“Obama . . . will have to 'kill' Romney."
--A “prominent Democratic strategist aligned with the White House”
Should Rick Perry, not Romney, win the nomination, substitute the word “Perry” for “Romney.” The “oppo” (opposition research) on Perry, in fact, is already underway, as the following comments reveal:
Compared with most other large states, Texas. . . has fewer public services, lower public benefits, greater income inequality and a higher rate of medically uninsured.
--Karen Tumulty, Washington Post
According to researchers in the [quietly progressive] Texas Legislative Study Group, 17.3% of the state's population lives in poverty, 4.26 million people[,] 66% of Latino children and 59% of black children live in low-income families, compared to 25% of white children. 28% or 6.1 million of the population of Texas is uninsured, the largest share of uninsured in the nation. . . In 2010, the average monthly benefit for Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) recipients in Texas was $26.86, the lowest in the country. . . Texas is 50th in workers' compensation, 50th in percent of women receiving prenatal care, 50th in percent of non-elderly women with health care, 50th in per capita spending on mental health, 49th in per capita state spending on Medicaid.
--James Moore, “Huffington Post”
previous Perry controversies [include] his now-infamous 2009 suggestion that Texas might consider seceding from the union [and] an earlier furor when rock musician Ted Nugent played at his 2007 inaugural ball clad in a Confederate-flag T-shirt and with machine guns as props.
David Axelrod, a senior advisor to President Obama, told CBS’s “Early Show” Friday that the Lone Star State’s strong performance had little to do with the governor’s decisions. “He’s been the beneficiary down there of the boom in oil prices ... and in increased military spending because of the wars,” Axelrod said.
--Niall Stanage, “The Hill”
state taxpayers [have paid $700,000] for rent, utilities and upkeep on [a] five-bedroom mansion . . . which Perry had moved into in the fall of 2007 while renovations were being done on the governor's mansion. In 2008, a fire [attributed to] arson partially destroyed the mansion, [so] Perry has continued to live in the rental home. . . valued [at around] $1 million.
--Scott Conroy, “RealClearPolitics”
[As a Democratic state representative, Perry supported] the $5.7 billion tax hike in 1987, signed by Gov. Bill Clements, a Republican, opposed by most Republican members. The bill passed the House by a 78-70 vote. Even without adjusting for inflation, the legislation triggered the largest tax increase ever passed in modern Texas.
Perry was also the co-author of legislation aimed at tripling the amount of money state legislators are paid[. At the time, they were making] $7,200 as part-time lawmakers. Voters rejected the proposal in a statewide referendum.
--Jay Root, New York Times
In 2007, the governor of Texas earned $1,092,810. According to his IRS form, he gave $90 of that total to his church. He was a tad more generous in 2008 when the governor's adjusted gross income was $277,667 and he donated $2,850 to his church. Perry was feeling less magnanimous in 2009 when he earned $200,370 but shows all zeroes as a line item for church donations. For the years 2000-2009, Governor Perry's adjusted gross income on his tax returns adds up to $2,694,253 and church donations are $14,293.
--James Moore, “Huffington Post”
A source in Texas passed The Huffington Post Perry's transcripts from his years at Texas A&M University. The future politician did not distinguish himself much in the classroom. While he later became a student leader, he had to get out of academic probation to do so. He rarely earned anything above a C in his courses -- earning a C in U.S. History, a D in Shakespeare, and a D in the principles of economics. Perry got a C in gym. Perry also did poorly on classes within his animal science major. In fall semester 1970, he received a D in veterinary anatomy, a F in a second course on organic chemistry and a C in animal breeding. He did get an A in world military systems and “Improv. of Learning” -- his only two As while at A&M. "A&M wasn't exactly Harvard on the Brazos River," recalled a Perry classmate in an interview with The Huffington Post. "This was not the brightest guy around. We always kind of laughed. He was always kind of a joke."
[Transcript is from 1968-72, before and shortly after the May 1970 Kent State massacre led to a nationwide university shut-down followed by professors instituting draft discouraging grade inflation at Ivy League and other schools (when did grade inflation reach A&M?). Perry’s university GPA was a “gentlemanly” 1.94 (C). BTW, where are Barack Obama’s Occidental College, Columbia, and Harvard Law transcripts?--GF]
--Jason Cherkis, “Huffington Post”
Perry said, "Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me."
Oran Smith, the president of the Palmetto Family Council, a conservative, family-values organization in South Carolina, . . . said he has been bombarded with emails from activists over the past 48 hours about Perry's comments -- with mixed responses. . . Smith said he believes that Perry's comments will give conservative voters pause about the Texas governor's possible candidacy, and if he doesn't explain himself, those comments may make them hesitant to support him.
"It's the way he said it," Smith said, noting that Perry said he was "fine" with New York's new law. He explained that if by "fine" he means he's happy about it, that won't sit well with evangelical voters, but if he's approaching it as a constitutional lawyer would, it may not be so bad.
At the same time, Smith said he's concerned that Perry's comments suggest he could be "slippery" on other issues. "And he may be perceived as stumbling out of the gate because of a poor choice of words," he said, indicating that such a stumble could hurt Perry in the early voting states of Iowa and South Carolina, where he would need to do well.
--Scott Conroy and Erin McPike, “RealClearPolitics”
Perry has been . . . dismissive of Democrats and fond of political maneuvers that put the heat on moderates within his own party. And in the legislative session that just wrapped up, he presided over a budget that cut $4 billion from public schools. . . Perry is a hard man. He is the kind of politician who would rather be feared than loved—or respected. And he has gotten his wish.
-- Paul Burka, Texas Monthly
[The Perry-Mike Toomey] relationship will be scrutinized if Mr. Perry runs for president: Mr. Toomey was a lobbyist for Merck when Mr. Perry issued a 2007 executive order requiring sixth-grade girls in Texas to be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, the leading cause of cervical cancer. At the time, the only approved vaccine was Gardasil, made by Merck. The Legislature overrode the executive order, and some attributed the flap to the close ties between Mr. Toomey and the governor.
--Ross Ramsey, New York Times
"We are tired of being told how much salt to put on our food, what kind of cars we can drive, what kind of guns we can own [and] what kind of prayers we are allowed to say," [Perry] writes. [But] his list of complaints against the federal government [isn’t fact-based], unless you count Agriculture Department brochures about salt.
Perry wears his evangelical Christian faith on his sleeve, which will help him with some voters but not others. In April, he called for three days of prayer for divine intercession to end Texas' drought. (It didn't work.)
--Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times
does he have the stamina for a long campaign? He has been examined by Democrats and the Texas media but will undergo a vetting unlike anything he’s seen in the past. How will he react to the inevitable stories critical of him, his record, his policies, his exercise of power and his connections?
He knows his message and sticks to it — and sticks to it and sticks to it and sticks to it. That can be an asset or, if it appears he doesn’t have answers beyond his main message, a potential liability. What he will be like in debates and on the Sunday shows is another question. He avoided debates in the last campaign and also declined to sit for interviews with editorial boards, saying he knew he wasn’t going to get their endorsements so it wasn’t worth bothering.
. . . will Rick Perry be remembered as some of his Texas predecessors, John Connolly and Phil Gramm among them, as a candidate who came into the race with high expectations but who never found his footing or his audience? Texans say Perry has been underestimated many times. But he’s never faced what will await him if he does jump in.
--Dan Balz, Washington Post
His statements related to possible Texas secession actually helped him in his recent race in 2010, and will help him in a national campaign in the Republican primaries and caucuses. [But] this talk will hurt him in a general-election race. Moderate voters in the Midwest will see it as off-putting.
Perry has never been fully vetted by the media. . . Perry and some of his staffers are known to have thin skins. They will need to grow calluses if they are to succeed in the [big] show. . . Perry has never lost a race. While many immediately list this as a positive, losing at some point in your career makes you better when the inevitable problems hit. . . The real question is: Can he suffer defeat and rise to the next battle?
--Matthew Dowd, National Journal, who has known Perry for 25 years.
Perry appears to be the anti-Obama in many ways. Unlike the deliberate incumbent, Perry has used his powers aggressively through his appointments (some opponents even call it political revenge) While the current president has talked about unity and bipartisanship, Perry once (jokingly?) suggested secession. While Obama was an Ivy League star and head of the Harvard Law Review, Perry was a C- and D-student from Texas A&M. . . Perry represents [Republicans’] sharpest contrast with Obama. And chew on this: The more vulnerable Obama looks, GOP voters might be more concerned with ideological purity and likeability than electability. Think heart over head.
--Chuck Todd, NBC News
can [Perry] present his ruggedly conservative views in a way that will appeal to voters far from Texas? The conventional wisdom is that he's too conservative, too controversial and maybe not as book smart as the men he'd be running against. But that's what they said in 1980, when the candidate was Ronald Reagan.
[Ex-California Republican Party chair] Shawn Steel. . . isn't sure that Perry can pull off a Reagan-style victory. [Reagen], he noted, could "take controversial positions and make them sound like ice cream. Can Perry do that?" Right now, Perry's rawboned conservatism doesn't sound much like ice cream. It's more like strong tea, with no sweetener.
--Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times
“I am haunted and humbled by the legend of [Jimmy] Carter supporters saying we want [Ronald] Reagan. And I think everybody in politics ought to be.”
--Paul Begala, Top Democratic operative
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