Guest Column: Why Perry Shouldn't Run for President
Like other Texans, I can get in the mood for a Texan to be in charge. After all, if God hadn’t intended for Texas to be the center of the universe, he wouldn’t have put us there. But with the (arguable) exception of Dwight Eisenhower, presidents with Texas roots haven’t exactly been nominated for sainthood after it’s all said and done.
The most recent example of the species, George W. Bush, even prompted my friend Molly Ivins to declare, “The next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be President of the United States ...
Comments (49)
Native Texan
Liberal hogwash. I would not expect a liberal to like Rick Perry or to have anything good to say about him, because today's liberals are so far to the left. I assure you that conservative objections to Perry are not the same as liberal objections.
As to education, I firmly believe that it has everything to do with who we are trying to educate. We have an underclass that is not interested in education, so it's not surprising that their children are difficult to teach. With a motivated teacher and a willing student, little money is required for education to occur. The focus must be on that particular dynamic, not high-faluting administrators making tons of money. And I will say this as well: Liberal education ideas stink. They are more focused on politically correct garbage that has nothing to do with educating a child so that he can go out into the world and make a living for himself. Take sex ed for example. Totally ridiculous. What does that have to do with being able to read a line in a book or work a math problem? Nothing whatsoever. Too much money goes into things that are more about a liberal agenda than they are about educating children in a practical manner.
Elizabeth R
@Native Texan: Not sure I'm clear with what you mean by that "liberal agenda" when it comes to public education. If taking away that "sex ed" idea can make public education stronger...as a "liberal," I'm all for it! How about let's take away football and all the coaches who are paid so much money...and I'll insert your quote, "What does that have to do with being able to read a line in a book or work a math problem? Nothing whatsoever."
Earl Wills
We get it...you dislike Texans, Texas Governors, Texas Politics, Christianity, Conservatives, and any thing else associated with our state. That you have such a disrespect for the voters of this state is apparent in your condescending and holier than thou attitude. That the Tribune would publish such drivel is disappointing.
Maricela Gonzalez Rios via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry's the living breathing version of Ken (Barbie's sidekick). Fake hair, fake tan, fake cowboy! The more he keeps his mouth shut the better he looks. But, get him to speak. . . and you'll smell BS, all the way to Barbies Playhouse!
Danny Wier via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Where I come from (East Texas), roosters get their heads cut off and turned into fried chicken. The rest of America is not going to go for another Texas Republican after eight years of that other one, only instead of a college slacker who can be likeable in a pathetic way, it'll be a used car dealer-type.
We have nothing to worry about. The Gov from Massachusetts is going to win his party's nomination, and Romney's only slightly right of Obama anyway.
Julie Benningfield via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I think there's a few things Perry might not want coming out in the press if he decides to make a legitimate run for president.
Storm Britten Ilouno via Texas Tribune on Facebook
but there are sooooooooooooo many reasons. It would take a village to gather all of the reasons! Wait it took a village to vote him into office.............what does that say?
Jonathan Gal via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It will be hard for Dems to argue with the economic successes of Texas.
Storm Britten Ilouno via Texas Tribune on Facebook
REALLY JONATHAN? Really! I hope that was sarcasm. I know several teachers who might not appreciate that comment!
Storm Britten Ilouno via Texas Tribune on Facebook
how much is it costing Texas taxpayers to house and feed Perry? I forgot the figures..................
Tom Erickson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
He won't do it, but Perry should resign if he decides to run.
Michael Cosper via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Texas is an economic failure bordering on third world status. We have jobs because people here do not have a high opinion of themselves and work very cheap with no benefits packages, the poverty statistics for Texas are out of this world. We lead the nation in prisons and poverty.
Storm Britten Ilouno via Texas Tribune on Facebook
AMEN MICHAEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy to find like opinions on the TT page!
Maricela Gonzalez Rios via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I say, "throw a dog a bone". Get him out of here!
Jeanne Wingate via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry is another fine example of "all hat, no cattle." Seriously, he is not to be taken lightly. We've seen what he's done to Texas. It is up to us to warn the rest of the country just like the Alaskans did in 2008 about Sarah Palin.
Gary Skaggs via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Best Political quote of the week: "The problem for Perry, in the blinding light of the national stage, is that he may ultimately be seen as the swaggering rooster who believes the sun came up because of all that crowing."
Dale H Curry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@ Johnathan Gal - So you believe Texas is this economic miracle. How ridiculous. Because of Perry's failure of mismanagement we are facing na $27 billion dollar deficit. Because of his failure to lead, our schools will face billions in decreased funding. Beause of his lying, he took billions from the FED stimulus that were to go to our schools only to use it to cover the budget gap caused by his 2006 Tax Swap. While we lead the nation in job growth, it was almost entirely in the lower income jobs. While you can claim that we are successful, unlike you and Perry, the math does not LIE!
Irene Solnik via Texas Tribune on Facebook
you mean it didn't? (sarcasm on)
Luis Vela Guevara via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I so love the pic used by the Texas Tribune.
Dale H Curry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@ native texas. There you tparty types go again. Everyone who does not agree with your warped view of the world is a liberal. If being liberal means a BALANCED budget and devoting resources to our future, then paint me pink! Of course your post is replete with most of the standard lies and tparty/gop misinformation..."the problem with schools are these huge administrator salaries" (meanwhile your boys on wallstreet gets bonuses for bringing our nations economy to it's knees. But unlike Perry, the math does not lie.! Then you attack all that money we are spending on sex education. Just how bad does teenage pregnancy has to get before you do something. Would that sex education be the failed Abstinence-only sex education that has been shoved down our throats by Perry and his ilk on the TEA?
Of course leave it to another tparty moron to race bait. Just who is this underclass that is not interested in education? Your pos had all the standard tparty misinformation (You guys should get the Goebbels award). WEll not all, you did not mention Death Panels.
Harold Cook via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Luis - I completely agree. that picture is worth more than my thousand words. It made me laugh.
Marc Lippincott via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Texas benefitted from really low property values, meaning the mortgages were pretty darned affordable...rest of the country was seeing a real estate boom we weren't...also, tech and energy are the two companies doing well...tech came to Austin DESPITE Perry...energy was here long before he got here...
Robert Sheldon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@ Jonathan Gal, trolling for laughs? Love your sarcasm, Perry is a slick piece of shit that needs to run for President, so the media can get to the bottom of his "success" here in Texas. Like Alaskans and Palin, Texans need to tell the rest of the country about this corrupt little turd here in Texas. Maybe we can send him back to his dirt road village he grew up in. Stop the Monkeys!!!!
Marc Lippincott via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Meaning, Perry:Texas Success :: Harold Cook : Mavericks Last Win
Kimberly Burkett via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry's Texas Miracle? I call taking us from $8 billion surplus to $27 billion deficit in six short years an unmitigated failure. Perry is not ready for prime time. A general election (if he makes it that far) will prove that.
Randy Allen via Texas Tribune on Facebook
JWHOT. Just want him outta Texas.
Gigi ATexaslady via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Great picture of the swaggering rooster..now each should share it with all their friends...see if it goes viral also....
Mark Kowalski via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Run, Ricky, Run. Just make sure you quit your day job first.
Rosalinda Salazar Snuggs via Texas Tribune on Facebook
he's a "swaggering rooster" who bathes in oil and then expects to fly.
Cynthia Casper Robertson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I pray that he doesn't run. It's bad enough that Texans have to be subjected to this jacka*s let alone letting him loose on all of America. He's an embarassment and nothing more than a corporate shill that sucks at the teat of big oil and gas. Beware America.
Jerad Najvar
To all of you who cite Perry for taking TX from surplus to a $27 billion deficit: how about a little education about how the TX budget works, and the programs those dollars support? The first point is that the $27 billion was a PROJECTED deficit, based on the projected cost of expanding programs, pitted against projected revenues. Because TX must balance its budget, unlike Congress, when you put the numbers together, you get a projected deficit. The deficit was a product of a national recession brought about by liberal policies that intervened in housing and other markets to produce a false economy which finally crashed. The crashing economy reduced TX revenues.
The second point: Washington has hijacked the budgets of every state in the country, through its entitlement programs that are paid for partly by the state and partly by the feds. TX is essentially cajoled into participating in fed programs which are beyond our control and must be funded partly by state revenues. In other words, a huge portion of state spending is beyond the control of either the lege or the Gov. Perry did a great job leading to a balanced budget, making the tough choices. If we took back our policy from Washington, we wouldn't have had such a huge projected deficit in the first place.
Rudy Gonzales
Let me reiterate the folly of attempting to draft or Rick Perry running for the presidency. Rick Perry is a career politician with no qualms of murder. People are seeing Perry for who he really is.
Rick Perry is a career politician from Texas who murdered a convict in the name of Texas. This convict was being deemed innocent by the "Innocence Project" but Perry allowed his execution. Texas has a budget deficit directly attributed to the "Conservative" legislature and Governor. Perry considers himself a conservative in this red, one party state.
The question is who are they to force their Social conservative values on the American public?
Who do these people think they are to shove their agenda on the American public?
No one in his right mind should consider Perry for president.
Data on Rick Perry
Per Capita Spending on:
· Mental Health - 46th
· Medicaid - 38th
· Public Health and Hospitals - 20th
· Public Elementary-Secondary Education - 38th
· Parks and Recreation - 49th
· Police Protection - 48th
· Environmental Protection - 45th
· Highways - 42nd
· State Arts Agencies - 48th
Mary Lynn VanZandt Neill via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Swaggering rooster with sprayed hair and a huge ego.Oh,and his handy,dandy gun. C'mon,surely this man cannot be serious!!!
Julie Benningfield via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Anyone seen Karl Rove lately? I want to know who he's going to support.
Charlene Cheek via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Mary... You forgot narcisistic!
Storm Britten Ilouno via Texas Tribune on Facebook
that's one hell of an expensive coop for a swaggering rooster..........
Storm Britten Ilouno via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Mary Lynn............I hear his "gun" aint much! kinda like the men who drive expensive sports cars. They have big egos and little guns!
Sally Lowry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Amen
Roy Ortega via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Texas is wholly-owned by the oil industry. Republican are completely in the pockets of the oil cartels. Any perceived economic success is complete folly.
jbjr
I agree that Rick Perry has to many things to hide for him to come out and run for president of the United States. His issues in Texas on education and his connections with big oil business in itself should make a normal person aware that this man should not be anywhere near the White House. This information and the rest of his hidden closet (which I feel certain he has a full one) should be made public NOW, so as to stop him before his deep pocket friends convince him to step forward. Which with a big head like his, it wouldn't take much for him to say yes. We need to find a way NOW to make the rest of America aware of the fears we Texans have if he some how is made President! Lord have mercy on our country if he does! I say this being a proud native Texan.
Mary Lynn VanZandt Neill via Texas Tribune on Facebook
That blinding light will mess up his regular makeup.
Ryan Colombo
Typical liberal garbage.
"But back to Molly Ivins. Three months before she died, writing on Perry’s performance at a political debate, she reported that he had really good hair, and that the Democrat in the race had everything else. She concluded that “Perry won on the politics of it by not actually saying anything totally idiotic.”
Are you sure Molly Ivins wasn't talking about the Obama v. McCain debate?
Clint Shepherd
Storm Britten Ilouno,
Since you asked (and I'm awfully glad that you did, too!), here are just a few numbers for us all to take in:
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/10367/rick-perrys-10000amonth-rental-mansion-on-tv-in-cartoons
http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/apr/24/bill-white/white-says-perrys-rental-home-will-cost-taxpayers-/
Suffice it to say, he sho' does likes livin' on the hawg when it ain't him payin' fer it!
Anthony Culler
Texas governor Rick Perry has allowed former President of the Sheriff's Association of Texas (Nacogdoches County sheriff) Thomas Kerss to get away with crimes he committed under "color of law".
On January 12, 2010, Nacogdoches County sheriff Thomas Kerss started an illegal siege against my family's 72 acre home in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Kerss, convicts, and sheriff personnel, STOLE all my family's personal property.
On August 28, 2010, Thomas Kerss sold all the property he had stolen from our home to the HIGHEST BIDDER.
This included the premature pictures of my oldest daughter who was born at Women's Hospital in Houston, Texas.
This included all the personal pictures of my four minor daughters.
All to ANYONE with the HIGHEST BID!
Would you like to see the corrupt east Texas sheriff's department at work? Would you like to hear them?
YouTube Channel WorstBankInTown
My family's website with almost 300,000 HITS! worstbankintown
Learn more about his story.
Learn more about Perry's lack of character.
Anthony Culler
Alexander McNeilly
So, Obama is much smarter than Perry or ANY Texan?
I am truly sorry to hear that. Texas must be a State filled with dolts, dummies and dunces.
Hey! Here's an idea. Why don't you clownish Texans import millions of teleprompters from the usual source, that being China, then you'll all be as smart as 'Barry'.
It's just a suggestion. Give it some thought.
Dan Garcia
With a conservative Texan in the Whitehouse, things will only get better. We see what the last three years under a liberal have gotten us... government regulation, high gas prices and high unemployment! It's time to get someone in there with some experience and not run by right leaning socialists like George Soros. GO GET 'EM RICK PERRY. Where do I sign up to sen money?
jbjr jbjr
I said this MONTHS ago, we need to stop this BIG HEAD rick perry before he starts dipping into those deep pocket big business friends (crooks like him) of his. We TEXANS MUST tell the rest of the country of the two faced rick perry that we know of. I have been monitoring the comments in the Texas Tribune of concerned Texans (Democrats, Independents, and yes even Republicans) against rick perry for president, and there have been plenty. Lloyd Doggett you must know how to get this started. Please let the concerned citizens of Texas know how we can unite as one voice and get our voice heard throughout America. Again Rick Perry is nothing less than another FAT HEAD who sees himself as THE CHOSEN ONE, and must be stopped NOW!
John Byers
I'm not a liberal, in fact I was born a Republican, have been my entire life. Conservative and christian and I can tell you I wouldn't vote for Perry at all. The man is like a used car salesmen or snake oil salesmen. I hear all of this christian stuff float out of his mouth then I'm quickly reminded of Jimmy Swaggart. I've had a hard time trying to figure out who he reminds me of, then the other day the lights came on and it was Jimmy Swaggart. And we know how that went.
jbjr jbjr
June 11 @ 2:22 p.m.
jbjr, I agree that Rick Perry has to many things to hide for him to come out and run for president of the United States. His issues in Texas on education and his connections with big oil business in itself should make a normal person aware that this man should not be anywhere near the White House. This information and the rest of his hidden closet (which I feel certain he has a full one) should be made public NOW, so as to stop him before his deep pocket friends convince him to step forward. Which with a big head like his, it wouldn't take much for him to say yes. We need to find a way NOW to make the rest of America aware of the fears we Texans have if he some how is made President! Lord have mercy on our country if he does! I say this being a proud native Texan.
I said this way back in JUNE. Now he IS running! Not a surprise. What is surprising is that people to date are STILL complaining about tricky ricky here and in several state newspapers. The complaining has to STOP. We have to unite, find a political leader to take the lead and lets DO SOMETHING about this person NOW. If anyone knows of a political leader who would take the charge, please post in here how to get in contact with that person so we can drop tricky ricky to his knees, then stick his head in his muddy mess. I have kept lots of articles from The Texas Tribune, Houston Chronicle, and San Antonio News that state how much of a crook he is. UNITE NOW TEXANS!