PPP: Republican frontrunners lose ground; could Perry be the beneficiary?
From Tom Jensen on the Public Policy Polling Web site:
Much has been written about the weakness of the 2012 Republican Presidential candidate field but what I think might be most remarkable about the leading quartet of Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich is that they’ve all become more unpopular and by quite a good bit since we started monthly national 2012 polling in April of 2009. The fact that the more Americans are exposed to them, the less they like them certainly does not bode well for their competitiveness next year.
* In April 2009 Huckabee’s favorability was +8 at 42/34. Now it’s -7 at 35/42, for a 15 point drop over the last two years. His net drop has been 25 points with Democrats, 7 points with Republicans, and 19 points with independents.
* In April 2009 Palin’s favorability was -7 at 42/49. Now it’s -22 at 35/57, for a 15 point drop over the last two years. Her net drop has been 19 points with Democrats, 18 points with Republicans, and 19 points with independents.
* In April 2009 Romney’s favorability was +5 at 40/35. Now it’s -12 at 32/44, for a 17 point drop over the last two years. His net drop has been 25 points with Democrats, 18 points with Republicans, and 9 points with independents.
* In April 2009 Gingrich’s favorability was -8 at 36/44. Now it’s -31 at 26/57, for a 23 point drop over the last two years. His net drop has been 20 points with Democrats, 25 points with Republicans, and 33 points with independents.
This is a field dying for some new blood…and with even Republican voters souring on their frontrunners there might just be the appetite for it.
* * * *
Uh-oh. I feel as if I have seen this movie before. The fates have so arranged the universe that the person in the right place at the right time is going to be Rick Perry. Frontrunners are dropping all around him. I’m not kidding, folks. The other day I wrote about the possibility of a Gingrich-Perry ticket, after Perry’s former campaign manager Rob Johnson signed on with Newt. I thought Perry’s presidential ambitions were dead for sure. But the current Republican field is so weak, and the second tier is so unappealing that Perry could be just the kind of person who the Republican base is looking for: vigorous, self-confident, brash, and impossible to get to the right of.
The GOP second tier, from whence fresh faces might come, is unimpressive:
Ron Paul
Rand Paul
Michele Bachmann
Mitch Daniels
Tim Pawlenty
Haley Barbour
Jon Huntsman
Gary Johnson
Rick Santorum
Daniels is a competent governor, as is Pawlenty, but none of these folk have any cachet. Perry, on the other hand, has established a rationale to run on, based on the Tenth Amendment, and his confrontations with the Obama administration. As the GOP electorate learns about Perry’s war on Washington, he is going to gain in popularity.
Of course, the best Republican candidate, the person who ought to be president, is Jeb Bush. It’s not going to happen. Remember the scene from Oliver Stone’s W., when George W. Bush dreams that his father has come into the Oval Office and tells his son that he has ruined the Bush name. Life imitates art.
Perry would love nothing more than to supplant the Bushes, to show the nation and the world who is the real Texas cowboy, the real conservative. All he needs is for the timing to be right. It looks to me as if events are working perfectly for him. Don’t they always?
Tagged: Gary Johnson, George W. Bush, haley barbour, jeb bush, jon huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, mitch daniels, mitt romney, newt gingrich, oliver stone, Rand Paul, rick perry, Rick Santorum, rob johnson, ron paul, sarah palin, tim pawlenty
Red says:
As a life-long Democrat, I hope Rick Perry runs for president. Something tells me he won’t be able to get away with not debating Obama, even if he demands to see the birth certificate first. Perry would never survive with a “competent”* media scrutinizing him.
* – no offense to anyone at TexasMonthly, but the average political reporting in this state is piss-poor. TM is among the best, but there’s just a finite amount of resources to investigate the infinite amount of stupid that comes out in Texas politics.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 7:47 am
When it comes to incompetence, the political reporting has nothing on the Texas electorate – the real source of the problem. Not even excellent political coverage has much of a chance of penetrating arrogant ignorance when it is glorified as it is in Texas.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Political reporting in this state is just fine. The electorate is backwards, fearful and uneducated. Do you honestly think that the rest of the nation would vote for another Texas conservative after the last fiasco?
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Spiro Eagleton Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 7:34 am
Anon,
I don’t watch Fox. I watch primarily MLB Network, The Hub, History Ch, and C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2, and C-SPAN 3. I find the cable news channels to be redundant and lame. Everything is a “News Alert.” I get my news on the internet and in the papers.
Anonymous Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 9:20 am
“The electorate is backwards, fearful and uneducated.”
To the contrary the electorate looked at places like New York, California, Illinois and other Democrat high tax hell holes and deciced that it did not want that for Texas.
Spiro Eagleton Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 9:41 am
I think Burka dreams about Perry every night. He’s fixated on him more than anyone I’ve ever come across.
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paulburka Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Spiro –
You obviously do not understand the media. Texas politics is dominated at the moment by a powerful, skillful politician who has ambitions beyond Texas. Whether you like him or hate him, he is news, just as George W. Bush was news when he set his sights on national office. I am going to continue to write about Perry. That is not a fixation. It is what any journalist in my position would do.
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Spiro Eagleton Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
No, I understand the media. I just think you are unduly fixated upon Perry and your theory that he’s going to run for president even though there are no indications that he will.
Anonymous Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Spiro does not understand the media, he watches Fox. Burka: All the newspapers and TV stations in the state worth a damn are watching Perry, the backwards phenomenom he is.
Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 2:41 am
I’m not the least bit concerned about a debate between Perry and Obama. All Perry has to do is stay focused on the here and now and what right now is doing to the country and our future, regardless of the question. Obama is nothing but a con job, a liar and sneaky cheat — a situation that is so bad people even question his loyalty to the USA. And of course those strange characters both the Obamas brought in as “advisors”, “appointees” and “friends” who are none the too savory. We want a President who knows how to put a great team together, and how to use a great team. The Presidency is not a one-man job as is evidenced by the horrific messes the Obamas continually and deliberately make. A “backwards phenomenom” is definately not Rick Perry.
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Anonymous says:
As much as some people may want it to happen, a Perry ’12 campaign would have roughly the same success as the John Connally ’80 campaign did. Once he showed any sign of entering the race, Perry would be tagged as Mr. Gardasil or Mr. Trans Texas Corridor to supporters of the other Republican candidates (especially the Palinites, who until she says she is not running, will defend their candidate like a junkyard dog and a partially eaten rib bone).
Perry’s lurch to the left after his tepid victory in the ’06 election didn’t cost him in Texas, since he scurried back to the right as soon as he felt Kay Bailey breathing down on him for the 2010 governor’s race. But it would be grist for the mill in any Republican presidential campaign, where as a late starter, he’d have no margin for error. He might get a nod as a VP candidate if a northern state governor (Romney, Daniels, Pawlenty or Palin) wins the nomination, but that’s about it.
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Alan Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
John Connally had a very different set of problems than Rick Perry does. While they were both Dems-turned-Republicans, Connally had a prominent career as a Democrat and was never really welcome in the GOP after the first day he switched, while the Dem version of Perry was an obscure state legislator nobody had heard of. And Connally, as cunning and ambitious as he was, never had the Teflon coating Rick has; the Republicans who thought he was too liberal viewed him as craven and inauthentic, and the Democrats who thought he was too conservative viewed him as callous and mean-spirited.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 2:49 am
Trans Texas Corridor a problem for Perry?? I don’t think so. He has proven that his focus was to bring jobs to Texas, not ship them out via free trade. Texas is certainly doing way better than the other States — which is exactly why we need Perry our President.
As for your other comments about Perry, Connally, the Democrats and the GOP, I’m not really sure you understand Texas at all. Obviously you don’t.
You sound pure northeast coast to me.
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Pat says:
Perry has the best political instincts we’ve seen since Lyndon Johnson. Not in Texas. In America. If he runs, he’ll make a race out of it. I’ve feared for some time that only Rick Perry could make a competitive race out of 2012. Maybe his current campaign talent has gone, but he’ll find new talent – he always does.
A “Consequences” footnote: if Dewhurst and Perry both manage to run and win, we land in Tex. Const. Art. III, § 9 territory. The Senate elects the Gov and Lite Gov from among its own members. I’m hoping for a Governor Carona and Lt. Governor Duncan.
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Tellnitlikeitis Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 11:31 am
The country is not clamoring for another Texan to end up in the WH – or anywhere else close to it.
Perry’s weaknesses would get magnified by the national press. How did a guy working in state government his entire life end up a millionaire?
Look at his income tax return his first (or second year, perhaps)as governor)…..six figure salary…no food expenses….no mortgage/housing expenses..no utility expenses….and his charitable contributions were less than $500?
There’s not a lot there once you poke around – and the national media would find the empty suit.
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Fiftycal Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
The country would elect Ronald Reagan AGAIN if he were on the ticket instead of empty suit O-BOMB-AH. And RR would have more LEADERSHIP right now than O-BOMB-AH. We’re 6 months away from finding out who is running. Perry may be “drafted”. I dunno.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:01 am
ONLY a few very small areas in the northeast coastal areas claim they aren’t “clamoring” for a Texan in the White House and I know that for a fact. I’ve been all over this country, to every State except Hawaii and Alaska and I can tell you for a fact AMERICANS DO WANT A TEXAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND THEY WANT RICK PERRY AS PRESIDENT.
People like that guy because he is GREAT. There’s a tremendous confidence associated with Perry that says “everything is ok, Perry is taking care of things”. America needs that. The guy doesn’t even have to be questioned or watchdog monitored. THAT is the mark of a GREAT MAN.
Everyone is fed up with this country being torn apart and Perry is the guy who will put together the right team to seal this nation whole again. He will most assuredly unify all the Conservatives again — which is exactly what you don’t “clamor” for.
Guess you’ll have to come up with something way better to pitch at him than his tax return.
Never underestimate that guy. He IS a power to be reckoned with.
But, that’s Texans for ya. That’s Perry for ya.
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Anonymous says:
Perry has never undergone scrutiny for his stances or his record. You don’t think people are tracking all those speeches he gave to all those conservative organizations on public schools. If he comes up, it will be late (Palin ’08) to reduce the impact. Besides, his contempt for everyone shows up. That act worked for Bush for a while, but there will be no repeat. Romney/Perry is the ultimate ticket balance.
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Cow Droppings Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 9:56 am
yeah, Perry has never been scrutinized. The DMN never did an enima on his land deals. The FWST never released his A&M transcripts. The DMN didn’t spend hundreds of hours on emerging tech. The entire press corps didn’t spend countless hours on Rumor-gate 2004. Yeah, as a staunch conservative, Perry has had it easy because all the papers down here are the Texas version of Fox.
It takes a special kind of stupid to make that argument.
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John Johnson Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
I won’t argue that the press has been lenient on Perry. They’ve done a decent job …especially the DMN.
The problem is that no one in Texas is paying attention. I don’t think that most even have a clue what is going on in Austin, much less D.C.
What I predict, if Perry becomes a serious candidate, is the national media taking what the DMN and others have reported, and magnifying it.
Let’s see how he handles it. Doing the Texas Two-Step is not going to work when being bombarded by the national press.
I also predict that many Texas Repub’s after this session is over will be more than willing to stand in front of a camera and tell the world about the flaws in Mr. Cool.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:05 am
Rick Perry most certainly has been under a LOT of scrutiny for the stands he has taken. You betcha he has. I know this because I was one of many who had a watchdog group monitoring that guy. Let me be the first to inform you, every single issue we had with him, in the end he was absolutely correct in the decisions he made, and we were wrong. That’s a fact. Now the only people who monitor him are the far left who constantly and very bitterly complain he’s too smart for them.
Well, good for Rick Perry!!!
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Kenneth D. Franks says:
If the only way to keep him from being governor for life is for him to run I’m all for it. I don’t think he can win but I’ve been wrong before.
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Brian says:
This is a non-starter. The Texas GOP “brand” still bears the taint of Bush II, the rest of the nation does not want to bring another red Texan back into the White House. Moreover, while Perry can win elections like 2010 where he did not debate his opponent and the electorate were voting straight ticket R b/c of their hatred of heath care reform, he is not going to be able to win a primary (or a general election) where he will be scrutinized by people other than the crazy group of folks who vote in a TX GOP primary. Perry is great with talking points and pre-written speeches, but he cannot effectively answer questions beyond them or debate (you can chicken out of debates if you are running for president, Mr. Perry). Perry is George Bush II without the intelligence or social grace (sad but true).
Perry for President is an absolute non-starter. I could see him picked for a VP (he is smarter than Palin, after all), but that’s about it.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 8:58 am
As my father would say, damning with faint praise.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:07 am
I think there was a time when Bush tainted Texas, but not anymore, thanks to Obama.
Everyone is sick of Chicago style politics and the damage it does.
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Toby Belch says:
The “Perry for President” talk has become a meme.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:08 am
And just what is a “meme”??
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longleaf says:
C’mon, Paul. This is TOTALLY wishful thinking on your part. There is NO WAY this state will EVER be rid of the greatest governor ever to come out of Texas A&M University. He is the greatest Texas governor of our new century and, indeed, may rule over the rest of it.
Palin, if she runs, still has the inside track, no matter how “unpopular” she may seem generally. People don’t seem to realize that the churches run the primary process in the GOP. She is seen as close to the Second Coming in your typical Baptist church, much as Dubya was before her.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Hell, Tricky Rick will be the head of A&M, it pays better.
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Briscoe Democrat Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Anon, my prediction: Perry serves out his 3rd full term and either retires in 2014 or runs again for governor and wins.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:13 am
Ah ha! The Dems are REALLY worried, eh?
You should be! Particularly after the slop you people put in office as “democrats”. But I really have to thank you for that because it sure has sent the Repubs running back home in a big hurry!
Oh, by the way, Palin is at this point in time way more powerful out of office than in office. That gal is a terrific organizer.
And Rick Perry will be the best President we’ve had since George Washington. We’ve waited a long time for that Aggie.
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Aggie for Kay says:
While I agree with most of the conclusions you make about the current Republican field, I don’t think it’s wise to use the results of a Democratic polling group to do so.
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Former Member Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 9:47 am
It would be hilarious if it weren’t so pathetic, but it’s obvious that the most important agenda for TM is to be anti-Rick Perry. It must be frustrating for TM to see that they have failed over the years to have any impact influencing the people, who still like him enough to vote for him.
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paulburka Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 11:07 am
That’s strange. I don’t think that the article at which Former Member’s comments are directed is anti-Perry. I don’t think that my 7,000 word article about Perry’s presidential ambitions in February 2010 was anti-Perry. My view of Perry has always been that he is an extremely skillful politician with an extremely skillful political operation, one of the most talented the state has ever seen, particularly, but not exclusively, when it comes to running a campaign. I do have issues with the way he governs the state, and I’m sure he has issues with the way we write our articles. This is how the political world works. The Perry team has always treated me with total professionalism, and I try to do the same in my dealings with them.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
“I do have issues with the way he governs the state, and I’m sure he has issues with the way we write our articles. This is how the political world works. The Perry team has always treated me with total professionalism, and I try to do the same in my dealings with them.”
This has to be the biggest bunch of hokum I have seen from Burka in a long time since his completely unsubstantiated claim that a significant number of conservatives who oppose Obama are racists.
Burka acts as if he is merely this good willed honest broker who is a total professional when writing about Perry (or any conservative Republican for that matter) and only expresses disgareement about Perry’s governance in good faith and without malice. However, when one reads Burka’s rants against Perry day after day it is obvious, as Spiro Eagleton observes, that Burka is obsessed with Perry and not in a healthy way. Just as one example, several days ago, one poster submitted a comment questioning whether Perry had contributed anything, any one thing at all, that was constructive during his time a s governor. In reply, Burka answered back his agreement– nothing that Perry has done in office has been constructive.
Now think about that for a moment and how irrational it is. Only a malicious spirit could produce such an inane comment. I can honestly say, that, as much as I oppose the idea of someone like Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama as president, I cannot imagine ginning up so much hatred for either of them that I would claim that either of them, at no point, had ever done anything constructive while in office. This is just ridiculous and borders on the pathological.
Former Member Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Paul, to argue with my post of 3/29 947AM, you would have to completely ignore the overall tone of this blog as well as your and other posters’ criticisms of Perry based upon ideology. Also, you would have to totally discount that, like it or not, Perry reflects the ideology of an overwhelming majority of TX voters. You won’t be able to fade the heat for saying, “well, TX voters are just ‘not as smart’ as I am,” and that’s why you don’t overtly blurt it.
Vernon Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Criticizing the governor or any official doesn’t equate to bias. The job of the media is to be vigil and to question. And Paul is fair in his criticisms in my observations.
Also, I don’t think it’s the governor’s ideology that Paul or many others here have a problem with. For the most part, I think it’s the governor’s tactics.
At the risk of sounding pessimistic, I’d have to assume Texas voters on average are not as smart as Paul regarding state matters. Rather, they don’t all have a JD, or spent time in the legislature or spent years covering it all as a journalist.
Cow Droppings says:
Paul,
PPP stands for Partisan Progressive Polling, not Pimping Perry for President.
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paulburka Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Not up to your usual standards, C.D.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:18 am
Say, it would be nice if “progressives” knew which way “forward” is, huh. (Go look at what “progressives” did to other areas.) That bunch, we Texans happily say “no thanks” to.
By the way, Texans won more Nobel Prizes in the hard sciences than any other State. I hardly call that “dumb”.
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Anonymouse says:
They don’t call it the “peepee” poll for nothing.
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Cow Droppings Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Burka, but this is? Hah!
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freshwind says:
Yes, that’s just what the American electorate is looking for, another goober cowboy from Texas on the national ticket. Perry is to frothing-at-the-mouth conservatives like one of those KFC bacon and cheese sandwiches with fried chicken patties in lieu of a bun is to obese binge eaters: they just can’t resist it, even though they know it could well be their demise. We can only hope that, should Perry wind up on the national “menu,” most people will take one look and choose the arugula salad instead.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Yes, the “argula salad” was sent to 1600 in Pennsylvania Ave. in 2009 and it is wilted and rotting.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:20 am
That’s exactly what we want.
A real Texan in the White House.
Rick Perry.
I can see you don’t like that. Awgh.
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bnrtn says:
General comment: Emilio Zapata was quoted as saying: “A strong people does not need a strong leader.”
Unfortunately, it seems to me that Texas and the USA needs a Ronald Reagan or, at least, a Patrick Moynihan. It doesn’t look like Texas or the USA is going to get what’s needed any time soon.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:21 am
Emilio Zapata is HARDLY someone anyone intelligent would quote. I think he got his buns kicked by a strong people with a strong leader! LOL!!
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Rog says:
If the entire Bush family is against Perry, I don’t think he’ll be leaving the state anytime soon. But we can always hope.
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paulburka says:
The entire Bush family was against him in the primary vs. Hutchison and they got rolled.
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Briscoe Democrat Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Burka, and yet Perry told the Bushes one big “F” you to them after he beat the britches out of KBH, who had no business running for governor.
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houtopia says:
While Perry seems to have skillfully played the Lege for now, I am skeptical that he will come out of this Session smelling like a rose, particularly since it is likely to stretch into a hot, unpleasant summer at the Capitol.
I don’t think most Texans yet have the slightest idea what the budget mess will end up meaning to their everyday lives, and once they figure it out, decision-makers in state government will have a strong stink on them. And try as he might to blame Obama and the Lege for the state’s difficulties, I don’t see how he escapes blame. Voters aren’t that sophisiticated (witness Democrats in 2010 who tried to distance themselves from Obama) — they are going to blame the folks running the show in Austin. And that starts with the Governor.
We have already seen numerous non-Texas publications (Economist, etc.) begin to poke holes in the “Texas Miracle” story that team Perry has been relentlessly pushing.
This guy has been the luckiest Texas politician I’ve ever seen, but even his luck may be running out.
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Beth Wells Reply:
April 9th, 2011 at 3:24 am
Oh yes we know know the impact of the budget on our lives and that’s exactly why we are so happy that Rick Perry is taking care of things.
And uh, Perry isn’t pushing any “Texas Miracle” story. WE Texans are. We know what we have is great.
But then again, Texans are smart.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
The jjb poll the most accurate of all polls show that Americans would favor another Texan in the WH if their choice was a Texan or Obama.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A"fool me once.
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Frayed knot says:
Perry’s to greatest strengths are 1) his ability to be underestimated and 2) his ability to stay on message. Both are very important in a National run.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
His message will get him bounced nationally.
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Frayed knot says:
Perry’s two greatest strengths are 1) his ability to be underestimated and 2) his ability to stay on message. Both are very important in a National run.
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Spiro Eagleton Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
The preceeding post was brought to you by The Department of Redundancy Department.
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Former Member Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Yes, being redundant again.
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Frayed knot says:
It appears spelling is not one of mine.
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JFK's Ghost says:
President Obama will be re-elected president. Get comfortable with it. His numbers are strong and improving, republican numbers continue to decline, economy is improving, war in Iraq winding down, foreign relations are super and the voting population in America is getting a reminder of how nutty modern Republicans really are and what their agenda really is (anti-working families). In fact, the war on labor and working class families in favor of the Koch brothers and super rich is going to backfire for the GOP in swing states like PA, OH, etc. The only real question is who will be on the ticket with Obama. TX will be stuck with Perry at least through 2014.
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Spiro Eagleton Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
His numbers are strong? Where? Massachusetts?
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Kirk Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Concur with JFK’s Ghost.
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Spiro Eagleton Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 7:37 am
Where are his numbers strong? Have you seen this new Quinnipiac poll out yesterday?
“A new Quinnipiac poll finds American voters disapprove 48% to 42% of the job President Obama is doing and say 50% to 41% that he does not deserve to be re-elected in 2012, both all-time lows”
Don’t tell me the Quinnipiac poll is a Republican front group like you say about Rasmussen.
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Former Member Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
JFK’s GHOST, you’re joking, aren’t you? If you really believe that, you are in the distinct minority. Even the talking heads who say that on CNN, MSNBC, FNC don’t really believe it as they are saying it.
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Briscoe Democrat Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Biden is running for re-election as VP for the Dems while the GOP ticket could be Romney-Sandoval (the NV governor) or Rubio (FL’s junior US Senator).
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FredCDobbs says:
Perry to me has seemed like the strongest national candidate for a while now, and while there’s no way in hell Newt will ever be President a Perry-Newt ticket would either win or come damn close against President Obama (shudder). I continue to think Obama will be reelected but that contest should make the Democratic Party real nervous. Republicans eat up the thin gruel of his act, and he has a proven knack for getting just enough of the middle to win.
In our current reality, Republicans play offense and Democrats play defense. They get the average joes to go along with taking away their own bargaining rights for God’s sake! Perry is totally at home in this dynamic and has the results to prove it. The only way Democrats will regain any true power will be for this country to enter Great Depression II, a price I’m not eager for all of us to pay to finally see through the Republican rhetoric.
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Former Member Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
FYI, Rick Perry’s name will not be on a Repub primary ballot in any state in the union in 2012. Get over your paranoia!
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Robert says:
PPP is so often very wrong that their poll is not worth a column.
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Jet Fuel Injection says:
You left out Chris Christie. Though Shermanesque in his public attitude toward a POTUS run, the NJ guv makes for a better candidate than Perry.
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Indi says:
Perry as a national candidate is a joke….you can’t be serious. Never could happen.
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
March 29th, 2011 at 5:29 pm
“Bush as a national candidate is a joke….you can’t be serious. Never could happen.”
However you useful idiots marched lockstep over the cliff to support Obama for President Si se puede!
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Joaquin Castro says:
I agree with that Governor Perry may have some ambition beyond state office. However, he doesn’t start from the same platform as George W. Bush. Bush had the power of legacy behind him, which created an element of destiny to his candidacy. It also meant that he had greater buy-in and a stronger national network to tap. Bush’s message, however you felt about it, was essentially a positve one: compassionate conservativism. There is hardly any uplifting part of Perry’s message. Even the parts that should be uplifting are infused with anger and disenchantment.
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Pat Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 1:39 am
You’re correct that there are substantial general election challenges to a Perry candidacy, but the Republican primary is a different horse with a different gate. Anger and disenchantment are the messages to which the GOP base is responding. If there are job losses, “so be it;” cries of “socialism” in Congress; asking the president “where’s the birth certificate?” in expression of his perceived otherness. The candidate who best channels the GOP’s anger and disenchantment will win the GOP primary.
Best wishes in mitigating the blood loss this session.
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Former Member Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
@Pat, just as an aside, I do wish BHO would produce the birth certificate, just to get that issue past us. The more he procrastinates, the more people are climbing aboard the “what’s-he-hiding” wagon.
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rdavis96 says:
You libs on here who think that Perry isn’t what Americans are looking for are underestimating the resentment that a lot of people hold for the “change” that Obama is attempting to bring to this country. Call him a goober cowboy or whatever you will but he can damn sure get his base fired up. Does Obama even have a base right now? Perry’s charisma gives him an edge over the Republican field that’s out there right now.
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Goo says:
Gingrich/Perry? Psh. Let’s at least go for some alliteration. Pawlenty/Perry 2012.
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shasta says:
Perry/Palin in 2012. WooHoo.
I’ll be in South America til 2020.
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Spiro Eagleton Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 7:42 am
You can join Alec Baldwin. We’re still waiting on him to leave the country after he pledged to do so if Bush won in 2004.
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Briscoe Democrat Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Shasta, I think the GOP will likely have a Latino as VP (either Rubio, Sandoval or Martinez) in 2012 and Romney will be the GOP nominee for President next year, just watch.
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Prince Royal says:
If Perry is elected President, I will then endorse secession.
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rw says:
Paul – Another good post. Do you know why Perry dropped his campaign manager? Or was it the other way around?
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Rog says:
Someone’s going to have to buy me a clue as to just what Perry has done to benefit the state of Texas.
All I can come up with, is:
The Mansion burned on his watch;
The current budget fell a mere $4 billion short of being solvent;
The next biennium is $27 billion in the hole;
The public school system and higher education are both low priorities.
Contrast the state’s problems with our big cities, which in comparison are doing fairly well. Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, all run by CEO’s who are, you know, tax and spend liberals.
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Pat Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 1:41 am
That’s not fair. There was never a tax increase on Leppert’s watch. OH WAIT.
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texun Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
You missed it: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Texas is now tied with Mississippi in terms of the %age of its population that is working for or below the minimum wage.
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Cow Droppings Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 5:41 pm
if we would just raise taxes on more people, we could then redistribute to the poor because welfare and other subsidies are the best long-term earnings plan for the poor.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 31st, 2011 at 10:13 am
You really do seem to enjoy living up to your name, don’t you.
Anonymous says:
Passing gas in public, chewing with your mouth open, talking in a movie, Perry for President…..some things are just wrong!!!
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RJ says:
“Of course, the best Republican candidate, the person who ought to be president, is Jeb Bush.”
I’ve read you for more than a quarter-century, Paul. This may be the stupidest sentence you’ve ever written. Have you looked at Florida lately? It’s a cesspool. Jebby was a better governor than the clown who’s in the office now, but so what? He’s better than a guy who came within inches of going to jail for Medicare fraud — whoo hoo!
Give up on the Bushies — the sooner they’re in our ear-view mirror, the better.
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Brown Bess says:
Obama is going to win re-election. And it’s going to drive y’all even crazier than you already are.
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Spiro Eagleton Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 10:46 am
Yes, Obama is easily going to win reelection. That’s what my liberal friends and relatives say when they are crying themselves to sleep. Of course he’s going to win. This Quinnipiac poll that came out yesterday tells me so –
“A new Quinnipiac poll finds American voters disapprove 48% to 42% of the job President Obama is doing and say 50% to 41% that he does not deserve to be re-elected in 2012, both all-time lows.”
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Anonymous Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 8:42 pm
Yep Obama looks terrible. Until you compare him to the mouth-breathing, knuckle dragger’s that make up the republican presidential hopefuls. I can’t wait to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from you clowns when he wins in 2012.
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Former Member Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
LOL! He’ll be darn lucky if Hillary doesn’t beat him in the primary.
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Hip-Hopanonymous says:
Paul, I agree with your sentiment that the 2012 field is weak and the national mood on the R side sets up perfectly for Perry. My question is: why would Rob Johnson leave if Perry was considering a run?
Prediction: The Republican field gets driven so far to the fringes of the right through the primary season that the eventual nominee (even if it isn’t Gingrich, Perry, Bachmann or Palin) comes out looking extreme and out of touch with moderates. Obama, despite his low numbers, seems like the safer choice and wins. If ever there was a year for a moderate 3rd party candidacy, I think this will be it.
Just My $.02
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Whoa, nelly! says:
What sort of deal did Perry cut with the Devil, anyway?
Look down from on high and DO something to save us, Molly!!
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hooboy! Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
She’s too busy laughing her a** off at us! No one would know better than her that the enlightened people who elected this bunch are about to get exactly that for which they asked!
I hope their kids enjoy 35-40 peers per class!
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Whoa, nelly! says:
TM is paying its karmic debts by slamming Perry (if indeed that’s what they’re doing; Paul is constantly accused of this here), since it was always MY opinion that TM and Paul shamelessly cheerleaded for Bush II and helped enable what turned out, to no surprise of mine, to be one the the century’s most inept and catastrophic administrations. The rest of our lives will be blighted by the Bush legacy, and TM did its part to promote this, to their everlasting discredit. Paul should have known better.
So now, the only thing possibly worse to happen would be Bush III in the form of King Rick.
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Anonymous Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
But Bush II gave Paul some lovely cocktail weenies and good margaritas. What other qualifications for pres-o-dent do you need?
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Whoa, nelly! says:
Romney/Perry 2012!
It will be the anti-Kennedy/Johnson ticket.
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Briscoe Democrat says:
Folks, Obama will still WIN re-election against whoever the GOP nominates and it won’t be Perry due to Texas Fatigue.
Burka, if Perry was running for President he would have announced by now, but is NOT and will likely wait for an open seat in 2016 (assuming he wins a 4th term in 2014 and serve as a sitting governor by then).
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texun Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Hey,get with it! Yell leaders never, ever sit!
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Karen says:
Take this trip down memory lane regarding Perry.
http://texasweekly.com/newsletter/tw20060522.html
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rw says:
Perry / Daniels can beat Obama / Biden. Obama will try to scare the country about his opponents. He can’t run on his accomplishments because there are none. He will also claim that he needs 4 more years to finished what he started. Yeah, sure.
He might get re-elected. Health-care would then go into effect. He would end up even more unpopular than he is now.
He would then become the first President in history to get elected and re-elected on the basis of nothing.
I will sleep at night knowing that I wasn’t stupid enough to vote for him on either occasion.
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texun says:
All of the aspirants carry baggage or one kind or the other. Pawlenty, for example, is still mistrusted by some loyalists in Minnesota because of his fiddling with a mass transportation plan. Google Minneapolis Star-Tribune.) Huntsman, a successful businessman, owns (owned) refinery and petrochemical installations–lots of places for opponents to dig there. And the list goes on. Ironically, Obama had the advantage of having been a low-profile member of the Illinois Legislature and a typically second-tier new US Senator. Little baggage because he hadn’t travelled very far.
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