Pawlenty drops out of race

Perry is very comfortable campaigning. Yesterday, Mark Halpern said something like, "Perry's only been on the campaign trail for two days, and he already has the best stump speech."

He's also much less scripted than other candidates. This is appealing to people and makes him seem "authentic".

It's also going to lead to a lot of statements like yesterday's where he accused the Fed Chairman of "almost treason".

There's a reason why we find unscripted candidates appealing, but elect candidates who stick to the day's message.

We'll see if Perry can walk the line between the two.

 

Assuming it's phased out without any problems -- which I assume will be the case -- it's stupid.

If there's no problem, why do we need to change it?

 

Because anti-homosexuality is as much a part of her identity as the color of her hair or her eyes. She's a very principled bigot. It's absolutely ingrained. She's a true believer when it comes to this particular issue. It's sad.

 

Unfortunately, it probably will until our parents generation (I'm assuming we're roughly the same age...) dies out.

I don't think this is a party issue. It's an age and race issue.

 

I'm pretty sure this is the case with both parties and one of the many reasons why the economy is in a tailspin. Both parties are doing their best to screw over the American public and I really don't see Obama or Perry pulling us out of this

 

A lot of people have switched parties during their lifetimes. Doesn't that imply that someone might be more moderate?

 

With all the influence of the special interests these days, it's going to be really hard to get a real moderate through the primaries... from either party

 

Right, which is unfortunate... I see Romney as a moderate. I see Huntsman as a moderate. I don't think Perry is an "extreme" candidate.

I do see Bachmann and Santorum that way.

 

And yet we have one in the White House right now.

Every election I hear this same "truism." That you have to go hard left or hard right to get through the primaries. And every election, the freak show ends long before November (vice presidential candidate in '08 excepted).

 

A good breakdown of the "Texas Miracle" is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/breaking-down-rick-perrys-texas-miracle/2011/08/15/gIQAzRHFHJ_blog.html

There is a lot of stuff that couldn't be replicated nationwide. Texas leads the nation in minimum-wage jobs. It's benefited from the oil and gas industry when others suffered because of it. It has low housing costs, and low business regulation, though those existed before Perry ever became governor. Oh, and Perry eagerly sopped up a LOT of Obama stimulus money. Without it, he's having to make severe slices in the state's budget, worsening Texas' already paltry education and health systems.

In fact, you could argue that Perry is getting out while the getting is good, because he's benefited from a growing economy in his state, and now he's being put in the position of making unpopular decisions now that the economy is going in reverse (Texas' unemployment rate is now worse than New York's, Massachusetts' and Wisconsin's, and is heading in the direction of some Midwest Rust Belt states that were taking one to the chin at the start of the recession). One of his races, Perry won with only 39 percent of the vote. Not saying he would lose in his next race, but what's happened in Texas recently will make it harder for him to win.

Plus, there was the whole secession thing.

 

There were two, strong third party candidates in the race where he only received 39% -- including a former Republican.

The secession thing is crap. Post/read the quote. He didn't advocate for it - just the opposite in fact.

 

He also put an innocent man to death and then called off the investigation. Deplorable.

As far as the economy thing goes, the Texas thing reminds me a little bit about a conversation we were having the other day here about how things are covered by the media. Gas prices going up is covered as bad news. House prices going down is covered as bad news. For some people, it's good news. For Texans, gas prices going up is great news.