SC Gov. Haley: Perry's 'timing was brilliant'

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Republicans in Iowa might be miffed that Gov. Rick Perry's official presidential announcement in South Carolina this afternoon is siphoning attention from the Ames Straw Poll, but the governor of the Palmetto State is smiling.

"I think his timing was brilliant," Gov. Nikki Haley told reporters after her remarks at the RedState Gathering in South Carolina, where Perry will speak later this afternoon. "I think to turn around and do this the same day that you've got an Ames Iowa poll just really lets us know that it's 'game on' time for all the candidates. And I love that." 

While many of Perry's GOP rivals are munching fried food and busing supporters to Ames, the Texas governor will be formally announcing his presidential intentions at the convention of conservative bloggers in a 350-seat hotel ballroom in Charleston, SC. 

Haley said that she's advised Perry - whom she described in her formal remarks as a "superstar" --  to reach out to activists all over South Carolina, adding that she believes he will find that state "very welcoming."

The South Carolina governor, who is being courted by candidates as a key endorser in the primary contest next year, promised to back a candidate before the primary but not "anytime soon." 

Her criteria for an endorsement? "The hardest part of my job right now is dealing with the federal government. They don't let me do my job. And what I want is a president that understands that I need the federal government to get out of the way so that I can do my job. And I will be endorsing based on that."

*** UPDATE *** AP reports on a conference call Perry just had with South Carolina voters.

"I'm running for president and 'full well believe I'm going to win,'" he told them.

He is speaking at 1:00 pm ET to make it official on camera at RedState.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Perry's Web site is now live.

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Just wait until the rest of the country gets a 'whiff' of another dumbass bible banging Governor from TX!

Thanks but NO thanks!

8 years of 'W' & the 'Dick' were enough!

  • 108 votes
#1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:27 PM EDT

I live in Texas and have detested Rick Perry for 12 years now. The last thing the country needs is W part II. But I'm not worried. Gov. Fake Hair nor any other Repug stands a snowball's chance in Texas of winning. I'm not even convinced that this imbecile can get the nomination.

  • 81 votes
#1.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:49 PM EDT
Comment author avatarHopstradamus-1Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

Ha Ha Ha... you'd rather have all of the "Hope" and "Change" we have now? I'm not even from Texas, but I'll take my chances with ANYONE but the Big O, as in O-verspending, O-verrated and O-ver his head

  • 60 votes
#1.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:51 PM EDT

I'm not even convinced that this imbecile can get the nomination

I'm praying he does = Obama landslide!

This idiot even sounds like Bush!

  • 75 votes
#1.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:54 PM EDT

RED STATE GATHERING remarks:

just really lets us know that it's 'game on' time for all the candidates.

So true... none of them realize this is not a "game" but it is about leading the world's greatest nation and solving her problems.

Thankfully our President knows this and perservers in spite of the obstinate, racist, adamant obstrutionism the Republicans, Tea-baggers and RNC keeps throwing at our country.

  • 58 votes
#1.4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:13 PM EDT

Shhh! Let the RNC nominate him! he..he...

  • 35 votes
#1.5 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:20 PM EDT

Yes you are, I figured some Dumb A$$ would pull out the card quickly. How do you think O got elected? Must have been all those racist people. I do not like his policies and the fact that he is not helping get this Country on track. In all these years I have never seen this Country so divided. At least the last 40+ years. Fiesty your something else, do you live on these posts or are you paid to spout your drivel. The mind is a terrible thing to waste, but in your case who cares.

  • 35 votes
#1.6 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:21 PM EDT

Brilliant! says Haley.

Like that college transcript.

  • 13 votes
#1.7 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:23 PM EDT

But Rickie Perry has something going for him that Little Georgie W. didn't....Rickie was a cheerleader at aggieland. I'm looking forward to his pom-pom campaign.

fyi: Rickie's been having us pray for rain for 10 months now. I'm sure, sooner or later, God's going to hear him.

  • 33 votes
#1.8 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:24 PM EDT

Richard,

Niki Haley is not that great either. She is determined to undermine education in that state any way she can. Watch her running for office the next time.

  • 19 votes
#1.10 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:31 PM EDT

I think he's a bible thumping jerk!

  • 33 votes
#1.11 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:33 PM EDT

Fiesty,

Your ignorance comes to these boards again and again. If you would pull your head out of the sand and actually learned about Perry you will find that not only are Perry's and Bush's philosophies and ideas different from eachother, but they can't stand eachother. But here you go again and again. Spending all your time going from article to article, cruising the internet, sharing all your lopsided feelings on everyone and everything you think you now in politics. Your act is old and tiresome. please go write your useless and worthless emotional feelings in your diary. Believe me, we know how you feel and that you have no other life except your nose in a computer.

  • 28 votes
#1.12 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:33 PM EDT

Like I said - another dumbass TX Governor!

One reason that might explain his hostility toward the system: He didn't do very well in it. 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

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCUQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2011%2F08%2F05%2Frick-perry-college-transcript_n_919357.html&ei=rbZGTq_RNO3jsQLHlsWSCA&usg=AFQjCNE1UenAL3MzP5061xuCiMdD6IsL2g

Your act is old and tiresome. please go write your useless and worthless emotional feelings in your diary

Nah - I'm not going anywhere... ;o)

  • 39 votes
#1.13 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:40 PM EDT

Lurch - I'm curious, and admittedly have not done my research, so could you point out the main three differences in those two Texas Governors?

  • 14 votes
#1.14 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:43 PM EDT

Perry this morning (PST) - ..."Time for America to believe again...renew faith....will come from the wind swept prairies, farms...patriots wanting less gov't. We are America, we fix things, we roll up our sleeves"... Blah, blah, blah, another GOP wannabe windbag - who can't come up with a plan to get anything done in a divided congress. Oh, but Perry did say he would "IMMEDIATELY" repeal the Health Care Act (which he can't with a divided Congress).

Well, now the bible thumping cheerleader rolls come in real handy, don't they. Sheesh. Then he proceeded to file out the fam, winking and giving thumbs up like a winning coach at a high school football game. Sigh. Another idiot.

  • 22 votes
#1.15 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:47 PM EDT

Here's some more highlights from the dumbass:

(1) PERRY ALLOWED THE EXECUTION OF A LIKELY INNOCENT MAN, THEN IMPEDED AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MATTER: In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Huntsville, Texas after being convicted of arson and the murder of his three children. Even after significant evidence emerged showing that arson had not caused the fire (thus exonerating Willingham), Perry refused to grant a stay of execution. Five years after Willingham was executed, a report from a Texas Forensic Science Commission investigator found that the fire could not have been arson. As the commission prepared to hear testimony from the investigator in October 2009, Perry quickly fired and replaced three of its members, forcing an indefinite delay in the hearing.

(2) PERRY WANTS TO REPEAL THE 16th AND 17th AMENDMENTS, ENDING DIRECT ELECTION OF U.S. SENATORS AND THE FEDERAL INCOME TAX: In his 2010 book Fed Up!, Perry called the 16th and 17th Amendments “mistaken” and said they resulted from “a fit of populist rage.” The 16th Amendment allows the federal government to collect income taxes, which is the single biggest source of revenue, accounting for 45 percent of all receipts. The 17th Amendment took electing U.S. senators out of the hands of political insiders and allowed the American public to decide their representation instead. If Perry had his way, the federal government would be stripped of its current ability to fund highway construction projects, food inspectors, and the military, and the American public would not even be permitted to elect their own senators.

(3) PERRY PROPOSED LETTING STATES DROP OUT OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICAID: Despite the programs’ importance and popularity, Perry has argued that states like Texas should be allowed to opt out of Social Security and Medicaid. Were Perry to have his way on Social Security, “the entire system would collapse under the weight of too many Social Security beneficiaries who had not paid into the system,” notes Ian Millhiser. On Medicaid, in addition to stripping 3.6 million low-income Texans of their health care, Perry’s proposal would actually hurt, not help, the state’s budget deficit. This is because, as Igor Volsky writes, opting out of Medicaid would take “billions out of the state economy that goes on to support hospitals and other providers,” while forcing hospitals “to swallow the costs of caring for uninsured individuals who will continue to use the emergency room as their primary source of care.”

(4) TEXAS IS THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST POLLUTER, BUT PERRY SUED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR DISAPPROVING OF THE STATE’S AIR QUALITY STANDARDS: Texas is the biggest polluter in the country, leading the nation in carbon dioxide emissions. However, when the EPA published its “disapproval” of the state’s air quality standards for falling short of the Clean Air Act’s requirements, Perry sued the federal government to challenge the ruling. Perry’s environmental record doesn’t end there. He is a global warming denier who called the 2010 BP oil spill an “act of God” while speaking at a trade association funded by BP.

(5) PERRY DESIGNATED AS “EMERGENCY LEGISLATION” A BILL REQUIRING ALL WOMEN SEEKING ABORTIONS TO HAVE SONOGRAMS FIRST: In January, Perry proposed requiring all women seeking abortions to have a sonogram at least 24 hours before the procedure. Under the bill, doctors would be required to “tell a woman the size of her fetus’ limbs and organs, even if she does not want to know.” Before a woman is permitted to have an abortion, physicians are also forced to provide an image of the fetus and make the woman listen to the sound of its heartbeat. Perry designated his proposal as “emergency legislation,” allowing the bill to be rushed through the legislature. He signed it into law last month.

(6) PERRY GUTTED CHILDCARE SERVICES EVEN AS TEXAS CHILDHOOD POVERTY HIT 25 PERCENT: Facing a $27 billion budget deficit this year, Perry decided to gut child support services, despite a report from the Center for Public Policy Priorities that found nearly one in four Texas children lived beneath the poverty line. Instead of raising revenue like California, a state facing a similarly sized deficit, Perry scaled back more than $10 billion of child support over two years. As Think Progress’ Pat Garofalo noted, these cuts were proposed despite Texas’ possession of a $8.2 billion rainy day fund.

(7) PERRY WAS A STRONG SUPPORTER OF TEXAS’S ANTI-SODOMY LAWS: Perry was a strong proponent of Texas’s anti-sodomy law that was struck down in 2003 by the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas. Calling the law “appropriate,” Perry dismissed the Court decision as the result of “nine oligarchs in robes.” Even after being struck down, Perry supported the Texas legislature’s refusal to remove the law from its books.

(8) PERRY IS A STIMULUS HYPOCRITE WHO LOUDLY CRITICIZED FEDERAL RECOVERY MONEY BUT USED IT TO BALANCE HIS STATE’S BUDGET: As the nation struggled to avoid economic collapse in 2009, Perry was a vocal critic of Congress’s recovery package, even advocating that Texas reject the money because “we can take care of ourselves.” Months later, after Perry was able to balance the state’s budget only with the aid of billions in federal stimulus dollars, Perry again repeated that he would reject federal funding, arguing that the government “spends money they don’t have.” Five months later, Perry again took advantage of federal funding to issue $2 billion in bonds for highway improvements in Texas. Even so, the state faces a $27 billion budget deficit.

(9) PERRY SAID THAT TEXAS MIGHT HAVE TO SECEDE FROM THE UNITED STATES: One hundred and fifty years ago, Texas and other southern states seceded from the Union, resulting in a bloody Civil War. 148 years later, Perry floated the idea that Texas may again have to secede because of a federal government that “continues to thumb their nose at the American people.” Perry was roundly criticized for his proposal, yet he repeated his threat the next month on Fox News, telling host Neil Cavuto, “If Washington continues to force these programs on the states, if Washington continues to disregard the tenth amendment, who knows what happens.”

(10) DESPITE HAVING THE WORST UNINSURED RATE IN THE COUNTRY, PERRY CLAIMS THAT TEXAS HAS “THE BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE COUNTRY” : On Bill Bennett’s radio show last year, Perry claimed that “Texas has the best health care in the country.” In reality, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents of any state. More than one in four Texans lack coverage; the national average is just 15.4 percent. As such, there are more uninsured residents in Texas than there are people in 33 states. Despite Texas’s low coverage rates, the state has some of the most restrictive Medicaid eligibility thresholds, and Perry has even proposed dropping out of the program. Texas also has an inordinately high percentage of impoverished children, yet Perry opposed expanding the successful State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/10/241830/top-10-thing-texas-gov-rick-perry/

  • 41 votes
#1.16 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:47 PM EDT

You don't hear Rick Perry and brrilliant in the same sentence very often!

  • 35 votes
#1.17 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:49 PM EDT

How much better can this get? Another dysfunctional right wing Republican is added to the mix. This guy is an even bigger freak than Michele Bachmann! This is a Progressive's dream come true. I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve...I just can't wait for November 6, 2012! LMFAO!!

  • 33 votes
#1.18 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:49 PM EDT

More wishful thinking from partisan ostriches with heads in the sand.

  • 1 vote
#1.19 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:49 PM EDT

YEEEEEEHAWWWWW!
Ride 'em, cowboy!

Do the TP'ers really think they have someone that's going to win? I don't think so.

  • 27 votes
#1.20 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:50 PM EDT

Feisty, don't you even think about going anywhere, we love ya girl. Now on to Perry, I closed my eyes and listened to him, he's a bad clone of Bushie Jr., not one new idea, same old rah, rah, American exceptionalism, and flag waving. He has presided over lower education, less healthcare, and lots of minimum wage jobs. Texas has oil, and snakes, and Perry's just another undereducated Tea Party guy with eyelids just like a snake. Many Texans warn about this empty suit, and I'm sure we will learn alot about him in the coming weeks. If he wins the nomination, Obama in a landslide. Whoopee, ty aye!

  • 33 votes
#1.21 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:52 PM EDT

I'm a life long texan and plain tired of perry (bush II). This guy is not very sharp...was at best an average "C" student at A&M. Just another shoot them up cowboy who has NO substance. Fact, much of the job creation in texas comes from the Obama stimulus. He does not stand a chance against obama in a live debate.

  • 34 votes
#1.22 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:53 PM EDT

Feisty, don't you even think about going anywhere, we love ya girl

Thanks GF!

These right wing rookies don't have the stamina to go the distance around here... ;o)

  • 26 votes
#1.23 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:57 PM EDT
Comment author avatarRamz1Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

Actually after the country has had a whiff of B.O. Anything or anybody will look and smell pretty good. At least Jimmy Carter can get rid of the moniker "Worst President Ever" thanks to Obama. Might be the only good thing he's done.

  • 23 votes
#1.24 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:58 PM EDT

here is why i wouldn't vote for mr. perry. just so you know, i didn't get this from watching left leaning tv or mags. i get my opinion from watching mr. perry talking with my eyes and hearing the words coming from his own mouth. not six months ago he was giving lip service to a bunch of radicals who want to secede from our nation. he was touting their cause and saying maybe it was the right thing to do and texas could survive without the fed government. now, he wants to run that same said government. so, my question is, was he lying to those radicals because he wanted to make sure they voted for him and give him their money or was he being honest and he really, actually hates the government? so, which one is he? a liar or a traitor? someone who would say anything to anybody just to get a vote or someone who hates this country? i don't want either one in the white house.

i like President Obama. i have watched from the beginning how the republicans have kept on the straight and narrow their resolve to, as mitch mcconnell stated within weeks of obama's win, that their only goal over the next four years would be to make sure obama was a one term president. this didn't come from some left wing pundit. once again, i watch mcconnell speak myself. and the republican party has done exactly what they said they would do. you claim obama hasn't done anything to help this country. you know, i'd agree with you is he were a dictator with 100% power and control over everything, like a despot. but! he isn't a dictator. he's a president. he can't FORCE congress to act. he can't command them to vote on measures he has suggested. the problem isn't the president. you claim he hasn't put forth any ideas. you have selective hearing and a skewed memory, because he has put forth lots of ideas and right now, as we argue, there are three bills before congress that could put more than a million people to work. these bills have been there forever and congress refuses to move on them. the radical right, which is being led around blindly by big business doesn't want people to go back to work until there is such terrible unemployment that people will be willing to work for any wage, under any condition. again, right now, as we speak there are CHILDREN as young as six years old picking blueberries on huge corporate farms in washington state. children that should be getting that equal opportunity that we're suppose to believe in as americans. but, they are ignoring the law while state legislatures in pennsylvania and other states are trying to remove the restrictions on child labor. ms. bachmann, in her wisdom introduced legislation in her state that would do away with the minimum wage. this isn't left wing rhetoric. these things are going on, right under our noses and with an all out war against the only thing that stands between the worker and corporate anarchy, unless we stand together and demand fair treatment, we will become a third world country and there will be no democracy. this will be a corporate country that would make the ferengi proud(look up star trek).

  • 39 votes
#1.25 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:00 PM EDT

Brilliant? No, just coincidence. From what I read, the GOP at the Straw Poll would not give Perry any grass space because he was not an official candidate; Palin was not welcomed either. Perry did not dare announce until after his big Prayer Rally. Had he announced sooner, the scrutiny would have been greater, the MSM not just cable would have reported on the Apostolic sponsors, the so-called preachers who spoke, etc. Since Perry couldn't attend the Straw Poll, he decided to upstage it. Will it work? He'll make the news but dissing the Iowa GOPers may not play well. However, he will have time before the caucus to play nice.

Nice post, Alessa

  • 13 votes
#1.26 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:03 PM EDT

Give em Hell Feisty! We got your back! The vast majority of the country can now see the TP for the delusional hacks they are.

  • 20 votes
#1.27 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:08 PM EDT

Give em Hell Feisty! We got your back!

And I've got yours - Thanks! ;o)

  • 11 votes
#1.28 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:11 PM EDT

Hey Combat, your comments would have more credibility if you could spell things correctly. The word you wanted to use in your comments to Feisty was 'you're,' a contraction of 'you are,' as in "You're something else." What you used was the possessive 'your,' as in "That is your book."

I'd suggest you reread your own comments before posting, because you're leaving the impression that you're a dumb A$$ (Notice the correct usage of 'your' and 'you're')

  • 8 votes
#1.29 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:13 PM EDT

With Obama failing everyday, the Left is going into their usual hysterics about the GOP candidates, one of which that will replace The One. The Lefty drones come up with their spoon fed tripe, and for for Perry, the template for the Left is he's a bible thumping jerk, a bible thumping cheerleader, W Part II, an undereducated Tea Party guy, and is not very sharp... Through in some thinkprogress propaganda, and the Left again are wallowing in the mud.

To bad they can't say anything positive about Obama.

  • 20 votes
#1.30 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:15 PM EDT

The GOP is losing it for me when the best they can muster for shining stars includes an evangelical wannabe who couldn't fill free seating.

When better qualified people such as Bill Frist say "thanks, but no thanks" to the nomination, it's time to clean house and sweep out 'Eskimo Barbie' and her political contemporaries.

  • 22 votes
#1.31 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:15 PM EDT

Ricky-Boy will get caught on his knees...and he won't be praying.

  • 10 votes
#1.32 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:15 PM EDT

the Left is going into their usual hysterics about the GOP candidates

Get used to it GF!

With all the material these clowns - provide we're only getting warmed up! ;o)

Sucks to not have a viable candidate doesn't JS1?

  • 19 votes
#1.33 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:20 PM EDT

Great conclusions, alessa.

'Rules of Acquisition 101'. eh?

I'm sure he'll get a lot of earlobe rubbing in S.C. today.

  • 3 votes
#1.34 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:21 PM EDT

Oh God yes Fiesty. 8 years of W and the Dick. We are so much more better off now it's hard to put into words......What a wonderful job Barry and his Czar's have done. Just makes proud.LMAO at you...

  • 9 votes
#1.35 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:21 PM EDT

gv-Kailua - could you proof read my post too? I seem have used "through" instead of "throw".

It is so nice of you to be the official First Read grammar police and spell checker! I'm certain your (notice the correct usage of 'your' and 'you're) expertise will come in very handy.

Again, welcome.

  • 6 votes
#1.36 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:23 PM EDT

Sadly he might just be the best the GOP has to offer. I'm ready for Hillary in 2012.

  • 4 votes
#1.37 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:25 PM EDT

With every new day, it's getting more difficult for the Left, for them to support Obama. Obama/Biden? Two failures. Two liars. Two morons that couldn't make it to assistant manager at a 7-Eleven. Even Obama's speeches, the ones that used to bring tears to the Liberal media, tears of joy and hope, now bring tears to America for how pathetic and full of lies they have become. Obama stands there preaching to his millionaire friends the other day "I said Hope and Change, but I didn't mean now". What a loser this man has become.

Anyone better off than they were 4 years ago? Not even Obama's beloved Unions can say yes to that. The country doesn't need 4 more years of the Blamer in Chief lecturing the country about how bad he has it. We knew Obama wasn't a leader when he was elected, and over his 2.5 years of blaming everyone else but himself, he's proved that fact many times over.

  • 14 votes
#1.38 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:33 PM EDT

He'd have to get by that Texas record first...dead last among the states in number of college grads...first in pollution...first in percentage of residents without ANY health care (25%)...bottom four states in public school education...yes, first in new jobs, but not in high paying ones requiring any skills or education...The partisans are for him of course because they love his take-no-prisoners approach to everything, but is the country ready for another preacher-in-chief, a culture warrior with a gun on his hip (and this one, NOT even his friends want to have a beer with). I'm guessing the White House is THRILLED to have him in the race.

  • 10 votes
#1.39 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:37 PM EDT

Excellent speech. George W. 2.0

This will move Romney to the last of the pack.

Very moving. He has a great speech writer.

His history as governor of Texas is deplorable. We don't need this for the rest of the country.

I don't want to live in this view of his America. Yet he will move to the front of the GOP pack.

Let the games begin.

  • 7 votes
#1.40 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:38 PM EDT

Rick Perry is just an opportunist politician. He gives a lot of lip service, but then rarely comes through with it. So he sounds very GOP, but in reality he's whatever he thinks will get him ahead.

Funny how no post above mentioned that he was a Democrat. YEP... in fact he was Al Gore's Campaign Manager for the state of Texas during Al Gore's first presidential run back in 1988. After the Dems lost to Bush Sr. Perry changed parties and was elected Agricultural Commissioner in 1990. He's remained a Repub ever since.

"In 1984, Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from district 64 that included his home county of Haskell. He served on the House Appropriations and Calendars committees during his three two-year terms in office. He befriended fellow freshman state representative Lena Guerrero of Austin, a staunch liberal Democrat who endorsed Perry's reelection bid in 2006 on personal, rather than philosophical, grounds. Perry was part of the "Pit Bulls", a group of Appropriations members who sat on the lower dais in the committee room (or "pit") who pushed for austere state budgets during the 1980s.

Perry supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries as chairman of the Gore campaign in Texas.[16][17]

In 1989, The Dallas Morning News named him one of the most effective legislators in the 71st Legislature.[citation needed] That same year, Perry announced that he was joining the Republican Party.[18]
"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Perry#Texas_Legislature

Because Rick Perry has played to Repubs, Dems have come to make excuses for him, claiming he was really just a Dem Blue Dog, or a Dem Centrist... blah, blah, blah

Mitt Romney is no better.

  • 7 votes
#1.41 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:54 PM EDT

LOL...I should become a Republican just I vote for Perry to win the GOP nomination...LOL

I feel so inspired by him joining I want to sing part of a song I learned while going to college in Texas...

"The stars at night are big and bright,

Clap Clap Clap Clap

Deep in the heart of Texas.

The sky above is filled with love,

clap clap clap clap

Deep in the heart of Texas"

bwahahahahahahaha...Perry is short yellow bus worthy!

  • 4 votes
#1.42 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:13 PM EDT

sarah palin will be next and the circle of 13 will be complete. in entertainment they call it "making an entrance", it's why the stars show up last. more theatre, but i must admit he timed it beautifully. handsome fella, too, those Texans! Don't know much bout 'im, does he have a reality show, cuz i heard somethin bout he thought texas should secede from the union?

    #1.43 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:19 PM EDT

    8 years of 'W' & the 'Dick' were enough

    Poor delusional liberals. Reality escapes them. America has decided that after less than three years of the Big O it is enough.

    I don't think Perry jumping in changes much. It is evident to reasonable people who pay attention that Perry is popular in Texas and the south and among some ranks but not popular enough to clinch the nomination.

    Romney will. Obama will be beat like a big eared step-child. He will get his eight years and by that time we will get a more conservative leaning nominee. Perhaps Perry.

    • 2 votes
    #1.44 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:26 PM EDT

    CombatMedic69 - the reason this country is so divided is the idiotic GOP and it's far right Tea Party (I'm guessing that includes you Doug Pounders!)

    The obstructionists in Congress have caused this country to be in the trouble it is in now. Even most moderate Republicans I know are embarrassed about what their party has done to our country. President Obama is doing a great job considering everything he has proposed John Boehner and his gang have tried to kill.

    We are finally realizing that the far right doesn't give a damn about this country - just about winning elections at whatever cost. Pathetic group.

    • 15 votes
    #1.45 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:34 PM EDT

    The election is being decided in Europe right now.

    We don't forget all the years the left has told us we must become more like Europe.

    But they are nearing bankruptcy from the cost of their giant, nanny state Gov'ts.

    This is the narrative conservatives must pound out everyday from now until the election.

    The DEMOCRAT PLAYBOOK WAS TRIED IN EUROPE AND IT COLLAPSED THEIR COUNTRIES. WE CANNOT LET THAT BECOME THE FATE OF THE US - VOTE REPUBLICAN.

    • 5 votes
    #1.46 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:43 PM EDT

    O, well, I believe in President Obama.

    • 7 votes
    #1.47 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:43 PM EDT

    What is so funny about feisty is she is wetting her panties because she knows he will beat grate leader. Of course the fact is a dead pig could beat him. But I do love how riled up you Lib/Progs get. And the funny thing is the more you fear them the more you call them names. So predictable. One thing for sure he is no ultra conservative. Won't get fooled again by the compassionate conservative BS. The right person will appear and the the accountable taxpayers can begin to get the country back from the bottom feeders.

    • 3 votes
    #1.48 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:57 PM EDT

    WOWWWWW! THE LIBERAL PROGRESSIVES PANTIES ARE ALL IN A BUNCH I SEE.

    ROTFLMAO!!!!!

    As the Barrack Hussein sniffers see another candidate with an actual resume enter the contest their tingles up their legs become less noticeable. Perhaps it's more of a tinkle down their legs as they realize Barrack Hussein may have to actually try to defend his absolute failure against someone successful.

    But I'm sure Barrack Hussein will depend on carrying all 57 states again in this election. Or maybe he'll hope for all those absentee votes from our "corpse-men" abroad. If not I'm sure he'll challenge anyone with his private sector accomplishments. You know which ones I mean. The ones where he sat in the teachers’ lounge at Haaaahvahd Ooniversity and mentally masturbated with his socialist elite comrades regarding "fundamentally transforming" America into his social and economic justice collective Nirvana. Yes, this has shown to be a tremendous asset in his ability to keep our economy from completely collapsing. His community-organizing skills, strengthened by Saul Alinsky and Cloward and Piven's indoctrination, have created sheer genius in the economic universe.

    It's surprising the Scandinavian's haven't offered him the Nobel in Economics yet. I'm sure he wants to create economic stability within the next 100 years. Just as his coveted Peace Prize has brought so much stability to the world today. I'm sure in a few decades his meritorious foreign policy will finally kick in. Right before his grand domestic policies kick in. Things like "focusing like a laser on jobs" have been so successful. Keeping unemployment under 8% must be ready to finally materialize. Cutting the deficit in half in his first year must be on hold until ANY Democrat can put a coherent budget together in less than 800 days.

    He can always fall back on his GITMO success. Iraq being more unstable in the last year MUST be George Bush's fault. Record servicemen dying in Afghanistan can only be blamed on the fact that it is the "Right War" and this is just the way it has to be.

    Maybe his associations at the madrassa as a child ingrained some free-market principles he just hasn't been able to unleash? If not I'm sure the purely capitalist indoctrination that Frank Marshall Davis ingrained in him just haven't been able to be used between his socialist and Keynesian delusions. I'm sure his "just a neighbor" friend Jermiah Wright taught him not to "God Bless America" but rather to "God Damn America for a perfectly patriotic American reason.

    Yep, I can see how the Republicans must be shaking in their boots about running against our current Imposter in Chief. If all of this doesn't clinch it for Barrack Hussein, I'm positive that being the first president to allow our century old AAA bond rating to be degraded will surely lock a second term up.

    ROTFLMAO!

    Liberal Progressives,,,,,so easy.

    • 8 votes
    #1.49 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:58 PM EDT

    Haley thought Perry's timing was brilliant?

    Does her hubby know about this?

    • 3 votes
    #1.50 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:12 PM EDT

    - the reason this country is so divided is the idiotic GOP and it's far right Tea Party (I'm guessing that includes you Doug Pounders!)

    I say the reason the country is so divided is the majority of us know that Obama and his party are largely made up of idiots. We want to end that.

    Jan 2013 will see it happen.

    • 9 votes
    #1.51 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:21 PM EDT

    haley thinks perry is brilliant ... just goes to show ya .. it takes an idiot to know an idiot

    • 10 votes
    #1.52 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:30 PM EDT

    alessa, good post girl! I agree totally!

    • 2 votes
    #1.53 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:33 PM EDT

    You leftists are a sorry lot. I read alessa's post about secession claims and I saw, and read, the same speech she claims to have read. Perry didn't suggest Texas should secede or that he would support it. But alessa claims he did. And the members of her circle-jerk club all wildly approve.

    I don't think many voters that can be swayed will be swayed by the likes of the leftists here given you seem to be on nothing more than a collective rant. What I find most interesting is the depth of lunacy on your part though. I mean, on the one hand you all say that the Tea Party will be all over the Bachmann's and Perry's in the race. Maybe they will? But then you all seem to think that Perry is like Bush, just worse. Okay, so riddle me this...since the Tea Party was founded in OPPOSITION to Bush's policies, why, you brilliant leftists, would the Tea Party support Perry (wildly or not) as you claim?

    No, the fact is you are liars. Perry isn't like Bush, at least not so much like him as you claim. You simply say things because you live in an echo chamber (this site) and like to be complimented on your brilliance. I don't know which republican will be nominated--I like several--but which ever IS nominated will be easily better than Obama. Sadly, being better than Obama isn't much of a challenge.

    • 5 votes
    #1.54 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:40 PM EDT

    W. Goin

    The obstructionists in Congress have caused this country to be in the trouble it is in now.

    ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!

    I am so sick of the Liberal Progressive Teabaggee's constant obstruction. The Republicans offered the Rand Paul plan, the Paul Ryan plan, the Republican Study Committee plan and the Cut, Cap and Balance plan.

    The pathetic Democrat Teabaggee's couldn't pass a budget for over 825 days. Their only solutions were, Veto, DOA and Table it. A 5 year old could do better.

    But then again when Barrack Husseins own budget went down in flames 0-97 in the Senate I understand the embarrassment the Democrat Teabaggee's must have felt.

    And then Barrack Hussein insults the American people by demanding any plan extends through 2013 so he can spend more time campaigning, golfing, vacationing and hosting Richard Trumpka and Van Jones in the White House.

    ABO (Anybody But Obama) in 2012!

    (By the way, a “teabaggee” is the one who accepts the bag from the teabaggers. You can find a more descriptive definition here, urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teabaggee)

    • 7 votes
    #1.55 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:43 PM EDT

    Rick Perry is a fake. He has that great deer in the head lights look that Bush has. It creeps me out.

    Rick's record is a fake and his so called great job creation is a joke. The jobs he brags about in Texas are all minimum wage or less. The only thing he has grown is the number of poor people in Texas, without healthcare and a huge percentage of people who have not graduated highschool. This buffoon has nothing to brag about.

    • 10 votes
    #1.56 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:01 PM EDT

    I feel so sorry for elephants...that the GOP would have them as their mascot fits in one way: many repugnicans are indeed huge, i.e., as in obese (or is that overfed?...it makes their red puffy faces expose their squinty eyes) in their grey suits...

    Aside from that, repugs would do well to indeed take on the more admirable traits of the elephant such as kindness and intelligence...

    • 3 votes
    #1.57 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:06 PM EDT

    Who? George W. Parry?

      #1.58 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:28 PM EDT

      Alessa summed it all up as well and as truthfully as it could have ever been written. It is so sad to

      see people who could help make such a positive impact in our government attempt to deliberately

      set our President up for failure on a daily basis. It is sadder still to know they planned it from

      the beginning of his term of office and people are really turning a blind eye to that fact. That

      there is still that much evil and hate in this country and that we are displaying it for all the world

      to see instead of supporting the leader of what is supposed to be the "greatest country in the

      world" is a shame. Since hindsight is 20/20, I truly hope ALL Americans will one day look back

      at this time in history and realize how wrong it was to disrespect, dishonor, and attempt to

      demoralize a man who was only trying to make America better for all of us. Not only is the

      man disrespected and dishonored daily, but so is his office as The President of the United States

      of America. (What part of UNITED STATES do we not understand???)

      P.S. If you can do a better job than President Obama then why don't you run against him in

      2012???

      • 9 votes
      #1.59 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:28 PM EDT

      Monica,

      I couldn't agree with you more! They should run a special over and over again. The premeditated inner insurgency On the President of the United States of America!

      Timing has to be perfect of course.

      • 1 vote
      #1.60 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:37 PM EDT

      Hopstradamus-1 said:

      Ha Ha Ha... you'd rather have all of the "Hope" and "Change" we have now? I'm not even from Texas, but I'll take my chances with ANYONE but the Big O, as in O-verspending, O-verrated and O-ver his head

      That's the kind of dumbass friggen redneck mentality that got us George W. Bush in the first place you imbecile.

      • 5 votes
      #1.61 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:42 PM EDT

      LOL I see Fiesty is still posting HuffPo and ThinkProgress like they're unbiased sources of information.

      Rick Perry is going to wipe the floor with Obama. He'll say one thing in the first debate, and Obama will lose by a landslide.

      "I balanced my state's budget, stimulated hiring to levels unseen in any other state in the past 10 years, and had a 20% increase to our economy in the worst economic downturn in years. How's all that going for YOU, Mr. President?"

      And out goes President Downgrade.

      • 3 votes
      #1.62 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:42 PM EDT

      pagedone,

      I'll vote for a bible thumpin jerk over "Obama, the leader of a circle jerk"....every time

      • 2 votes
      #1.63 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:44 PM EDT

      I must admit that libs like redhead are amusing. It doesn't matter who is running against Obama, they repeat the same Alinsky mantra. They obviously don't have the capability of having an original thought. What I'd like to hear, and still, after 2 1/2 years, no one has uttered a sound as to what great things Obama has done and why he should be re-elected. I haven't heard the praise of his great job in getting the official unemployment rate from around 7% when he took office, to go up above 10% and still remain above 9%. That's surely good news! Or how about adding $5 trillion to our deficit in a mere 2 12 years, and planning on adding another $2.3 trillion in the next 18 months. More great news. Well, the price of food is skyrocketing, that surely must be great news too! Come on libs, sing the Obama praises!

      • 2 votes
      #1.64 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:51 PM EDT

      He looks like another "city slicker" from Texas. I don't think this country needs any more goat ropers from Texas in the White House the rest of the century.

      Does anyone know if he has a neck, or was he born without one?

      • 3 votes
      #1.65 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:57 PM EDT

      Stephen.....

      Uh you said the Democrats said they would win seats in Wisconsin, and you ridiculed them for having said that.

      Uh...they did win SEATS (Plural)

      If you want to attempt to spin the loss of two seats held by incumbents as a win, go ahead,,,Right Wing TeaRep math is always so amusing. You went form 19-14 to 17-16 A razor thin majority if there ever was one, and the moderate Republicans will get that message and your coalition will not hold nearly as well or as often.

      Hooting about losing 2 seats, calling that a win...I mean...Damn!

      • 2 votes
      #1.66 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:03 PM EDT

      I think it's fairly obvious that "feisty" is not going to abandon these forums.

      She doesn't have red hair, her moniker obviously derives from her pride in being an advocate for homosexual marxism.

      No wonder it pretends (or has deluded itself) that most of the country will find it objectionable that some politician agrees with them that "Lawrence vs. Texas" was the tyranny and despotism of nine perverted robes.

      No doubt, as any intelligent person can clearly see, she is a paid troll, paid to spew hate and intolerance for everything godly and to stir up more hate and strife on behalf of the totalitarians who pay her salary. It's quite clear that she has no other demands on her time. And just as clear that she has nothing whatever else to say.

      One could accurately describe her as a shill for everything that has long proven to be rotten to the core.

      Oh, another thing (and I am not any kind of Republican), suppose we set up an autobot that spews "demon-crat" every time an infantile leftist uses the word "repugs." Any accurate survey of these forums would show that it is by far most often those on the left who hurl insult and defamation. Perhaps that's because they are so lacking in any ideas that are not morally objectionable.

      And speaking of morally objectionable ideas, how is it that this paid red marxist hack is able to spew abuse and defamation repeatedly without ever triggering the kind of censorship that is routinely applied to those who despise what she stands for? Never once so much as a warning from MSNBC. But her ad-hominem attacks and deliberately insulting name-calling is as bad as it gets around here. Like the old song says "What's going on?"

        #1.67 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:35 PM EDT

        Feisty is that welching liberal who didn't pay up when she lost the bet about the GOP winning the house last year. LOL! I see another poster called her out on the Wisconsin recall. LOLOL! Now she is popping off about Obama in a landslide next year! LOLOLOL!

        And you wonder why liberalism is almosrt dead. They are not in touch with reality.

        Liberals! LMFAO!!

        • 2 votes
        #1.68 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:43 PM EDT

        john307...whats going on...what's up....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnFy1luxL0A...time for it...

          #1.69 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:00 PM EDT

          You will notice that almost EVERY story on First Read has Feisty and Beverly from Chicago as the first post. They're paid shills who sit and make sure they're the first post everytime. And EVERYTIME, it's a post about how terrible the Republicans are. Never how great the Democrats are, just how bad the Republicans are. It's normal liberal drivel. Can't brag about your side? Bring the other side down to your level of failure. Or at least try. Most the time Feisty and Bev fail miserably and show what sort of partisan hack individuals they are. Anyone with half a brain reads any of their posts and dismisses them as soon as they hit the parts where they blame everything entirely on one party.

          Back to your pens, liberal sheeple.

          • 2 votes
          #1.70 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:38 PM EDT

          Gharms,

          Go back and read some past posts from these broads, bev and feisty. F_cking hilarious!! LOL! They are wrong about every election. Not even in the ballpark. Yet they continue to pop off for our enjoyment! Liberals are great fun!! LMFAO!!

          • 2 votes
          #1.71 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:50 PM EDT

          Red, please refrain from referring to the female posters here as broads.

          • 1 vote
          #1.72 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:56 PM EDT

          Rick Perry is a ZERO. Anyone who votes for him is A BIGGER ZERO!!!!!

            #1.73 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 9:07 PM EDT

            President Obama has failed to fix the unemployment problem and the poor economy. The country is not in any mood to re-elect a failure.

              #1.74 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 10:47 PM EDT

              I'm telling you. You NEVER hear a Democrat post something like "These are the reasons you should re-elect Obama..". It's always "Here's the reasons you shouldn't vote for a Republican......". It's because they have NOTHING worthwhile to talk up their candidate about. They have to try to take down the Republican candidate to put him on even footing with the failure that has been the Obama admin.

              And my GOD Iowa people.....Bachmann? Really? You DID hear Perry was running, right? Who in their right mind thinks Bachmann is a real contender? Everytime she opens her mouth, more stupidity dribbles out. One of these times, she's gonna go to say something absurd, and the last of her brain is going to leak out of her mouth and she's going to fall over dead. I don't see why Republicans insist on shooting themselves in the foot when if they will just put up a real candidate, it would be a slam dunk against President Downgrade. This is what happens when candidates are allowed to bus in supporters to skew poll data. Wisconsin found this out the hard way this week, and next week they'll find it out again.

                #1.75 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 10:52 PM EDT

                I'm just saying,

                "Red, please refrain from referring to the female posters here as broads."

                Sorry babe.

                • 2 votes
                #1.76 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:22 PM EDT

                Red, you are indeed a sexist pig. We are not your broads, your babe, your girl, your sweetie, your darling, your anything. We are individuals with the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Would you want your mother, daughter, sister, ridiculed simply because they are female? If your answer is yes, that explains it all.

                • 1 vote
                #1.77 - Wed Aug 17, 2011 1:17 PM EDT
                Reply

                I think to turn around and do this the same day that you've got an Ames Iowa poll just really lets us know that it's 'game on' time for all the candidates.

                While I am ordinarily loathe to giving advice to any Republican candidates, the first thing I'd say about Governor Perry if I am anyone else running for the GOP nomination is, "He's been ducking me!"

                • 2 votes
                Reply#2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:32 PM EDT

                Richard,

                you asked for the 3 differences in Rickie Perry and Little Georgie W.

                Well, here they are:

                1.) Rickie was a cheerleader in aggieland/georgie was not

                2.) Rickie called a 54 acre pasture a "ranch" to receive federal subsidies/georgie had a real ranch

                3.) Georgie has an i.q. higher than the number of teeth he has/Rickie does not...(that's a bit scary, isn't it? To think that Georgie has a higher i.q. than Rickie!)

                • 10 votes
                #2.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:17 PM EDT

                to be the gov on texas is not the same as being smart ..

                • 2 votes
                #2.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:39 PM EDT

                Are you sure that GW's iq was higher than the amount of teeth he had? Ok, your talking about real teeth and not ones that we're put in by a dentist like bridges, etc. I can't see it still. GW is playing cowboy and democrates this weekend like every other weekend, weather permitting. He's probably drunk as a skunk right now at the longbranch saloon.

                  #2.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:12 PM EDT

                  "The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." ~Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964

                  • 3 votes
                  #2.4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:19 PM EDT

                  Marco how dare you lie about George Bush

                  He was a Male Cheerleader! THis accomplishment is not to be dismissed. He is an inspiration to all little boys who yearn to shake Pom Poms, Dance and repeat cheers while watching Men in tight pants play with their balls.

                  He was not one at Texas A & M though. But at Andover.

                  HE did as any good male cheerleader would and wore drag with a tight stuffed sweater to amuse his schoolmates, The link below will show you these inspiring images:

                  http://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/061000wh-bush.html

                  Be proud of Georgie...Nobody did drag like he could! And those cheers...give me shivers of pride!

                  You go Georgie....you big man thing! Uh did Jeff Gannnon do drag with you?

                  • 2 votes
                  #2.5 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:14 PM EDT

                  Ronald Reagan never would balance a budget on the backs of the disabled or handicapped like Texas and Idaho Governors do,!!!PATHETIC TEXAS--most people in the United States without health insurance. Texas-- the State with the highest number of minimum wage jobs. Also Texas is not the largest RED state in the nation, its Alaska. Or maybe Perry is one of those who doesn't think Alaska is a state. Didn't Perry secede TEXAS from the Union, or was that a Republican "CRY BABY" MOMENT??

                  • 1 vote
                  #2.6 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:16 PM EDT

                  The state of Texas grew by 4 million people over the last decade. The population is now at 25 million. Minimum wage must be acceptable since people are moving to Texas. People vote with their feet.

                  The question is why don't other states have an increase in the number of minimum wage jobs? During bad times don't the people of other states seek to create jobs to help the unfortunate who don't have a job?

                    #2.7 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 10:58 PM EDT
                    Reply

                    Her criteria for an endorsement? "The hardest part of my job right now is dealing with the federal government. They don't let me do my job. And what I want is a president that understands that I need the federal government to get out of the way so that I can do my job. And I will be endorsing based on that."

                    Care to expound upon that statement, Governor Haley? How is President Obama preventing you from doing your job as Governor of South Carolina?

                    • 20 votes
                    Reply#3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:34 PM EDT

                    Noid I know its difficult, try rereading what you posted and the statement from the article you attached and try again. I doubt you will even see your mistake.

                    • 6 votes
                    #3.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:25 PM EDT

                    Noid - voter ID bill for one.

                    • 7 votes
                    #3.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:28 PM EDT

                    Anyone who is elected governor ought to understand our political system better than that. Gov. Haley, like Gov. Perry and Gov. Pawlenty (and for that matter Gov. Huntsman) has lived in only one state apparently. The President and Congress have to oversee 50 states. Not all 50 are alike. Gov. Huntsman brags about what he did in Utah -- a state with 2.7 million people (more than in Alaska, but still, less than the city of Chicago..). Could he have done the same things in Texas (a state with some 25 million people)? Does Gov. Haley understand what life is like in urban America? At least Gov. Romney grew up in Michigan and moved to Massachusetts, so he could compare two places. Does Gov. Perry have any idea how to budget for winter roads? (No, life just shuts down in Texas after every winter storm). Governors do not necessarily make the best presidential candidates because they base everything on their mastery of ONE of 50 states.

                    • 9 votes
                    #3.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:03 PM EDT

                    Kate, at least being a governor is a better starting point than community organizer!

                    • 10 votes
                    #3.4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:33 PM EDT

                    Isn't that "community organizer" thing getting a bit old by now? Setting aside the fact he's now the President of the United States, there's the state Senate and law professor before that. You right wingers just really can't see beyond your own prejudices.

                    • 14 votes
                    #3.5 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:42 PM EDT

                    Hey AP, I for one have no prejudices. I have however noticed that anytime speaks negatively against the Liberals it is considered racist or prejudiced. It makes you wonder who the real prejudiced people are.

                    I think Colin Powell would have been the best choice in the last Presidential election if he would have only run.

                    • 6 votes
                    #3.6 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:03 PM EDT

                    AP, I don't think we can let that one ever get old because as soon as we forget about it, the American people will get dooped again by a smooth talking politician with no "real" experience! That old quote still applies today, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

                    • 3 votes
                    #3.7 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:05 PM EDT

                    Damn...opened oil reserves to bring down gas prices (and help his declining popularity numbers)......didn't work...now we have 300 million bbls. less in case of a REAL emergency.

                    Dammmn... TRILLION dollars of tax payer money to keep unemployment from going above 8%,....didn't work....nothing has been "stimulated" & those "shovel ready jobs" was all propaganda.

                    Dammmmn... force fed Obamacare down Americans throat to stem high medical costs.....didn't work...70% of the nation was against this.

                    Dammmmnnn....involved the USA in two MORE wars, Libya & Yemen...opps Libya is not a war, it's a "humanitarian aid" effort that's costing over $700 million.

                    The excuse of blaming Bush for Obama's failures is getting old, because Bush left office over two & half years ago when Obama began running..... I mean ruining America.
                    The excuse is getting so old that they may have to start blaming Nixon for Obama's failures.

                    Obama is certainly on a roll..... STOP helping already! If you really care about America resign now, because you are destroying OUR country!

                    • 4 votes
                    #3.8 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:23 PM EDT

                    Justified Defiance, again spreading your half truths?????

                    Answer me how did Obama Quadrupled the debt?

                    Obamacare didn't work it hasn't even been implemented yet.... Can you please post a link to those poll numbers? 70%...... from what i remember the country was split even on this issue.

                    It was 800 billion the size of Obamas stimulus. And most economist around the world will disagree with you, it did work. 700,000 the number of jobs being lost every month when Obama took office.

                    You have a link to the 700 million being spent on the new wars?????

                    1.3 the budget deficit Bush left... Thats a massive number off course after 2 years people are still going to blame Bush....

                    How long did it take for oil prices to come down after Obama announced oil reserves tapping?

                    If im not mistaken it took days....

                    • 4 votes
                    #3.9 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:07 PM EDT

                    Alex, please get a 5th graders understanding of how our government works. Then you'll see that the balanced budget of Clinton happened in a REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CONGRESS, and the accelerated slide off the cliff happened the last 2 years of Bush, UNDER A DEMOCRAT CONGRESS. It's seriously like talking to a group of 3rd graders on the vine sometimes.

                    • 3 votes
                    #3.10 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:13 PM EDT

                    You know i completely destroyed your idea of Obama quadrupling the debt. The best you can do know is call me a 3rd grader.

                    Look at your answer just now, you blame the whole thing on Clinton and then our president right now.

                    Just admitted man! your idea of Obama quadrupling the debt is false and you know it.

                    Tell me what legislation the democrats passed the last 2 years that contributed to the "slide off" ????

                    Bush could have easily veto anything Democrats sent hes way.

                    AND DON'T TELL ME TO GET A 5TH GRADER UNDERSTANDING OF GOVERNMENT IF YOU KEEP SAYING OBAMA QUADRUPLED OUR DEBT IN 2.5 YEARS.

                    • 6 votes
                    #3.11 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:41 PM EDT

                    In a spirited and unscripted debate with the House GOP, President Barack Obama said Republicans were wrong to portray him as running up large deficits.

                    Speaking at a retreat for House Republicans in Baltimore on Jan. 29, 2010, Obama was particularly critical of a question from Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas. Hensarling asked Obama, "You are soon to submit a new budget, Mr. President. Will that new budget, like your old budget, triple the national debt and continue to take us down the path of increasing the cost of government to almost 25 percent of our economy?"

                    "The fact of the matter is," Obama replied, "is that when we came into office, the deficit was $1.3 trillion -- $1.3 trillion. So when you say that suddenly I've got a monthly deficit that's higher than the annual deficit left by Republicans, that's factually just not true, and you know it's not true. And what is true is that we came in already with a $1.3 trillion deficit before I had passed any law. What is true is, we came in with $8 trillion worth of debt over the next decade."

                    • 4 votes
                    #3.12 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:46 PM EDT

                    “No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a AAA country.”

                    Denial: it ain’t just a river in Egypt.

                    • 2 votes
                    #3.13 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 12:28 AM EDT
                    Reply

                    Feisty,

                    does George Soros pay you time and a half on Saturdays?

                    Better cash all your checks quick, you know he is caught up in a sex scandal and will have to pay up...

                    • 10 votes
                    Reply#4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:38 PM EDT

                    Better cash all your checks quick, you know he is caught up in a sex scandal and will have to pay up...

                    Your concern is duly noted booby!

                    XOXO

                    Your #1 Soros monkey

                    • 14 votes
                    #4.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:41 PM EDT

                    Hopstradamus-1

                    Ha Ha Ha... you'd rather have all of the "Hope" and "Change" we have now? I'm not even from Texas, but I'll take my chances with ANYONE but the Big O, as in O-verspending, O-verrated and O-ver his head.

                    LOL WHAT? You have hanging over your head is a huge problem. Rick Perry prayed for rain for six days; as soon as OBAMA stepped into Texas it rained.

                    Better cash all your checks quick, you know he is caught up in a sex scandal and will have to pay up...

                    RUPERT MURDOCH is crumbling better chance your cable package soon to get the real news.

                    http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/171157

                    • 11 votes
                    #4.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:14 PM EDT

                    FR: " Gov. Nikki Haley said "I think his timing was brilliant". What's brilliant about being another carnival barker eating fried butter.

                    To put it bluntly, the American people think President is better.

                    on timing after 6 six days of rain praying President Obama cam

                    • 7 votes
                    #4.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:25 PM EDT

                    What is brilliant about being another "carnival barker" and eating fried butter? Perry should put that butter on his hair.

                    Speaking of timing, Rick Perry prayed for rain for six days; as soon as OBAMA stepped into Texas it rained.

                    Just saying...

                    • 17 votes
                    #4.4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:39 PM EDT

                    You are so brain-washed Beverly. Maybe we should make him an honorary Texan so it will rain all the time. Of course the rain would kill the state too, because it would be the tears of all those Liberal pinheads who lost their savior. Neither party is going to fix the country right away, but at least the republicans can come up with ideas. The democrats don't know how to think about anything but themselves.

                    The way I see it we have about 535 overpaid representatives and senators to get rid of and start fro scratch. We need to go bet back to the values that made this country great when it was first born, and quit sucking up to evryone else in the world. Take care of America first.

                    • 3 votes
                    #4.5 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:46 PM EDT

                    DR D


                    The way I see it we have about 535 overpaid representatives and senators to get rid of and start fro scratch. We need to go bet back to the values that made this country great when it was first born, and quit sucking up to evryone else in the world. Take care of America first.

                    Of course you do. Anarchist pea brained T-baggers see it that way. Just look how you anarchist pea brained T-baggers cheered when U S lost our credit rating and the stock.

                    market plunged

                    Take off those rd, whit and blue blinders.

                    • 9 votes
                    #4.6 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:05 PM EDT

                    Dr. D..what ideas do the republicans have again except tax breaks for their wealthy friends? Where are those jobs that were promised during the Bush administration when he slashed the tax rates for the wealthy? Yes, republicans are the ones who do for and think of others...their corporate masters.

                    • 9 votes
                    #4.7 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:11 PM EDT

                    Obama Got rain ?

                    Did he Get the BAT PHONE to GOD from the FAKE azzz WING NUTS ?

                    • 1 vote
                    #4.8 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:00 PM EDT

                    OLD GOP 1960,

                    If you knew anything about politics then you'd know theres no Bat Phone in the White House.

                      #4.9 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:59 PM EDT

                      The red communist in Illinois and her partner in activist social agitation, the beaver from chicago, have only one purpose on these boards: to inflame passions and stir up resentment and hatred for the purpose of forming a populace receptive to their violent bolshevik transformations.

                      Every one of their posts is overflowing with vitriol and resentment, every one serving one purpose only: agitation for class warfare.

                      Another way to say it is "incitement to riot."

                      When the flames and the broken windows come, remember, Lord, the role that these two creatures played in fanning the flames and hurling the stones.

                        #4.10 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:03 PM EDT

                        MSNBC, why do you keep throwing your "possible spam" trap in front of me? I'm no newcomer to this place. I'd posted not one other reply to this particular group of responses. Do you routinely throw this same hurdle in front of the red communist and her partner the chicago beaver? I doubt that. I doubt that very much.

                        Your bias, your agenda, and your goal, all are transparent. We already know how the totalitarians have seized control in those places where they wield their greatest power over the crushed populations in their 'workers' paradises.' They seized the newspapers and broadcasting stations. With such history as a guide, and the cries that still leak out from behind the iron curtain in places like China and North Korea, we already know where your world goes. How is it that you are still deceiving yourselves that no one sees what you are so plainly doing?

                          #4.11 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:11 PM EDT

                          well gee john - maybe you ARE spam... the "usual" reason is "cut-n-paste" entries

                          • 1 vote
                          #4.12 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:37 PM EDT
                          Reply

                          The words brilliant and Perry should never be uttered together if one's desire is to be taken seriously.

                          • 26 votes
                          Reply#5 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:50 PM EDT

                          Reading all these nasty comments, it really amazes me how we as a country can be so mean and nasty,ignorant. I sure don't see Obama and his party praising their merits on excellence especially a AA+ rating from a AAA. Obama and his shovel ready crap, stimulous fraud, cash for clunker flop, Obamacare lies which costing people high insurance, job killer choke holds. Yea you liberals are really proud of all that accomplishments. Hey Liberals & Obama were are the jobs? Oh thats right we have to look for them in China, even GE is shipping jobs there and that is Obama's buddy.!

                          • 3 votes
                          #5.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:10 PM EDT

                          Uh, non-partisan experts have said that the current administration is not to blame for the credit downgrade. They have put more blame on the refusal of the current Congress to take any new sources of revenue off the table.

                          And "Obamacare" hasn't even been implemented yet. How is that costing people higher insurance genius?

                          • 3 votes
                          #5.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:23 PM EDT

                          IF perry had a brain, he'd take it out and PLAY WITH IT

                            #5.3 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:39 PM EDT

                            LOL Canary you do know he balanced his state's budget, grew it's economy by 20%, and had the highest employment in the nation, right?

                            How's that all working out for Obama? Oh.....right.....

                              #5.4 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:22 AM EDT
                              Reply

                              "SC Gov. Haley: Perry's 'timing was brilliant'"

                              Yep. Any time we need an expert of brilliance look no further than South Carolina

                              • 18 votes
                              Reply#6 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:50 PM EDT

                              Isn't the GOP Presidential wannabe basket already too full of nuts?

                              • 24 votes
                              Reply#7 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:52 PM EDT

                              the more the merrier. You can never have too many nuts.

                              • 7 votes
                              #7.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:54 PM EDT

                              Any time we need an expert of brilliance look no further than South Carolina

                              Two words; Stephan Colbert.

                              • 4 votes
                              #7.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:01 PM EDT
                              Reply

                              Somebody give him a banana and tell him to STFU....

                              We are in no mood for another Texas idiot in the white house.

                              All the Y'all, Gall-lee and he-haw should stay in Texas....

                              Americans are tired of Texas critters with a habit of pickin their butts and howlin He-haw

                              • 19 votes
                              Reply#8 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:53 PM EDT

                              The latest "feature" - SHRUB 2.0

                                #8.1 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:41 PM EDT

                                "Hi. I'm a liberal. Our candidate sucks so bad that I can't possibly brag about him, so I need to make everyone else running against him look like sh!t. It's the only way I can keep my gubment checks coming in!"

                                  #8.2 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:23 AM EDT
                                  Reply

                                  Most citizens in Texas are horrified that Rick Perry is going to run for president
                                  Most citizens in Texas will testify that he is sneaky, dishonest, a liar, a thief and is totally self-serving.
                                  Most citizens in Texas will verify that his "prayer meeting" was a farce. This man has NEVER displayed any religious meetings before in his life as governor. This is a scam.
                                  Most citizens in Texas will verify that Rick Perry has destroyed TEXAS. His claims for people pouring in for jobs are ILLEGAL ALIENS>
                                  There are 2 million illegal aliens in TEXAS and more than 70% of them are on welfare.
                                  Rick Perry has taken Texas to a state of poverty and NO EDUCATION and our living status is likened to that of Mississippi.
                                  Rick Perry boasts that he has funds abundant to cover any and all possible emergencies that could ever happen in TEXAS. This is Not true

                                  Rick Perry is going to do anything he possibly can to NOT debate any other presidential candidate, because he is NOt qualified.

                                  Google: Texas' Elderly and poor left to suffer while state steals donations meant for utility assistance.
                                  Google: Rick Perry got the Texas Supreme Court to mandate that his travels and expense be secret and private from the citizens of Texas
                                  Google: Rick Perry takes $10,000 PER MONTH for a rent house from taxpayers
                                  Google: Rick Perry REFUSED to debate his opponent in the last election for governor.
                                  Google: Rick Perry took about $90,000 from a farmer's fund to let his property go idle - - just last week he said this practice should be stopped and is NOT good for taxpayers (but HE took the money)
                                  Google: Rick Perry gave handling of Texas toll roads to foreigners to manage
                                  Goog;e: Rick Perry is BOUGHT by Perry Homes to ensure their company in Texas.
                                  Google: Rick Perry touts that he creates jobs and population growth in TEXAS - HE DOES - illegal aliens get here as fast as they can.

                                  Sign on to The Houston Chronicle and have someone read this newspaper every day. The disgust for Rick Perry from the average citizen will be phenominal. Rick Perry is NOT respected in Texas.

                                  I hope, with all sincerity, that someone will bring these facts to light. America does NOT need Rick Perry and Texas does not either.

                                  • 30 votes
                                  #9 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:56 PM EDT

                                  And yet Texas reelected him? Sounds like you are trying to represent "most citizens" from Texas when, in fact, your opinions probably have been reinforced through hours of liberal circle-jerk rhetoric in the shallow safety of "the vine". Be careful if you wanna venture into the deep water, kiddo!

                                  Oh, and, how about you libs better get your talking points straight! David Axelrod said that Perry had "very little to do" with his state's economic success. (you can find the link on Drudge)

                                  That's strange, Olivia you paint such a bleak picture yet even the Obama Administration admits that the Texas economy is not in the crapper and Perry didn't have much to do with it anyway! So which is it? Either Texas is falling apart or it isn't. Either Perry is responsible for the success or failure in Texas, or he isn't.

                                  Oh, and I love the Houston Chronicle reference. Now there's a bastion of objectivity!

                                  • 9 votes
                                  #9.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:24 PM EDT

                                  olivia68

                                  "Most citizens in Texas are horrified that Rick Perry is going to run for president
                                  Most citizens in Texas will testify that he is sneaky, dishonest, a liar, a thief and is totally self-serving.
                                  Most citizens in Texas will verify that his "prayer meeting" was a farce. This man has NEVER displayed any religious meetings before in his life as governor. This is a scam.
                                  Most citizens in Texas will verify that Rick Perry has destroyed TEXAS. His claims for people pouring in for jobs are ILLEGAL ALIENS>
                                  There are 2 million illegal aliens in TEXAS and more than 70% of them are on welfare.
                                  Rick Perry has taken Texas to a state of poverty and NO EDUCATION and our living status is likened to that of Mississippi.
                                  Rick Perry boasts that he has funds abundant to cover any and all possible emergencies that could ever happen in TEXAS. This is Not true

                                  Rick Perry is going to do anything he possibly can to NOT debate any other presidential candidate, because he is NOt qualified.

                                  Google: Texas' Elderly and poor left to suffer while state steals donations meant for utility assistance.
                                  Google: Rick Perry got the Texas Supreme Court to mandate that his travels and expense be secret and private from the citizens of Texas
                                  Google: Rick Perry takes $10,000 PER MONTH for a rent house from taxpayers
                                  Google: Rick Perry REFUSED to debate his opponent in the last election for governor.
                                  Google: Rick Perry took about $90,000 from a farmer's fund to let his property go idle - - just last week he said this practice should be stopped and is NOT good for taxpayers (but HE took the money)
                                  Google: Rick Perry gave handling of Texas toll roads to foreigners to manage
                                  Goog;e: Rick Perry is BOUGHT by Perry Homes to ensure their company in Texas.
                                  Google: Rick Perry touts that he creates jobs and population growth in TEXAS - HE DOES - illegal aliens get here as fast as they can.

                                  Sign on to The Houston Chronicle and have someone read this newspaper every day. The disgust for Rick Perry from the average citizen will be phenominal. Rick Perry is NOT respected in Texas"

                                  WOW! Guess you HAVE all the facts???? How did he get elected and re-elected; seeing that you have all the facts on EVERYONE in Texas. Oh, by the way, I am from Texas.

                                  Apparently all those GREAT liberal cities, Detroit, Flint, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Chicago, etc. etc., should give Gov. Perry a position. Then perhaps all you jerk-off liberals could stay there instead of mucking up the best run state in the country with your baseless facts.

                                  • 13 votes
                                  #9.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:24 PM EDT

                                  Olivia, I had never heard of Rick Perry until two weeks ago when he gained more national prominence. I googled your recommendations and all I can say is OMG!!!!!

                                  Thank you Olivia and all the other Texans commenting in this forum. You are doing a real service to educate the public about this nutcase.

                                  • 18 votes
                                  #9.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:25 PM EDT

                                  Olivia: I'm 100% behind you there. The man is a slime, an opportunist and a true politician in every sense of the word. Looking over the field of possible candidates, I can't fathom another four years of Obama, all he knows how to do is spend and talk. The republicans up for office are scary, don't want what they pretend to stand for. Only one out there who will get my vote is Ron Paul. I'll write him in if he doesn't make the cut. All the rest are shills. If the democrats would offer up someone, anyone, but Obama I'd consider them but so far....Ron Paul 2012.

                                  Perry got re-elected because the man running against him didn't amount to much either. Plus, Texans and a great deal of the country were scared witless that more democrats would be elected. The country simply can't afford more democrats, we're 'entitled' to the max, broke and tossing 'stimulus money' at a problem only compounds the problem. Sorry, you can't spend your way out of debt, spin it however you will. Most Texans, contrary to what the liberals want to believe, aren't stupid hicks, they do care about the country and want true leadership, not more party hacks and for sure no more 'progressive' leadership that only further bancrupts an already overburdened system.

                                  • 8 votes
                                  #9.4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:29 PM EDT

                                  Rick Perry was elected governor of Texas THREE TIMES- the latest just last November
                                  Moreover, he had a well known primary challenger, Kay Bailey Hutchinson- and won the primary.

                                  Seems to me that if Texas was SOOOO unhappy with Perry as governor, they had ample chance to replace him.

                                  That they did not, speaks volumes. You, apparently, are in the minority.

                                  Kind like all other Obama supporters.

                                  • 11 votes
                                  #9.5 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:30 PM EDT

                                  He only got re-elected because he COVERED UP the actual financial crisis the state was in until AFTER the election, and because Texans are too pig headed to vote for a democrat even if he is DEMONSTRABLY the better candidate.

                                  • 17 votes
                                  #9.6 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:47 PM EDT

                                  no joe: he was re-elected because, like in our last presidental election,our choices weren't too great. Hutchinson backed out of the race because she was more important in Congress, also had more power in Congress. Of all the governer's, Texas' governer has the least amount of power. As to making the Obama supporter assumption, because a governer gets re-elected in a state should in no way imply that said state supports Obama, nor should you assume that because someone dislikes Perry that they're pro-Obama. False assumptions abound, apparently.

                                    #9.7 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:49 PM EDT

                                    Sounds like an investigation is due on just why a wildly unpopular candidate continues to run? Something does not smell right, in the great state of TX. Does he, apparently, get the Hispanic vote? What is going on?

                                    • 2 votes
                                    #9.8 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:52 PM EDT

                                    Looks like Perry and Obama are interchangeable. democrats put up another candidate if you want MY VOTE and the votes of most in CT. Our "blue" state is turning RED with outrage!!!!!

                                    • 1 vote
                                    #9.9 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:55 PM EDT

                                    Hutchinson did not back out- she was defeated.

                                    You are either uninformed or not telling the truth.

                                    Which is it?

                                    • 5 votes
                                    #9.10 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:06 PM EDT

                                    You are either uninformed or not telling the truth.

                                    Which is it?

                                    In your case BOTH!

                                    • 5 votes
                                    #9.11 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:10 PM EDT

                                    I hope you were being facetious, Cassandra.

                                    Here's how "unpopular" Perry is

                                    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2010/governor/tx/texas_governor_perry_vs_white-1194.html

                                    Strikes me as odd that these posters, who have had this man as governor for ten years, have not just moved out of state. You know, Illinois is blue. Real, real blue. So, the politics would suit them.

                                    Unemployment is sky high. Taxes are sky high. But, hey, they could feel really, really good about their governance.

                                    • 5 votes
                                    #9.12 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:14 PM EDT

                                    Most Texans will NEVER leave the state of Texas, no matter what condition it's in. It has nothing to do with politics. My husband and I are here because we have family near by and because California started cutting teaching positions and WE THOUGHT Texas would be more economically stable.

                                    Guess how many teaching positions had to be cut in my district after the election? Notice Perry waited until AFTER the election to mention that, by the way, the state is in a much worse financial state then he led everyone to believe. Trust me, Texas NEEDED those teachers, and those teachers NEEDED their jobs, but apparently Perry doesn't mind the fact that education in Texas has fallen to abysmal standards under his watch and plans to make it worse.

                                    • 7 votes
                                    #9.13 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:33 PM EDT

                                    And yet Texas reelected him?

                                    No one has ever accused Texans of being the sharpest tools in the shed. Nice people (I lived there for several years in the 80's), but not very smart when it comes to political choices.

                                    • 4 votes
                                    #9.14 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:39 PM EDT

                                    TEXAS LOGIC:

                                    Texan: Texas is the greatest state, in the greatest country in the world!

                                    Observer: Wow! Really? How many other states and countries have you visited for comparison?

                                    Texan: Why would I visist anywhere else? Texas is the greatest state in the greatest country in the world!

                                    ;) Don't get me wrong, there are many things I love about this state too, but this mindset is SOO common here and it cracks me up every time I hear it!

                                    • 3 votes
                                    #9.15 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:55 PM EDT

                                    @mygirl1 " no joe: he was re-elected because, like in our last presidental election,our choices weren't too great. Hutchinson backed out of the race because she was more important in Congress, also had more power in Congress" To know so much about Texas and our last election, I would think that you also know that Hutchinson is one of the states 2 senators.

                                    • 1 vote
                                    #9.16 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:14 PM EDT

                                    [Rick Perry was elected governor of Texas THREE TIMES- the latest just last November.]

                                    Just a classic case of "you can't fix stipid"...

                                    • 3 votes
                                    #9.17 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:20 PM EDT

                                    Uh, yes, senators are members of congress, last time I checked. She would have had to quit the senate to be governor.

                                      #9.18 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:22 PM EDT
                                      Reply

                                      And to Governor Haley - WAKE UP - YOU ARE BEING SHELLACKED.

                                      • 5 votes
                                      Reply#10 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:57 PM EDT

                                      more "Tarred with the same brush as perry"

                                        #10.1 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:45 PM EDT
                                        Reply

                                        Who could possibly want another right wing Texan in the White House after the complete disaster of the last one? A fiasco which we are still paying for and for which we will be paying for decades! Perry is another extreme right wing ideologue, maybe even worse than the last one, plus Perry is a religious zealot. This sad sack even advocated that Texas could secede from the Union! Perry is unAmerican and anti-USA for suggesting that his state could secede from the United States. There is no two ways about this! Anyone who is not aware of how bad it actually is in Texas should Google: "Texas on the Brink 2011"

                                        • 18 votes
                                        Reply#11 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:57 PM EDT

                                        You're an idiot. I can only assume you're ignorant enough to believe the mess we're in is somehow "still" Bush's fault? I'm an independent, as our two party system is antiquated and useless, so spare yourself the wasteful typing to rip me for being GOP LOL. We're no longer a AAA country for one reason... Obama's O-verspending, O-verrated "Hope and Change" Seems to me like it's politics as usual. Spend, Spend, Spend... answer me this? Where does it end?

                                        • 9 votes
                                        #11.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:09 PM EDT

                                        Hopstradamus-1

                                        Why on earth would anyone think W had anything to do with "the mess"?

                                        Just because we had a balanced budget, surplus and lower expenditures when he was appointed by SCOTUS and immediately lowered taxes for his wealthy friends and supporters and began defecit spending... RNC has rationalized all of that for the "libbies" nuerous times and explained it away. So what if the talking points are illogical, they say it, so the voters should believe it, Right? What is wrong with them? The rhetoric CLEARLY states that President Obama is the culprit... HE did it all with the progressive, pinko congress supporting. I mean, come on - what do they want anyhow? We "independents" go for the story - why don't the voters?

                                        • 10 votes
                                        #11.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:25 PM EDT

                                        How do I apply to get a rating like feisty redhead, and how much does it pay? I would like to have an account that no-one can respond too as well.

                                        • 2 votes
                                        #11.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:56 PM EDT

                                        Hopstradamus-1,

                                        You say it's "Obama's overspending" - FALSE

                                        S&P's reasoning was political. They have no faith in the Congress's ability to work together and with the President. Bachmann stated in the debate last night, that we were downgraded "because of America's inability to repay its debt." - also FALSE

                                        S&P has repeatedly stated that is NOT the case. It is in fact a failure of our political process. Let's clear up any confusion on this.... Here is full text of S&P's explanation:

                                        The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics.

                                      • More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.

                                      • Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics any time soon.

                                      • The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to 'AA' within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.

                                        • 10 votes
                                        #11.4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:58 PM EDT

                                        ....so you see S&P blames Congress and the Administration, Dems and Republicans alike, for their downgrade. But seeing as how Republicans got "99% of what they wanted" according to John Boehner, it's kind of hard to blame Obama.

                                        The only thing I blame Obama for is not having the spine to DEMAND the balanced approach he wanted (spending cuts and revenues) that could have actually prevented the downgrade.

                                        • 7 votes
                                        #11.5 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:08 PM EDT

                                        The right-wing apparently cannot reason for themselves. Why did President Obama have to do so much deficit spending? Because of George W. Bush and the 8 years of unfunded spending the GOP passed and he signed; the economy collapse because of GOP policies which sent millions to the unemployment line and further reduced federal revenues; two unfunded wars left by Bush for the next President to finish and a host of other poor economic and fiscally IRRESPONSIBLE Bush/GOP policies.

                                        We are where we are thanks to President Bush. Had President Obama been given even some cooperation by the GOP minority Senate instead of obstruct, delay, deny, our economy would be in much better shape than it is now and the deficit would be lower because of it. Job-creating legislation sits on the Senate shelf gathering dust because of the GOP; the GOP House has yet to pass even one jobs bill despite numerous ones offered by democrats but they are not brought to the floor for debate and vote. Want something done to solve our problems, send every republican an e-mail telling them to start earning their paychecks; we do not pay them to obstruct.

                                        Get serious, people, it is republicans who are the problem in Congress, S&P confirmed it. Rigid ideology from right-wing extremists is killing this country. I have in the past voted for some republicans but not in years because I vote my pocketbook not the pocketbook I would like to have; I watch what they do not what they say; I research their actual actions not what they claim. No GOP candidate in any local, state or national election will ever get my vote again.

                                        • 9 votes
                                        #11.6 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:36 PM EDT

                                        Hi Jody;

                                        The right-wing apparently cannot reason for themselves

                                        Did you catch the CNN piece? Check it out:


                                        Are Republicans at war with
                                        reality?

                                        articles.cnn.com

                                        So here's what I learned watching Thursday
                                        night's Republican debate:States' rights should rule the day, unless you're
                                        gay.Small government is the rule unless a rapist impregnates his
                                        victim.Loyalty ...

                                        Appears you are correct, and I think everyone know it.

                                        • 5 votes
                                        #11.7 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:54 PM EDT

                                        cjsk: it is the massive and unsustainable debt and no real concerns directed at dealing with and bringing down said debt. It is bi-partisan bickering, ideological clashes, it is bailouts that don't address the root causes for the need for the bailouts, it is allowing the same foxes into the henhouse, it is a number of things and issues which, when condensed down to a few words is: 14.7 trillion debt and counting.

                                        • 1 vote
                                        #11.8 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:27 PM EDT

                                        cj - logic and facts have no place in this rhetorical circle jerk.

                                          #11.9 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:49 PM EDT

                                          If your "logic and facts" are your opinion that only the Republicans had a hand in the mess we're in, then yes, we could do without it. Go sell crazy somewhere else. We're all full up here.

                                            #11.10 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:25 AM EDT
                                            Reply

                                            Timing is everything? Sound like avoidance to me and not wanting to be in the debate fray. Or just ego that "Im a gunna win that thar Presidencie". I'll pass, the GOP needs to reload as this completes the "Dirty Dozen" and still does not work. I did not believe Obama had a chance at re-election but he will coast with this competition.

                                            • 8 votes
                                            Reply#12 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:00 PM EDT

                                            South Carolina Governor is an idiot. Wouldn't know perfect timing if it hit her in the face.

                                            • 13 votes
                                            Reply#13 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:00 PM EDT

                                            She is in good company. Big mouth Joe is from there.

                                            • 4 votes
                                            #13.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:03 PM EDT
                                            Reply

                                            FACT! Obama LOOSES against any unnamed Republican nominee. The GOP could nominate a corpse it would still win...

                                            FACT! Texas has done a beautiful job keeping dumocrats out of office. As a result, they have the BEST OUTSTANDING economy of any state in the nation..

                                            FACT! dumocratic states like CA, NY, MI, IL have the worst economies. (But I guess that all just a coincidence...right?)

                                            • 7 votes
                                            #14 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:00 PM EDT

                                            FACT! Obama LOOSES against any unnamed Republican nominee.

                                            FACT! President Obama will not be running against an unnamed Republican candidate. The candidate he will be facing will have a name.

                                            So, why is it that as soon as you ad a name into the equation President Obama leads them in the current polling averages?

                                            www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/president_obama_vs_republican_candidates.html

                                            PS - Try "loses" next time.

                                            • 14 votes
                                            #14.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:06 PM EDT

                                            LOL...

                                            realclear? Why don't you just ask CNN to do an unbiased poll as well?

                                            • 6 votes
                                            #14.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:15 PM EDT

                                            FACT! Obama's approval rating is BELOW Bush's... how do you Democratic sheep respond to that? And don't waste your time blasting me for being GOP. I'm neither, and VERY PROUDLY neither. Two party system needs to die. When 300+ million people are only given a chance to vote for two people to run our country in to the ground, we get what we deserve with the "winner" HA HA HA

                                            • 9 votes
                                            #14.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:15 PM EDT

                                            LOL...

                                            realclear? Why don't you just ask CNN to do an unbiased poll as well?

                                            What's the matter, Gybsy? Your original post claiming that the link showed that Perry led by +10.8 over Obama no longer applies, eh? Appears my reading is just fine, thank you.

                                            So, what, now you're going to claim that this is biased? FOX News' poll (Obama +10) is included in this average so perhaps you'd like to try again.

                                            • 7 votes
                                            #14.4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:18 PM EDT

                                            I think all of ths

                                              #14.5 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:26 PM EDT

                                              Hey retard! No one but you teabaggers are buying that load you are carrying in your Depends.

                                              • 5 votes
                                              #14.6 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:26 PM EDT

                                              FACT! California just got rid of a republican governor who nearly bankrupted the state: Mr. Family Values, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

                                              • 13 votes
                                              #14.7 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:30 PM EDT

                                              a rhino republican same as a liberal democrats OK same crap differant tie

                                              • 2 votes
                                              #14.8 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:38 PM EDT

                                              Just so you know, for the first time, Houston, elected an openly gay mayor. Houston turned BLUE in 2008. Texans are WISING UP finally...

                                              Rick Perry, the "P" is silent in Rick, by the way, is a total slimeball. All we need is ANOTHER right wing religious fanatical yahoo from Texas to screw up our country even more than it already has been.

                                              Rick Perry voted to cut family planning programs for low income women (I'm NOT even talking about abortion here), voted to cut TXCHIP (state health insurance for low income children) and continues to cut education funding. He considers Medicare and Social Security "unconstitutional", but he is going to be sure he gets HIS Medicare and SS. Rick Perry is unconstitutional and downright unAmerican. He actually has ideas of seceding from the US.

                                              I wouldn't elect that slimeball to the position of dog catcher, let alone any other office.

                                              • 10 votes
                                              #14.9 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:39 PM EDT

                                              Hey - Arnie wasn't all that bad - he just found out that he was not elected "KING of CA", he actually had to get consensus to get anything done. He could NOT get consensus. Just like at the Fed level with the divided congress - nada.

                                                #14.10 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:56 PM EDT

                                                I live in Michigan and the reason we are in such bad shape is because of John Engler, You might know him, he was from TX and is back there now. He like all other Rep's Screwed this state up and the Dem's get left to clean up the mess. Just like when Little Bush took the surplus and turned it into the biggest deficits in history. And now everyone tries to hang that onto President Obama. BS. I lived down there in TX for 4 years and I couldn't waite to get out of that state. It was like living in a third world country. We should have left you to Mexico. Maybe Perry will make you your own country like he keeps talking about. First time something happens like those fires, he will be crying for help from the US government.

                                                • 8 votes
                                                #14.11 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:58 PM EDT

                                                Actually, Noid, something like this subject came up the other day.

                                                What the polls show, this far out, with no opposition nominee, is that

                                                A. People believe a republican candidate will win the presidential race, and

                                                B. No particular nominee inspires that much confidence that that particular nominee can win.

                                                In other words, these are not polls that really tell you for whom an individual polled will vote, but their predictions about the outcome.

                                                Your side has a much bigger problem- polling that indicates a growing number of people will not, under any circumstances, vote to reelect Obama. That is a hard number.

                                                See, there are a lot of people who voted for Obama who will nog vote to reelect him, although they will not vote republican. So, if they DO vote, it will be for a Green Party candidate, or some other, out of left field, choice. More will just stay home.

                                                I suggest you go back to realclearpolitics and take a look at the Obama approval polls. Pay particular attention to the Democracy Corps poll- a truly democratic polling organization, which they proclaim, proudly. Take a look at the number who will not vote for Obama, the number that probably will not vote for Obama, and the number who say there is a slight chance they will vote for Obama.

                                                Not a very good number.

                                                I don't think labeling Mormonism as "weird", or Perry as unpopular, (which is laughable), is going to work this time out. The helium has gone out of the hope balloon, and people are looking for a change. They, therefore, will be listening and paying attention to what the opposition is saying, not how the democrats are trying to demonize them.

                                                People are sick of Obama's failures, and his childish penchant for blaming everybody and everything- except himself. It's only my opinion, but I think people could have forgiven a failure or two, govern his lack of experience, provided he'd owned the failure, and not doubled down on it. The fact that he cannot or will not admit that his policies are to blame for the increased debt and unemployment level, and shrinking GDP, (to say nothing of his foreign policy failures), is feeding the level of disapproval.

                                                People may, still, claim to like him personally, but as president? They know he's failed. Even Democrats know he's failed.

                                                The only person put of the loop seems to be Obama.

                                                So, yeah, people

                                                • 4 votes
                                                #14.12 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:00 PM EDT

                                                So I guess Governor Goodhair will become.....President Pompadour?

                                                • 2 votes
                                                #14.13 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:21 PM EDT

                                                Well, anything is better than President It's Not My Fault.

                                                • 7 votes
                                                #14.14 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:30 PM EDT

                                                Hey Chuck, guess who else from MI ended up in TX?

                                                • 1 vote
                                                #14.15 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:48 PM EDT

                                                For those taking great glee at Obama's low poll numbers...take a look at the poll numbers of ANY of the republicans. They're lower. Yes Obama looks vulnerable. Right up until you put him next to one of these joksters.

                                                • 4 votes
                                                #14.16 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:08 PM EDT

                                                Vote for Rick Parry! Thats Parry with an A. An A for America.

                                                • 1 vote
                                                #14.17 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:13 PM EDT

                                                ...and "A" for IowA!

                                                • 1 vote
                                                #14.18 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:27 PM EDT

                                                Chucky, John Engler was born in Mount Pleasant, Mi, and as far as I know he still lives in that run down state.

                                                • 1 vote
                                                #14.19 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:30 PM EDT

                                                So give the RETHUGs an INCH and they'll GYP everyone not "rich".

                                                Vote for perry - that's a vote for "A" as in "@!$%#"

                                                  #14.20 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:52 PM EDT

                                                  Gyp is a racist term. Another "tolerant" post from the "tolerant" left.

                                                    #14.21 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:25 AM EDT
                                                    Reply

                                                    His timing might be brilliant, but there is just too much that is so negative about this guy, besides just being the Governor of Texas. Perhaps he believes no one will find out about any of it?

                                                    Rick Perry is responsible for an over $30 billion deficit and the low/minimum wage pay no benefit jobs he's bragging about, and all his other policies in his state that are abject failures and have dessimated the middle and working class. Rick Perry has threatened secession more than once? Rick Perry believes that everything from federal public school programs to clean air laws, along with Social Security and Medicare, are unconstitutional?

                                                    http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/7009-rick-perry-social-security-and-medicare-are-unconstitutional

                                                    His policies are and agenda is no different than the middle and working class killing agenda proposed by the republican/conservative/teabaggers. The only difference is he does not try to gloss and deceive the American people about what his real plan is, he just says it.

                                                    Oh, and then there is this other problem with Rick Perry. Perry and his prophet/apostle preachers of the New Apostolic Reformation movement are downright frightening.

                                                    On September 28, 2009, at 1:40 p.m., God’s messengers visited Rick Perry.

                                                    On this day, the Lord’s messengers arrived in the form of two Texas pastors, Tom Schlueter of Arlington and Bob Long of San Marcos, who called on Perry in the governor’s office inside the state Capitol. Schlueter and Long both oversee small congregations, but they are more than just pastors. They consider themselves modern-day apostles and prophets, blessed with the same gifts as Old Testament prophets or New Testament apostles.

                                                    The pastors told Perry of God’s grand plan for Texas. A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government. And the governor would have a special role.

                                                    The day before the meeting, Schlueter had received a prophetic message from Chuck Pierce, an influential prophet from Denton, Texas. God had apparently commanded Schlueter—through Pierce—to “pray by lifting the hand of the one I show you that is in the place of civil rule.”

                                                    Gov. Perry, it seemed.

                                                    Schlueter had prayed before his congregation: “Lord Jesus I bring to you today Gov. Perry. ... I am just bringing you his hand and I pray Lord that he will grasp ahold of it. For if he does you will use him mightily.” -Forrest Wilder

                                                    http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/rick-perrys-army-of-god

                                                    Oh, and there is that one other problem for Perry. He allowed an innocent man be executed when he had information proving NO CRIME WAS EVEN COMMITTED in plenty of time to grant a stay. Justice for Cameron Todd Willingham will be Perry going down in flames in this election.

                                                    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

                                                    http://camerontoddwillingham.com/

                                                    http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Cameron_Todd_Willingham_Wrongfully_Convicted_and_Executed_in_Texas.php

                                                    Another inconceiva­ble aspect to the Willingham case is that Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted in 1992 for the fire in 1991 that killed his three daughters. Four years earlier, Ernest Ray Willis was sentenced to death for setting a fire that killed two women in Iraan, Texas. Both men claimed that they were innocent of the murders. Similar arson investigat­ions – including “scientifi­c” methods that have been debunked – led to both conviction­s. But the two cases reached very different conclusion­s in 2004. Willingham was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004. On October 6 of the same year, Willis was freed after a state judge heard new evidence pointing to his innocence and threw out his conviction­.

                                                    Rick Perry has the blood of Cameron Todd Willingham on his hands.

                                                    • 9 votes
                                                    Reply#15 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:00 PM EDT

                                                    That is truly awful. :(

                                                      #15.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:57 PM EDT

                                                      You know Perry will have Oil money behind him, Infont of him and all around him. They want to keep getting Government Subsidies

                                                      WHY do we give Oil Companies like Exxon Subsidies?

                                                      Exxon reported a profit of $10.68 billion, or $2.18 per share, up from $7.56 billion, or $1.60 per share a year ago.

                                                      That is just the most recent QUARTER, not the year, I have no problem with profits, BUT why are they getting US Govt Subsidies too?

                                                        #15.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:28 PM EDT
                                                        Reply

                                                        Perry/Palin - "yow, that's the ticket" and get a free bottle of Snake Oil.

                                                        • 8 votes
                                                        Reply#16 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:01 PM EDT

                                                        Ha Ha Ha... I enjoy reading ignorance. Let me guess... you're gonna blindly continue to follow Obama into the abyss? I'm not from Texas, and I certainly don't claim either party (America's two party system is antiquated and a joke) but I'd take ANYONE at this point beside the O-ver his head, O-verrated, O-ver budget incumbent. America is already three years into his mess (we long ago escaped Bush's shadow of ineptitude) and he's proven time and again... his "hope and change" is to throw money at it and hope it goes away. Let me ask you this? Who's going to pay for all of this down the road? Unless you're 80 yrs old and won't be around to see the "reap these benefits"...

                                                        Partisan politics is ridiculous... voting for a particular party because "that's my party" is very herd like. Let's grow up America, and use our intellect.

                                                        • 6 votes
                                                        Reply#17 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:02 PM EDT

                                                        I agree! Anyone is better than what we have now. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                        • 8 votes
                                                        #17.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:04 PM EDT

                                                        Hopstradamus-1 -

                                                        You are the poster child for the Republican and Teabagging party! Keep talking you are losing your fight! Your talking points are old and worn out - give it a rest! You are not an indedpendent or even an independent thinker. You are one person with a Very Loud Voice

                                                        • 7 votes
                                                        #17.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:11 PM EDT

                                                        O-ver his head, O-verrated, O-ver budget

                                                        Hops... please keep posting the same tired out slogan over and over and over... don't think we all get it yet... I'm pretty sure you don't, so you have to keep posting your crap over and over to convince yourself...

                                                        • 5 votes
                                                        #17.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:24 PM EDT

                                                        Hopstradamous

                                                        PLEASE GIVE US A BREAK!

                                                        You are a total TeaRep, deal with it, we already know, you are deluding yourself

                                                        • 1 vote
                                                        #17.4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:30 PM EDT
                                                        Reply

                                                        The timing was yet another Perry gimmick.

                                                        The President of Texas called his kickoff rally a "prayer meeting."

                                                        http://theresponseusa.com/leadership.php

                                                        Now he waits till right after the Iowa straw poll debate to comically burst onto the scene. How obvious and corny.

                                                        • 5 votes
                                                        Reply#18 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:03 PM EDT

                                                        The South Carolina Governor is an idiot. She wouldn't know "perfect timing" if it hit her in the face. I second Siara Delyn's sentiments. And....I am from South Carolina.

                                                          Reply#19 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:03 PM EDT

                                                          How are the property taxes in Texas. Draft Chuck Hagl for President.

                                                          • 1 vote
                                                          Reply#20 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:03 PM EDT

                                                          Better than in New York, Yank! And diddya know? We don't have a state tax either! We actually get to hold on to more of our money. What a concept!

                                                          • 2 votes
                                                          #20.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:32 PM EDT

                                                          No Big Cow

                                                          What your satiate does is now tow to the oil interests and they bring in so much of the rest of the countries money you don't need it. Just like Alaska.

                                                          You rape the US economy and WE pay your taxes.

                                                          But don't begin to pretend that you don't pay them because of some wonderful fiscal plan

                                                            #20.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:32 PM EDT
                                                            Reply

                                                            I've read up on Perry, don't agree with his social policies, but if he can put the religious tones aside when it comes to campaigning, I could see him getting some centrist support. While his "prayer summit" struck me initially as blatant pandering, he pulled it off with some tact and gave me pause about whether I kinda like the guy. If you're politically astute you know how to recognize who you're alienating, and how to get the votes. I'd welcome some feedback, but he does look to be a formidable candidate, and he did time this quite well. Especially considering the current perception of the GOP field at Thurs night's debate. I'd think most people would call it a win to have opted out of that mess.

                                                            • 2 votes
                                                            Reply#21 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:06 PM EDT

                                                            I know it's popular to rail against the federal government while trying to BECOME part of the federal government, but Perry has shown such disdain for anyone with another point of view (i.e. those who badly wanted the federal dollars for education and infrastructure and healthcare Perry shunned) that he's just too extreme to win outside his base in a national election. Unlike Mitt, he can't even pretend to care.

                                                            • 2 votes
                                                            #21.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:05 PM EDT
                                                            Reply

                                                            Maybe he can take part of that government loan he got after he rejected the stimulus money to help set up his campaign of "brilliance" he's going to run.

                                                            • 3 votes
                                                            Reply#22 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:07 PM EDT

                                                            Haley said that she's advised Perry - whom she described in her formal remarks as a "superstar" -- to reach out to activists all over South Carolina, adding that she believes he will find that state "very welcoming."

                                                            What, she's going to drop on her knees?

                                                            • 5 votes
                                                            Reply#23 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:11 PM EDT

                                                            su·per·star

                                                               /ˈsupərˌstɑr/ Show Spelled[soo-per-stahr] noun

                                                            1. a person, as a performer or athlete, who enjoys wide recognition, is esteemed for exceptional talent, and is eagerly sought after for his or her services.

                                                            2. any very prominent or successful person or thing

                                                            Governor Haley is as illiterate as the people that buy her Kool-Aid crap!

                                                            Rick Perry is not a Superstar! He is a con man. I do not believe his act will play well outside his serfdom!

                                                            Party is over!

                                                            • 1 vote
                                                            #23.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:26 PM EDT

                                                            If Haley dropped on her knees before Perry, he would vomit...see Haley is a girl...Perry don't play that!

                                                            (Sorry could not resist)

                                                              #23.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:33 PM EDT
                                                              Reply

                                                              Wall Street will definitely bank-roll this idiot for president.  Texas is last in education in the US and has some of the lowest paying jobs in the country as well.

                                                              oh Yeah... don't leave out the huge debt crisis in Texas as well.

                                                              Those Wal-Mart & McDonalds jobs have really pumped up the Texas economy.  lol     Being dumb and broke is not a success story that needs to be spread across the country.

                                                              • 12 votes
                                                              Reply#24 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:12 PM EDT

                                                              Hey googledud - give us those facts please. I want to see the proof in your numbers re: education in Texas and lowest paying jobs in the nation. And the Huffington Post doesn't count. At least Texas has more people working than in your great state. Low paying jobs may not be the greatest, but AT LEAST THEY ARE WORKING! You see, dud, some of us believe that working is better than sitting at home watching Sport Center or playing Angry Birds all day. It's a pride thing, ya know? Oh, wait...sorry, I forgot who I was talking to. You probably think going to the unemployment/welfare office counts as an income! Right! And guess what? Since I pay your 'salary' you actually work for me!! So, quit sittin' around and wasting my money! Straighten up or I'll fire your butt!

                                                              • 3 votes
                                                              #24.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:26 PM EDT

                                                              OK

                                                              Texas ranks 51st in % getting a high school diploma (DC is included in the list)

                                                              http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/public-education/why-does-texas-rank-last-in-high-school-diplomas/

                                                              Texas Ranks 49th in the nation in Verbal SAT scores, 46th in Math SAT

                                                              Texas 47th in NATION IN LITERACY

                                                              http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/opinion/17gailcollins.html

                                                              Per your request and no Huffington Post, Actually they were quoting Barbara Bush (Jan 2011)

                                                              This month, The Houston Chronicle published an opinion piece by the former first lady titled “We Can’t Afford to Cut Education,” in which Mrs. Bush pointed out that students in Texas currently rank 47th in the nation in literacy, 49th in verbal SAT scores and 46th in math scores.

                                                              http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7414727.html

                                                              • 3 votes
                                                              #24.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:45 PM EDT

                                                              Now Big Mouth on the Low Paying Jobs:

                                                              9.5% OF TEXANS ARE PAID AT OR BELOW THE MINIMUM WAGE, IN THE US IT IS 6%

                                                              http://www.bls.gov/ro6/fax/minwage_tx.htm

                                                              In 2010, about 550,000 Texans were working at or below minimum wage, or about 9.5 percent of all workers paid by the hour in the state. Texas tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers, while California had among the fewest (less than 2 percent).

                                                              http://washingtonindependent.com/111212/wsj-lauds-texas-economy-marked-by-jobs-including-a-lot-of-low-paying-ones

                                                              Through that article you will find likes to source data--so I won't post those here again

                                                              Again per your request and No Huffington

                                                              So you owe Googledude an apology and you need to be the one who is 'fired' ...please stop wasting the time of those who post the truth. Straighten up of I will fire your butt"

                                                              • 2 votes
                                                              #24.3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:59 PM EDT

                                                              play nice kiddies...

                                                                #24.4 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:54 PM EDT

                                                                frankly.....

                                                                We all know you'd rather sit on your ass and collect unemployment then do what is needed in this ecconomic crash (get two jobs, take a minimum wage job, etc). Some people are content to get their minimum wage for now. Trying to diminish the accomplishments of Perry by saying "Yeah, he created the most jobs, but a lot ofthem are minimum wage!" shows how out of touch you are with reality. Newsflash......most the jobs created in this craphole of an economy are minimum wage.

                                                                  #24.5 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:28 AM EDT
                                                                  Reply

                                                                  Now we will really have to pray.....but for the country. Hell ...obviously the man cannot even govern a state!

                                                                  • 8 votes
                                                                  Reply#25 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:16 PM EDT

                                                                  Start by asking God to give you a single brain cell to make an informed, intelligent comment. Texan are you? Probably not...bet you live in Seattle, the birthplace of the $7 cup of coffee.

                                                                  • 2 votes
                                                                  #25.1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:12 PM EDT

                                                                  25 BILLION in the hole... just what the USA needs - a potential president who can't derive INCOME for the state to balance the books... (that ALONE is enough to disqualify him from consideration as POTUS)

                                                                    #25.2 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:56 PM EDT

                                                                    .....how was Illinois when Obama became president? More then that in the hole. Fail logic is fail.

                                                                    PS - http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979905155

                                                                    Last I checked.....balanced meant balanced.....not 25 billion in the hole. Perhaps you should actually do some research and not just regurgitate what your talking heads tell you to?

                                                                      #25.3 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:30 AM EDT
                                                                      Reply
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