Rick Perry

[American Patriot]

Rick Perry Poised to Jump onto the National Stage


Texas governor Rick Perry speaks during the 2011 Republican Leadership Conference, in this June 18, 2011 file photo, in New Orleans, La. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)






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Arlette Saenz (@ArletteSaenz)
August 10, 2011



Texas Governor Rick Perry is set to make his presidential intentions known this weekend, shaking up the Republican field with a sweeping tour through the all important early state trifecta this weekend - hitting South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa over a two day span.
The Texas Governor will start his weekend in Charleston, S.C. holding private politicial meetings in the morning. He'll then give a speech where he plans to make it clear that he's pursuing a presidential bid at the RedState Gathering, a conference for conservative bloggers. Before departing Charleston, he'll host a casual meet-and-greet with the GOP leaders from across the state.
Perry will fly to New Hampshire Saturday evening to attend a house party hosted by state Rep. Pamela Tucker, R-Greenland, to introduce Perry to Granite State voters.
The Texas Governor will close out his early state tour Sunday by giving a speech in Waterloo, Iowa, just one day after the majority of the GOP field gathers for the Ames Straw Poll.
Perry has reached out to Republican operatives, officials and donors across the country in the past few weeks as he's entered the final decision phase for a presidential bid.
Perry, the longest serving governor in the country, boasts a solid economic record in the Lone Star state and clings to a social conservative agenda along with maintaining a strong religious life.
The Texas governor claims Texas accounts for nearly half of all jobs created in the past decade, a boost Americans would like to see nationwide.
While unemployment in Texas remains high at 8.2%, his state has accounted for 37% of all new Americans jobs since the recession.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 32,000 new jobs were created in the Lone Star state in the month of June alone adding to the total 220,000 jobs Texas created in the past year.

The GOP Field: 'Goldilocks & the 3 Evangelicals'? Watch Video



Prayer and Politics Watch Video



Michael Bloomberg on S&P Downgrade, 2012 Race Watch Video




Perry has been a long time opponent of the establishment in Washington and advocate of states' rights, a position which will resonate with Tea Party voters. In his book, "Fed Up!" Perry criticized big government, called for greater freedom for state governments, and blamed Washington politicians for hurting America.
But Perry has some controversial stances that may trouble him in a general election. Perry once made divisive comments over the potential secession of Texas, a remark he has since rebuked, and he issued an executive ordering mandating all teenage girls in Texas be inoculated with the HPV vaccine. The Texas legislature subsequently overturned the executive order.
Most recently, he created confusion when he said he supports deciding gay marriage laws though he opposes gay marriage. He later attempted to clarify his stance saying he would support a federal amendment banning gay marriage.
Perry, a Methodist and self-described "man of faith," has also incorporated prayer into his governorship, ordering a proclamation in April for three days of prayer for rain in the drought-stricken state of Texas, and he supports the teaching of intelligent design along with evolution in Texas public schools.
Perry spearheaded efforts for The Response, a day of prayer and fasting in Houston, Texas this past weekend, which drew in 30,000 people, but the event drew criticism for involving controversial religious figures and for excluding non-Christians.
And some have compared Perry to another Texan who ascended from the governorship to the White House – George W. Bush – a characterization from which Perry has attempted to distance himself.
"The idea of 'Just because you're from Texas, you're all alike and you're all cut from the same cloth' is a bit of a stretch," Perry told the Des Moines Register in July. "The folks that want to make that comparison, they'll figure out pretty quick that, 'Hey, this guy Perry, he's different.'"
Who is Rick Perry?
A fifth generation Texan, Perry was born in Haskell County, Texas in 1950 to Ray and Amelia Perry, cotton farmers. The future Texas governor grew up in the small west Texas village of Paint Creek, an area which he told the Texas Monthly is father described as the "big empty."
"We had chickens. We milked our own cows, churned our own butter, had a garden," Perry said in June 2010. "There were three things to do in Paint Creek: school, church, and Boy Scouts. That's it. And it was plenty."
Growing up, Perry earned the honor of Eagle Scout and met his future wife, Anita Thigpen, at a piano recital in elementary school. He married her over twenty years later. Perry and his wife have one son, Griffin, and one daughter, Sydney.
Perry attended Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, where he majored in animal science, was a yell-leader and a member of the Corps of Cadets.

Upon graduation in 1972, Perry was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force and flew C-130 tactical aircraft in the U.S., Middle East and Europe. He was discharged with the rank of captain and returned to west Texas to help on his family ranch in 1977.
After years as a cotton farmer, Perry jumped into politics in 1985 when he entered the state House of Representatives as a conservative Democrat. Perry supported Al Gore's presidential bid in 1988 and even spearheaded his election efforts in the state of Texas.

Michael Bloomberg on S&P Downgrade, 2012 Race Watch Video




In 1989, Perry switched parties and became a Republican. The following year he ran and won in the election for Agriculture Commissioner, a role in which he promoted the sale of Texas farm produce to other states and foreign nations.
After serving two terms as Agriculture Commissioner, Perry ran for lieutenant governor and became the state's first Republican lieutenant governor since Reconstruction.
Upon George W. Bush's election to the presidency, Perry assumed the Texas governorship in 2000. He has since won three re-elections as governor, even defeating popular Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in the primary election in 2010. Perry also serves as the president of the Republican Governor's Association.
Perry will enter the presidential race undefeated, having never lost an election in his three decades of working in government.

[American Patriot]

Texas' Perry is running for president, his aides confirm



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• Texas Gov. Perry opens religious revival in Houston

By Aman Batheja and Anna M. Tinsley

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH — Putting an end to a months-long flirtation with Republican primary voters and the national press, Gov. Rick Perry is definitively in the race for president and will officially announce the launch of his campaign on Saturday in South Carolina, aides confirmed Thursday.
Perry was already expected to make clear he was running for president at the third annual RedState conference in Charleston. Since news reports about the event never used the word “announce,” many assumed that Perry would officially kick off the event at some point afterward, perhaps at an event in Texas.
Perry is scheduled to speak at the conservative gathering at 1 p.m. in front of approximately 550 attendees, according to RedState.com. Two other Texan Republicans, former Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams and former Solicitor General Ted Cruz, both candidates for Congress, are also scheduled to speak at the conference that day.
Perry is also expected to attend an evening house party at the home of New Hampshire Rep. Pamela Tucker Saturday, according to the New Hampshire Union-Leader. Perry is then scheduled to head to Iowa, where his activities will include a GOP dinner Sunday where both he and Michelle Bachmann are reportedly expected to speak.
Perry’s national profile has soared this summer as Republican activists in key states have urged him to run for president, viewing him as uniquely credible on both social and economic issues. A nationwide McClatchy-Marist poll conducted last week found Perry in second place among Republican and Republican-leaning independents, three percentage points behind Mitt Romney.
The fact that Perry isn’t planning to continue to draw out the speculation is a surprise to some.
“I thought he’d try to get several bites at the apple the way most candidates do,” said Larry Sabato, a political analyst and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
That Perry’s camp had initially signaled that the Saturday speech in South Carolina would not be an official announcement means that the campaign may have decided to change its strategy, said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.
“This is just the very early stages of a presidential campaign trying to get up on its feet,” Jillson said. “There have been little stumbles over the last 10 days or so that show us they are not completely ready for this announcement.
“They are putting a campaign together quickly,” he said. “They aren’t just quite ready. ... You just wish they were a little more together.”
Sabato speculates that Perry’s declaration means one of two things: he hopes to convey an image of a strong and straight-forward candidate or he is behind in the campaign and needs time to catch up.
“Perry is running as a straight-forward, tell-it-like-it-is conservative. Someone in that category doesn’t pussyfoot around,” Sabato said. “The other explanation is that he’s well behind the curve on organization and fundraising. After all, the other candidates have been at this for many months or years. Perry needs every day before the contests begin.”
Perry has drawn some criticism this week for planning to deliver such a newsworthy speech on Saturday, the same day as the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. The move has been seen by some as a way to minimize the importance of the straw poll. Perry will not appear on the straw poll ballot but a write-in campaign is under way in Iowa.


‘Target practice’
As Perry has all but joined the race in recent weeks, a favorite parlor game among political observers has been whether Texas’ governor is really ready.
“The minute he does announce, he becomes target practice for everyone,” said Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in presidential politics. “Now they’ve decided to let the shoe drop and get it out there.
“Why they chose this moment, I don’t know,” he said. “But I think he’s well positioned -- if he’s got the money -- to compete for the nomination.”
John Weaver, the veteran Austin political consultant who as the state party executive director wooed Rick Perry to the GOP in the late 1980s, but now works for another presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, warned that the honeymoon for Perry will be brief.
“He’ll get a lot of media attention and hoopla in the next 10 days and then we’ll have a race. Then we’ll get down to brass tacks,” Weaver said.
Perry has never lost an election but running in Texas is different from playing on the national stage, Jillson said.
“Rick Perry is a very successful Texas politician,” Jillson said. “But there are a lot of people in Triple A baseball that hit 350 with 50 home runs. Now let’s see if he can hit major league pitching.”
As the news broke Thursday afternoon, Perry gave what may turn out to be a historical souvenir to one journalist. A reporter with KVUE, an Austin television station, showed Perry a printout of an email alert from the Associated Press reporting that the Texas Governor was running for president. When the reporter asked Perry to confirm the news, Perry signed and dated the email.

[American Patriot]

We have a fighting chance against him with about 6 of the 12. Especially Michelle Bachman

[vector7]

Chris Matthews Blasts Entire State of Texas as Ignorant, Full of BS, Calls Perry a Wax Figure Clown

• Posted on August 12, 2011 at 6:46pm by Naked Emperor News

Chris Matthews Blast Entire State of Texas as Ignorant , Full Of BS, Calls Perry A Clown

[Ryan Ruck]

Rick Perry Packs Potential And Mitt Just Fires Blanks

August 16, 2011

Yesterday, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry was campaigning at the Iowa State Fair, a reporter from Politico.com asked him whether he was armed. Perry, a known gun owner and enthusiast, refused to answer the question.

“That’s why it’s called ‘concealed,’ ” Perry told the reporter.

And that’s why — unless there are some Texas-sized skeletons in his closet — we’ll be calling Perry “the Republican nominee.”

Can you imagine Mitt Romney answering the question that way? More significantly, can you imagine Mitt being asked? Of course Mitt’s not packing. The last thing Mitt fired was a few thousand employees at the latest company “rescued” by Bain Capital.

But with Rick Perry, you just never know.

I don’t know if the story about Perry gunning down a threatening coyote during a jog last year is true. What I do know is that it could be. And that’s the difference.

Rick Perry is a dangerous man, politically speaking. And to the Romney campaign, he’s absolutely lethal.

I’m not the only person to notice. Perry hasn’t officially been in the race 72 hours, and he’s already the frontrunner according to the odds makers at Intrade.com. Why are the political bookies already behind Perry?

Picture the 2012 presidential race as a prize fight. In the ring is the current champ, President Barack Obama, with the media “fight judges” all in his pocket. To win, the GOP needs a knockout. Republicans know their nominee is in for a $1 billion media beating from David Axelrod and Co., so they need a nominee who can take the punishment and still land the big punch.

Your choices are Romney and Perry. Which is to say, there is no choice.

Mitt? Romney can’t even win a one-on-one with himself. Just throw the phrase “Romneycare” at him and watch him rope-a-dope himself to the mat. Romney’s the typical Republican choice, the establishment guy who, like George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole and John McCain before him, will show up in November and politely take his beating.

That is definitely not Rick Perry’s style. Perry is ready to rumble.

A telling “little nothing” from the campaign trail yesterday: A reporter asks Perry about Romney. He blows him an air kiss and says, “Send him my love.”

Ouch.

Just about every time a political punch is thrown, Romney winces in pain — particularly when he’s doing the throwing. Perry, on the other hand, is itchin’ for a scrap.

He’s going to spend a few months limbering up on Romney. He’ll beat the stuffing out of Mitt’s mediocre job numbers while governor, rough him up on Romneycare, and laugh off Romney’s attempts to play the “maverick” against “political insider” Perry.

This will be the perfect Perry warm-up for Obama, a race where jobs and health care reform would also be front and center. Romney (47th in job creation as governor) will have to go negative. And the more negative Romney goes, the better for Perry. It lets him battle through his weaknesses before he gets to the big fight with the president.

Which leaves Romney as little more than Perry’s sparring partner. Romney’s campaign is so out of its league, staffers told reporters they thought their biggest challenger was . . . Tim Pawlenty.

Unfortunately for Mitt, that’s probably true. Pawlenty could have given Romney a run for his money. And look where he is now. Officially out of the race.

Rick Perry is the Republican Rocky Balboa. He’s just gonna keep comin’.

Romney hasn’t got a chance.

[Ryan Ruck]

I'm an accommodating guy. Any combination of Perry, West, Bachmann, and Cain works well for me.

[American Patriot]

Ryan,

West is NOT running.

/chuckles

Perry pole vaulted to the top of the polls last night. ELEVEN points in front of Romney. Hurray!

[American Patriot]

Wow.

Is that all?

[Phil Fiord]

idk. Perry seem alright. I am still experiencing apathy toward most contenders overall. That will wane soon enough and I will find a niche of who I'd guess would be an optimal fit for evicting the rodent.

[American Patriot]

OK. 'Wow', as in; "Mr. President, you might actually have to seriously consider where to send your kids to school next year..." Wow.

I've got that; "It's 1979-80 and Ronald Reagan is fixing to beat Jimmy Carter after beating the Liberal Media/GOP anointed (Bush) feeling..."

I say "WOW" sometimes when there is nothing at all to say.

So I was curious if that was all you had to say, but apparently not.

That's a good thing.

Americans need to start standing up and speaking out more.

Don't let the Liberals cow you into a corner, don't let them change a subject which is a normal tactic...

[American Patriot]

Team Obama deals the race card against Perry


By: Timothy P. Carney | Senior Political Columnist Follow Him @TPCarney | 08/21/11 8:05 PM




Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry visits the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Aug. 15, 2011, where Perry spoke of "that big black cloud that hangs over America -- that debt, that is so monstrous." (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Any incumbent wants to define his opponent before the opponent defines himself. The Obama campaign seems intent on painting Rick Perry as a Southern white racist -- a tired line of attack that is angering conservatives and inspiring them to rally behind Perry. Last week, liberal pundits charged Perry with racism, offering no evidence or falsified evidence. While the baseless racism charges surfaced on MSNBC, they might have originated in the Obama campaign.
The MSNBC attacks on Perry were egregious. First, on Monday night, liberal host Ed Schultz ran a clip of Perry in Iowa talking about the national debt. Perry spoke of "that big black cloud that hangs over America -- that debt, that is so monstrous," Perry said. But Schultz cut off the Perry clip before the words "that debt" and asserted flatly, "that black cloud that Perry is talking about is President Barack Obama."
Schultz apologized a day later for his deceptive editing, but he stood by the insinuation Perry is a race-baiter.
Chris Matthews played a similar game Tuesday. Responding to Perry's (occasional) defense of federalism and statement that the Voting Rights Act leads to gerrymandered congressional districts, Matthews said of Perry, "this is going to be Bull Connor with a smile."
In his own half-hearted apology, Matthews asserted that Perry - who appointed Texas's first black Supreme Court Chief justice -- supported school segregation.
This is familiar to the Republican base. Amid the fever swamps of Twitter and Internet message boards, getting called racist for critiquing Obama is the norm. But only after campaign season swung into full force did this tendency become mainstream on the Left.
And this theme of baseless insinuations of racism is emanating from Team Obama and the White House. Obama's press secretary Jay Carney referred to unnamed opponents "who wanted to secede from the union." The words "secede from the union" clearly invoke the Southern states' effort to preserve slavery in 1861.
Politifact has rated Carney's statement as "False," pointing out that Perry once jokingly referred to a supposed right of Texas to secede. He's repeatedly denied actually believing this. That didn't stop Carney. Facts rarely interfere with the Left's effort to tar conservatives as racist.
Robert Gibbs, Carney's predecessor and now an Obama campaign adviser, on TV last Tuesday joked that "Any day now, Rick Perry will ask to see the president's birth certificate."
I could find no record of Perry ever insinuating that Obama wasn't born in the United States. Gibbs was trying to lump Perry in with a racially tinged line of attack on Obama that suggested he was really born in Kenya. By calling Perry a borderline birther, Gibbs was essentially calling Perry a racist.
Rep. Charlie Rangel, a top House Democrat, is on message, too. "The guy from Texas, he's got the highest job accomplishments in the country, Governor Perry, but it's one stage away from slavery, from what I understand the salaries are."
Liberals commonly charge conservative politicians with employing racial "dog-whistle politics": speaking in code to excite white racism while maintaining plausible deniability.
Dog whistles are real -- and Republicans do employ them -- but Carney, Gibbs and Rangel sure look like they are blowing on a dog whistle of their own. Team Obama talks about Perry and birth certificates, secession, and slavery, setting the tone without having to actually charge racism -- they leave that up to the talking heads who hear the whistle.
Obama has not played the race card since 2008, when his stump speech included the assertion that Republican attacks on him would boil down to "and did I mention he's black." But Carney and Gibbs work for Obama, and they're introducing racial ugliness to this race.
Expect a different sort of ugliness if Romney is the nominee. Politico reported that a dozen different Obama officials used the word "weird" to describe the former Massachusetts governor -- it's not a stretch to see this as an anti-Mormon dig.
The irony is that Perry has benefited, in the short term, from this racial politics. Conservatives groan when they see media liberals falsely charging another white conservative with racism. Today, they're rallying behind the Texas governor -- much as Sarah Palin benefited from liberal apoplexy over her that got very personal and unhinged and seemed to focus on her having too many kids.
If we're lucky, Team Obama will decide soon that the race card and the Mormonism card do not make a winning hand.
Timothy P.Carney, The Examiner's senior political columnist, can be contacted at tcarney@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears Monday and Thursday, and his stories and blog posts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politi...#ixzz1VlaMcx16

[American Patriot]

Weekly Standard: Perry's Got Presidential Potential

by Andrew Ferguson



Enlarge Brett Flashnick/AP Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, recognizes a face in the crowd as he takes the stage to speak to members of the South Carolina GOP during a lunch in Columbia, S.C., Friday, Aug. 19, 2011.


Read Another Opinion About Rick Perry From The Nation.


text size A A A
August 22, 2011
Andrew Ferguson is a senior editor for The Weekly Standard.
When organizers were planning the third annual RedState Gathering, held earlier this month in Charleston, South Carolina, the event looked to be like the second annual RedState Gathering, which was much like the first. Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, would be a featured speaker, as he had been at the others, including last year in Austin, Texas. Perry was the reason the second annual gathering had been held in Austin. Perry wooed the redstaters. He brought the organizers out to Texas, took them to dinner, gave them a tour, took them clay shooting outside of town. RedState is probably the most important and influential collection of conservative bloggers on the Internet. It is closely tied with the amorphous political movement called the Tea Party. And so Rick Perry wanted to be closely tied to RedState.
About a month ago, a phone call came from Perry's office, warning the redstaters that this year's event would be a little different. Perry's staff would need to begin handling security for his speech; the media arrangements too. The gathering last year had attracted maybe a dozen reporters, who arrived from Washington and New York and subjected the bloggers to the customary zoological analysis. Security had never been a concern.
More than 120 reporters attended this year's gathering, roughly one for every four redstaters, and unfriendly Texas Rangers, both plainclothes and uniformed, prowled the Francis Marion Hotel in downtown Charleston. Rick Perry had bestowed on RedState a great honor: They would be the audience and the backdrop for the speech in which he announced his candidacy for president of the United States. Judging by their reaction, the redstaters were flattered and pleased. And who wouldn't be?
Perry gave a good speech​ — ​a little long, but all speeches are too long. With modifications for time and place, the text now serves as the basis of the stump speech he gives as he travels to Iowa and New Hampshire. It is his advertisement for himself​ — ​a kind of portrait of who Rick Perry wants you to think he is​ — ​and it repays close attention, one paragraph to the next.
When the cheers had died down that sweltering afternoon in the Gold Ballroom of the Francis Marion, the first thing Rick Perry said was: Howdy.
He's from Texas. He used to wear cowboy boots stitched with the bad-ass Texas slogan "Come and Take It" until back surgery this summer forced him into orthopedic shoes. He took out a coyote with one shot from a .380 pistol last year while jogging. He grew up out in a bleak part of the state called the Big Country, in a place named "Paint Creek"​ — ​a place not a town; the only town within 20 miles with a post office was called Haskell, which itself is a couple of hundred miles west of Dallas. His parents worked a tenant farm growing cotton, utterly dependent on the weather like all farmers only more so. "Every day they got up," he told the Texas Monthly last year, "it was dry." Often at midday the sky would grow dark. "Huge clouds of dust would roll in from the west." He only saw his mother cry once, he told the Monthly, when his parents, who seldom bought anything, dug deep to buy a new couch. "There were places in our house that you could see outside through the cracks by the windows, and this dust storm came in and there was a layer of dust all over that new couch. And it just, you know, kind of​ — ​it was a hard life for them."
His mother, a seamstress, made his clothes for him, including his underwear, until he went off to Texas A&M University. He bathed in a tub on the back porch. The family outhouse was decommissioned when Perry was seven or eight, after his father put in indoor plumbing.
"It's sure good to be back in the Palmetto State, in South Carolina," he told the redstaters, "where they love the greatest fighting force on the face of the earth, the United States military."
At Texas A&M he earned a grade point average a bit over 2.0 (Ds and Cs in chem and trig and Shakespeare, an A in world military systems, and a B in phys. ed.) and majored in animal science. Then he joined the Air Force and served four years flying C-130s out of bases around the world​ — ​Europe, the Middle East, South America. He likes to talk about the military and often gets choked up when he does. His next line in the speech set up an inexpensive applause line.
"I want to take a moment and ask you to just take a silence, think about those young Navy SEALs and the other special operators who gave it all in the service of their country," referring to the downing a few days before of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan. We should be grateful, he went on, for "those kind of selfless, sacrificial men and women."
To continue reading, visit The Weekly Standard.

[American Patriot]

Yeah, Hitler... Obama....

[American Patriot]

Our American history.

And leaders like Lincoln and Reagan, not destroyers.

There was always something the German people thought strange about Hitler, and he really wasn't German, but Austrian. Nor did he truly understand them, rejecting them at the end. Germany was always an Abstraction to him, an idea in his head that never was quite in sync with what real Germans thought or where they thought they were headed. Their optimism and enthusiasm turned to horror and destruction....

I wonder if Obama 'gets' America, or is it just an Idea in his head to him? Will he disappoint those who voted for him too? Not to imply that he's another Hitler, but to imply that he is a VERY strange man, something overlooked by voters in their enthusiasm.....And by 'strange', I mean he's not even acting like a typical American-brand liberal, but something else altogether....I think the liberals badly misread him too.

Obama does NOT get America. I implore you and others to read Mark Steyn's new book, "After America: Armageddon"

Please.

[MinutemanCO]

In a way, there is a positive message buried in the Obama race game. It would seem that the Big O camp has recognized that not only do they have nothing solid on which to run, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. Why else would they so quickly draw the racist gun? They ain't got nothin else. All it will take is a marginally handy GOP PR staff to spin their crap back on em. The only issue I forsee is the fact that most media outlets are firmly in Barry's neck of the woods. Campaign Manager for Perry should be lining up every single internet site available. Gotta utilize the resources that are available.

[American Patriot]

I'd like to hear from the Texans among us....

I haven't made up my mind on anyone yet, but I'm leaning to Perry-Cain or some combination.

[Backstop]

I'd like to hear from the Texans among us....

I haven't made up my mind on anyone yet, but I'm leaning to Perry-Cain or some combination.

Whaddya wanna hear?

The truth?

I'm not voting for Perry; he's a freaking RINO, and gave in-state tuition to non-US citizens.

Fuck him.

I'm done voting for the lesser of 2 evils.

Never again.

And anyone that votes for him needs his head examined.

Is that what you're looking for?

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61076.html

Rick Perry not a true conservative

By TOM TANCREDO | 8/11/11 12:20 AM EDT
On Saturday Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to announce whether or not he will run for president. Many now believe he will.

Perry is eager to separate himself from his predecessor in the Texas governor’s mansion, George W. Bush — who is unpopular with both tea party Republicans and the American electorate as a whole. But one area where Perry’s positions are virtually identical to Bush is immigration.

When I ran for president in 2008, I tried to pressure the Republican candidates to take a hard line against illegal immigration. For this, Perry called me a racist.

When he first took office as governor in 2001, Perry went to Mexico and bragged about his law that granted “the children of undocumented workers” special in-state tuition at Texas colleges, the first state in the nation to do so.

“The message is simple,” Perry concluded, “educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.” Education is the future, and (echoing Cesar Chavez’s slogan) yes we can.]

Just a few weeks ago, Perry defended his decision to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. He said “to punish these young Texans for their parents’ actions is not what America has always been about.”

Perry opposed Arizona’s tough anti-illegal immigration law SB 1070. “I have concerns,” he explained, “with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas.”

He spoke out last year against using E-Verify to prevent illegal immigrants from getting jobs as state employees, who get their paychecks from the taxpayers. He insisted it “would not make a hill of beans’ difference.”

Numbers USA, a group that supports immigration control, gives Perry a “D-“ for his positions supporting amnesty, open borders, and opposing border security.

Perry, in a speech in Mexico in 2007, said he supports completely open borders, calling for the “free flow of individuals between these two countries who want to work and want to be an asset to our country and to Mexico.”

In the same speech he came out against building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.Perry also came out in favor of blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants in 2006, albeit without citizenship, supporting “a guest worker program that takes undocumented workers off the black market and legitimizes their economic contribution.”

Despite all his talk about sovereignty and states’ rights, Perry proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor. This toll road would go through Mexico, but be run together with the Mexican government in the middle of Texas.

While I was in Congress, I co-sponsored the H.C. Res. 487 to block the creation of this highway. Fortunately our efforts in Congress, along with the work of conservatives in the Texas legislature, derailed Perry’s sovereignty sacrificing scheme.

Perry’s views here are at odds with the vast majority of Americans — and virtually all Republican voters. While he opposes E-Verify for even state employees, 82 percent of all voters, and 91 percent of Republicans, support E-Verify for all employees.

While Perry opposes the border fence, 68 percent of all voters, and 86 percent of Republicans, support the fence. While Perry opposes the Arizona law, SB 1070, voters want 1070 in their state by a 2-1 margin — including 86 percent of all Republicans.

Perry’s only true conservative positions on borders involve calling for an end to sanctuary cities and signing a voter ID law. While I support these measures, they don’t make up for the rest of his positions on immigration. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Tom Tancredo served as a Republican congressman from Colorado 1999-2009, and was chairman of the bipartisan Immigration Reform Caucus. He now serves as chairman of Team America PAC and the Rocky Mountain Foundation.

[American Patriot]

Guess I'm no longer leaning toward Perry. Thanks for chiming in Backstop (FINALLY)

[Phil Fiord]

I don't know what to say. Apathy still haunts me and then I was going to vote in our primary yesterday and we had that quake. Just enough of a quake that I worked overtime for cleanup and by the time I was near home the adrenalin was wearing thin and soon after dumped.

[Backstop]

Guess I'm no longer leaning toward Perry. Thanks for chiming in Backstop (FINALLY)

FINALLY...

Seriously though, it's like something snapped.

I've had it.

I'm sick and fucking tired of these RINOs promising the world, and not even delivering a grain of sand.

A while back it finally soaked in that those that voted 3rd party in 2008 did not lose the election.

Now, my motto is: If you voted for the GOP in 2008, you lost the election for true Conservatives.

Enough is enough.

Damn right I want change.

And I'm gonna vote for it.

Some people get all up in arms about Ron Paul (nothing personal, Rick) and claim he's whacko, etc.

My opinion is that Ron Paul - for the most part - wants to give Americans some REAL FREEDOM.

But folks will vote for Perry or some other RINO, and in Perry's case, they'll over look his pro-immigration stance.

Well what the fuck?!?!

But yet they choose that, and won't overlook Ron Paul's Isolationism? Are they afraid of his pro-freedom stance?

That makes absolutely no fucking sense to me anymore.

We need to CLEAN OUT the House, Senate, and White House, and start all over.

And I've voting for it.

The GOP can kiss my ass.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program.