greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman.”
When I read such idiocy, it’s impossible for me not to love Bush, Perry, Palin, et al. for their enemies.
Oct '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
Cobalt Blue
I can't speak for us, but, personally, I'm sick and tired of Republican candidates pulling their punches for fear of being portrayed as "mean", "uncivil", or otherwise offensive to the oh-so-delicate media. · Aug 26 at 11:06am
I agree. When our guy (or gal) reaches across the aisle, I want it to be with a closed fist.
Jun '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
To paraphrase Jamie Leigh Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda -- an ape can read Reinhold Niebuhr, he just can't understand it. As far as we know, Rick Perry's undergraduate grades were better than Obama's -- so making any comparison even if intended to compliment Perry on the assumption that Barry's undisclosed Columbia grades were better, is a false and misleading one.
Until Barry turns over any of his grades, we should presume he is somewhere in D-Day grade range "0.0 -- all courses , incomplete."
May '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
Keep in mind what followed, though:
But here’s my problem: I find the prospect of another four or eight years of defending these cultural distinctions to be intensely wearying.
[...] Conservatism is starting to have an identity-politics problem all its own. I think conservatism needs to spend less time defending candidates for who they are, and more time supporting candidates for what they intend to do.
Bush’s inability to articulate arguments had nothing to do with his Texan-ness or his Christianity, but a lot of folks on the right defended him as if that were the case. “He speaks American, don’t you get it?”
To which I’d reply: “No, he speaks badly.”
Perry’s not a bad speaker, and I’m trying to keep an open mind. I suspect I agree with him more than I did with Bush, whose compassionate conservatism I loathed.
Nor do I mind folksiness per se. [...] But this time around, folksiness isn’t a substitute for seriousness, and I have very little patience for those who pretend otherwise.
Let's hope Perry's up to the challenge.
Mar '11
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
Is Rick Perry's set of enemies different from those who would coalesce inevitably against any Republican nominee? Why or why not? Discuss.
May '11
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
I like the looks of Perry, he may be my personal frontrunner. However it took me a moment to realize what it was that was nagging at me. It is this, Hollywood has been running again Rick Perry types for decades. Texan, religious, straight talking, brash, non- PC when a guy who looks, acts, and talks like him appears in the first act you know he's a phoney and a hypocrite and will be in handcuffs in the final scene. This has been depicted so many times that even a conservative like me had an automatic uneasiness. The huge number of unthinking people who rely on their ‘feelings’ will be put off without realizing why. The womanish Hollywood nebbishes have laid the groundwork. It could be a problem.
Jan '11
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
dittoheadadt
I agree. When our guy (or gal) reaches across the aisle, I want it to be with a closed fist. · Aug 26 at 12:18pm
A closed fist and ample force (so as not to be confused with a fist bump).
May '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
I want a candidate with substance, and I care not a whit about flash and sizzle that excites red meat conservatives. A snarky mouth is not a substitute for competence and appeal to the middle independents who actually elect presidents.
Perry will have to overcome a steady diet of this (the latest shot about his corporatist buddy system, from the Dallas Morning News). On the campaign trail, Ronald Reagan, a true cowboy and intellectual with firm convictions in real life, looked like a regal and dignified leader, not a good old boy.
I hope Perry proves me wrong- but I fear the field unless someone finds a way to talk Jeb into running.
Jul '10
Re: Rick Perry, the Man With All the Right Enemies
TucsonSean: To paraphrase Jamie Leigh Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda -- an ape can read Reinhold Niebuhr, he just can't understand it. As far as we know, Rick Perry's undergraduate grades were better than Obama's -- so making any comparison even if intended to compliment Perry on the assumption that Barry's undisclosed Columbia grades were better, is a false and misleading one.
Until Barry turns over any of his grades, we should presume he is somewhere in D-Day grade range "0.0 -- all courses , incomplete." · Aug 26 at 3:43pm
He was graded "present".