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Rick Perry on the GOP, Foreign and Domestic Policy
In an extended episode of Opinion Journal, I talked today with Texas Governor Rick Perry about a wide array of issues: Vladimir Putin, Syria, the Obama Administration’s Asia policy, immigration, Obamacare, and what he learned from the 2012 election, just to name a few:
Published in General
Good to hear he has advisors. According to reporting I hear on a certain radio show out of New York, the president shuns advisors on Russia.
Another great interview, Mary. You asked the questions many citizens want to hear the answer to. Although friendly in spirit, you asked him direct questions, and his honest answers are the key to why he will be a real contender for `16. This interview is a tonic for those of us tired of the usual beltway babbling, narrative forming, spinning and pandering.
It is a shame Governor Perry had back surgery and was on meds during the ’12 campaign. He coulda been a contender.
He said “Whether it’s Afghanistan, or the Middle East…”
He said “You need someone who doesn’t just walk the walk.”
Mary, thanks for an excellent interview. This is the Rick Perry I was expecting in 2012, but didn’t get. If he decides to run for the presidency in 2016, I think he will be a strong contender.
What’s your point? As generally understood, one is not the other.
The traditional boundary between the Middle East and the Far East was the Persian/Afghan border. The Near East was the Balkans and Turkey. The Middle East ran from Egypt to Persia. The Far East was Afghanistan, Tibet, China and Japan. (India – which then included Pakistan – was considered separate, neither Middle East or Far East.)
At least that was the geography of Kipling’s times (1880s to 1920s), when the terms were coined.
And in the present, the ‘stan’ countries are more often than not considered “central Asia.”
I always enjoy watching Rick Perry. Thanks for posting this interview.
P.S. Spin, I appreciate your concerns about verbal stumbles, but I think Afghanistan actually can be considered Central Asia. Probably depends on whom you ask.
True. And that underscores the point that Afghanistan is not in the Middle East. Except perhaps for those who consider Sarah Palin a doofus for calling for people to “Party like its 1773” when any idiot knows American Independence was declared in 1776.
Perry needs to sharpen his attack points on Obamacare: numbers on the cancelled policies; costs; inferior care; and the irreparable harm it will do, once fully implemented, to the company plans which so many Americans depend on.
The backgrounders he’s getting on foreign policy demonstrate seriousness, but he needs to go on a world tour and meet every foreign leader and future foreign leader who Mrs. Clinton has met.
The alliance with Poland on natural gas is the most potent point he made here.