Rick Perry: By The Numbers

I don't think anyone expects Huntsman to be anyone's savior. Maybe part of the problem for Republicans in fielding a candidate is instead of kicking the tires and letting the process play out, there's a desperation for a Reagan-esque "savior" who will slay the (not-so) mighty Obama.

Ronald Reagan isn't walking through that door. And if you expect him to walk through that door, he'll be gray and dead.

 

Stunning news from Yorba Linda today as Richard Nixon's corpse climbed out of its grave and strangled Gerald Ford to death.

 

He's a grown-up. He talks like a grown-up. He focuses on issues like a grown-up. When everyone else was dropping hints about birth certificates and other such nonsense, he wanted to talk about issues. He said early on that the race isn't for who the best American is, it's for president.

That stuff is appealing after three years of William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright and birth certificates and the rest of it.

He also "believes" in evolution. He "believes" in global warming. And so on and so forth. He seems quite intellectually honest. He acknowledges, to steal a phrase, inconvenient truths.

 

I really like his knowledge of China and the ability to speak the language. I think in the coming years that sort of experience would be extremely beneficial for a POTUS.

 

What will be even scarier for the Dems is if Perry IS the front-runner, and his veep choice is from a liberal area like the northeast. Nope, not thinking Romney... Giuliani, maybe?

I'm only speculating, but a Perry/Giuliani ticket would be quite strong in historically blue areas, methinks.

 

I've read in several places that if Perry is the nominee it's all but a given that Giuliani will be the VP candidate.

I could see that being a very, very strong ticket.

 

You're kidding, right?

 

Which states would Giuliani help turn, do you think? Ohio? Pennsylvania? Virginia? Maybe New Hampshire?

 

I just don't see that at all. Republicans pretty much roundly rejected Giuliani four years ago. What's changed? And if Perry is so strong, why are MORE Republicans considering/being sought for a presidential run, instead of every fringe candidate (besides T-Paw) tucking and running? The Rasmussen Poll in this story puts Perry at 29 percent. Not exactly a mandate, and it seems to reflect more about voters hoping for Hubie Brown-style tremendous upside potential than for anything he's actually shown as a governor or on the campaign trail.

http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/rick-perry-2011-8/

 

The thread seems to have disappeared, but I had said a lot of this before. All Perry did was manage to keep things from getting out of control, and surprisingly Bush did more to help Texas become as stable as we are than Perry.


In that thread I also said the biggest things that will hurt Perry will be the failed Texas Tran corridor...or the "Texas Land grab" A proposed highway, high speed rail that would connect Dallas to Austin and beyond.
The idea was good in principle, but Perry was terrible in his execution of it, where he wanted to put it, and then trying to sell the toll road portion of it, so in the end it wouldn't even benefit Texas.
That, plus his billion dollars in education cuts this year. Considering our state regularly ranks low in SAT scores, percentage of students who graduate, and teacher salaries, these cuts make a mess messier.

I also think it's a bit strange...this guy has now been our longest serving governor, and yet really up until this year, I am pretty sure the majority of the state couldn't tell you if he was an evangelical Christian. No one would exactly doubt that he was, but it wasn't like he wore his faith on his shoulder or ever went to won of those prayer meetings like he did this year.

On a side note, until someone brought it up earlier in a post about female presidency, I hadn't given two thoughts to the fact that a couple of the top candidates for the GOP are female. It didn't matter to me in the last election when history was going to be made, and it certainly wouldn't matter now four years later. Male, female, white, black, christian, agnostic, republican, democrat, it don't matter...we have an all-talk, little substance politician in office now, and we'll have one come Feb. 2013 as well.

 

The people who most love Huntsman are people who would vote for Obama in a general election.

John McCain is just the kind of nominee Colin Powell said the GOP needed. Then he endorsed Obama.

Chris Jones & Jeff Pearlman are both tweeting their love for Huntsman. here's Pearlman:

@jeffpearlman -- jeffpearlman
If the GOP is wise enough to tab John Huntsman as its prez candidate, I may well be conflicted: bit.ly/pUGDOt

Do you really think either one (if eligible in Jones' case) would vote for Huntsman over Obama?

I sure don't.

I think I'd prefer for the GOP electorate to choose our nominee rather than Obama voters.

 

Oh, and if Pawlenty was boring -- and he was -- what is Huntsman?

He is not inspiring at all. He's almost -- how do I say this -- effeminate.