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MUSCATINE, Iowa -- Pray away the gaffe?
The famously mistake-prone Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that he prayed before a campaign event in Iowa to ask God to help him deliver an error-free performance.
Asked by a woman at the Button Factory Restaurant about the role prayer plays in his life, Perry responded, "Well, I prayed right before I walked over here that I wouldn't make any mistakes that my friends in the media would be able to put on television."
The Texas governor grinned and looked out at the assembled media on the press riser -- the traveling press pool currently includes eight reporters -- before turning back to the questioner.
"I pray a lot," he continued, "because I'm prone to make a lot of mistakes."
Perry was warmly received by the crowd of about 150 in the riverfront town, and he won particularly strong applause for his discussion of his faith.
When an audience member questioned him on how to get God back into America, Perry professed to huge applause that "God hasn't ever left."
"He's still here," Perry said. "He's still available."
He added, "I think it's time to have a president of the United States, who will stand up say, 'Listen, I'm not afraid to admit I'm a Christian.' I'm not afraid to stand up and say, 'I'm a Christian.'"
Perry, who was accompanied by backer Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) for a second day, avoided even any veiled criticism of the rest of the GOP field, choosing instead to focus his ire at the president's foreign policy.
"This president, who fashions himself to be the great debater, the great negotiator, has made the world more dangerous," Perry said of Obama. "And he's made it more dangerous, because those who are hostile to the United States don't really feel that America will stand up."
And the populist-pitching governor coined a new term for the mortgage giants that he argues defrauded the American people before the 2008 financial crisis.
"They should call it not necessarily Freddie and Fannie," Perry said. "I call it a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. They are stealing from the people is what's going on."
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No, no, no. This is just way too easy. And it is the holiday season. I think I will pass on this. (giggle)
I had the same thought, phine. Wouldn't be fair.
He's getting more and more desperate isn't he.... ;-))
On any other day, I would jump on this. However, today I will also pass.
As Archer would say: "What? ...I could've, like, totally crushed that!"
Perry: Oh lawd, please forgive me. I hit the red button by mistake. You know father, I am prone to making a lot of mistakes.
Really, is he trying to shoot himself in the foot?
Oh, just kill me now!
ahh perhaps, post hoc, ergo propter hoc??? Maybe he makes mistakes because he pays a lot. What mistakes? The execution of mentally retarded? The execution of questionably guilty people? Perfect hair - and that's it.
The only thing crazier than Perry thinking he could even run for presidential office is the fact that he won an election as a state governor. Hmm, maybe there is something to prayer, because clearly even that must have required an act of God. Or maybe it was just Loki messing with us again.
Gee, First Read playing straight man for all of the smug atheists again. But, on the other hand, MSNBC wouldn't know actual journalism if it jumped up and bit them square in the ass.
phinephancy-4252115
It's not his fault; he was born that way...
I thought of a dozen or so easy remarks, but gave up trying to decide which one.
Happy Holidays;
Spider ... one doesn't have to be an atheist to see the humor in this.
Spider, but yet you come here day after day to read and comment. msnbc must be doing something right, or are you just stupid and like to read stuff you hate??
So if he prays a lot and still makes all the mistakes that he does do we even want to consider him for POTUS???
Gee, what would happen to the country if he missed church just one Sunday!!?!? OMG!!!
Its the holidays and the GOP just keeps on providing more and more laughter!!
I wonder what heinous professional infractions these reporters committed to warrant such a cruel sentence . . .
God to Perry: "OK, everyone is just totally laughing their asses off now, its time for you to drop out of the race dimwit."
I think that Perry has had a lot of unanswered prayers ...... but that is probably true of everyone who prays.
- Democratic National Committee
Well if you're already spending so much time on your knees, ooops, I mean how did Perry remain Governor for 10 friggin' years?! Luck, low-information voters thanks to Texan history books, throwing lots of red meat, kick backs, Ann Richards was already destroyed by Dubya...
rrobeson, as someone who just recently left Texas, and after living there for over 5 years, I can tell you that it wasn't prayer that got him elected Governor, it was the rank stupidity of most Texans.
I'm not much for this guy or any of the others in the GOP but at least he admits that he makes mistakes. Many of us do yet very few of us will actually admit it.
That one really was just TOO easy. Does he think before he opens his mouth?
rrobesonThe only thing crazier than Perry thinking he could even run for presidential office is the fact that he won an election as a state governor.
Well, we are talking Texas here, after all. The state that elected George W. Bush. In the United States, that RE-elected George W. Bush.
I wish Texas would rid us of Rep. Jeb Hensarling as well. He has reminded us of the most recent biggest lie of the year, saying the House gave the president everything he wanted. Riiiight, like the pipeline the president said he would veto. Is Hensarling eating off lead plates or something? Man, I haven't heard so much spin since, okay it was only since last Sunday on Meet the Press--Boehner was a close tie.
This is not a very encouraging self endorsement from a candidate for the oval office.
1) He makes a lot of mistakes. (not a very strong point for the job he's running for since some of those mistakes could have extreme and long term consequences we don't want or need)
2) You may also need to pray a lot if he gets elected. (see #1)
I expect a candidate to say that they have the confidence and ability to do the job even if I don't agree with their own assessment of themselves. I would hesitate to hire a person for even a low level position that depended on their decision making if they represented themselves this way.
None of us expects anyone to be perfect, but warning us ahead of time that they expect to make mistakes is a red flag to anyone hiring to fill a position. It's almost like it will excuse them later when they do screw up by saying "Hey, I told you I wasn't very good at this, but you hired me anyway so it's all your fault and not mine".
I agree with alot of the post's ...to easy to jump all over Perry on this one.
It's kind of like pulling the chair out from under someone who's "special".
If there is a God (and I believe there is) he/she/it must have a really sick sense of humor. These Republican twits are praying away for themselves (their campaigns) and and this is what we end up with? Just think if God DIDN'T intervene on occasion. Heaven help us, we certainly don't need another Texas Twit in the oval office. We have 300 million people in this country and can't find someone reasonably qualified to run? Oh, that's right right, anyone with with an iota of sanity wouldn't want to deal with this economic mess that's been expanding for more than 20 years.
Perry - you are an idiot of major proportion. That praying sh.t is what gets you in trouble. Pull your head out off your arss and breath some fresh air so you can find your way back home.
I don't remember any Presidential candidate using his religion as a cudgel the way Perry does.
Huckabee didn't even get close. Heck, even Pat Robertson was more restrained than Perry.
I guess that is all Perry has going for him.
I'd make a comment about praying away the gay, but it is the holiday season, so I'll let it pass.
I think that's because with each passing year, the GOPTP hugs the idea of a State Religion even harder. Odd you mention Huckabee and Pat Robertson--they both won the Iowa GOP caucus.
You pray a lot, huh? And just how's that working for you? Maybe an education would serve you better.
I think it's appropriate that Perry pray for wisdom. After all, earning it is clealy out of the question.
Good one rrobeson; his less affluent constituents probably think that he preys on them a lot.
The famously mistake-prone Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that he prayed before a campaign event in Iowa to ask God to help him deliver an error-free performance.
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These are the statements that infuriate me. Taking such line of thinking just a couple of steps further, I'm also to conclude that if your dumb arse does make a mistake, than it must be the fault of God, because if you're made to do something error free by God than you are made to something error prone also by God.
This is why the Tebow's and other Christian athletes bother me. There are dozens of Believers on both Teams. Crediting God with a win simply because you prayed leaves absolutely zero explaination for the Believer on the other team who also prayed but lost.
Give God thanks for the talent and strength you have to perform, but own your own damn performance. No one needs you at the helm of the worlds strongest nation when every 5 damn minutes you're saying "oops"!
For the record. I am a Believer in Jesus Christ and Him Crusified, Buried and Resurrected. But I am also a believer that this Country was not founded as a Christian Nation...uses "God" generically in the Constitution and makes no mention of Jesus Christ on any of it's founding documents. Religious Freedom is paramount.
Allen: "Give God thanks for the talent and strength you have to perform, but own your own damn performance"
I'm an atheist who couldn't agree with you more. Never could understand why God gets all of the credit but none of the blame, or why He seems so very fickle in how he picks His winners and losers when you'd think the prayers on either side are just as heartfelt and fervent. You just summed it up perfectly and I very much respect your beliefs.
Allen, Omaha, well said.
I have no problem with the Tebows and other athletes praying before a game. It has never bothered me but I do find it questionable to is pray for a win or in front of the mic thanking God for the great game they played. It's a game.
I remember in 2008 when James Dobson asked his followers to pray for rain on President Obama's big night at Bronco Stadium in Denver. What kind of trivial, selfishness is that. I will say that I had to smile when the GOP's big 2008 convention was disrupted by a hurricane. Although I know it was coincidence, I couldn't help thinking God didn't take kindly to being asked to rain on someone else's parade.
Allen -- You are so wrong on so many levels but as ones have said earlier since it is the Christmas season -- I'll pass on this one. You too Jody.
Allen ... God isn't used "generically in the Constitution" .. God isn't in the Constitution at all. But thanks for trying and I do appreciate the sentiment.
I have a lot of pity for Perry's god. Could you imagine having to sit there, day in and day out, listening to Perry's idiotic, pathetic whinings???? If I were a really, REALLY bad person in this life, I would die and be forced to listen to "evangelical" prayers for eternity.
Makes you wonder who they are really praying to....
Allen, while I agree with your post, there is one little flaw. God isn't mentioned in the U.S. Constitution:
From http://www.usconstitution.net/constnot.html
And just for comparative purposes, I believe God is intimated in the Declaration of Independence, but I don't think directly, by "name".
Other than that, great post!
Merry Christmas!
Allen, Jody, and JoAnne - great comments.
I have another thought, and I know it's a little out there, but is it possible that Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry are God's little practical joke on the Republican party?
Beth-440386Allen ... God isn't used "generically in the Constitution" .. God isn't in the Constitution at all.
Absolutely correct. He does sort of appear in the Declaration of Independence, but it's as the "Creator [who endowed men] with certain unalienable Rights." That Creator being the deistic God who created the world and then left it to get by on its own, a very popular belief in the 18th century, to which most of the Founding Fathers adhered. A far cry from the very personal Christian God of today, who presumably answers prayers (especially those involving football games), intervenes in human history from time to time, and considers the United States to be his chosen nation on earth.
I'm an Atheist with nothing in particular against religious people provided that they keep it to themselves and out of our schools and government. But it really makes me cringe when you get survivors of terrible events crediting god for there survival. I always want to ask why god would have hated the hundreds of Innocent people that did not survive. I always take the blame or the credit for my actions. It's the one true way.
He should pray-"Lord don't let me make mistakes". But that would mean taking away what's left of his brian.
Gee, Arlin, I looked all over my body today....even pulled out some old Xrays....and for the life of me, I couldn't find my "brian". Exactly where is that located?
Spider chest x-rays don't show it.
Okay, I had a really good comeback for spider, but everyone is being so nice, I took the chance to edit my comment, and put this here, instead . . . but if he presents the opportunity again, I'm reserving the right to run with it.
I'll take this one Matthew. Spider, if you are looking for your brain, call your proctologist. He knows right where it is.
Spider resorting to the word police is really a cheap shot when anyone would know full well what the poster means.
Pray all you want, kitten, it's NEVER going to happen, anymore than immediate rainfall.
Perry must pray more then the Muslims..they do it five times a day and make mistakes galore still..Perry needs to pray every hour then!
OMG! This is must be a joke, right? Jon Stewart, Colbert and SNL must be asking if they've died and gone to heaven because this crowd of GOP candidates hands them their comedy routines on a silver platter.
Yup Jody .. it takes the cake. To bad the comedy crowd are all on vacation until after the New Year.
- Comedy Writers of America, Local 209
Rick ol' boy, it appears that the message hasn't been delivered, God has said forget it I have better things to do or, all the prayer in the world isn't going to help that dufuss.
God is supposed to have given mankind the ability to make decisions, to reason, to speak unlike other creatures He made. How we use these abilities is up to us. He is not a puppeteer nor a genie that grants wishes but is a Creator. I doubt He interferes in small affairs but when someone is in danger or trouble of losing his life a gardian angel takes care of him but the Great One doesn't worry about that stuff. He has angels to take care of things like any good CEO his staff is competent and take care of the details while He takes care of the general stuff.
GW Bush talked to God and it didn't work either. With the screw ups that Bush did either the Lord has a bad sense of humor or simply didn't get envolved. (Maybe He is a prankster)
Hey Bubba--
Well, pray harder or try a different God, 'cause whatever you're doing ain't working! The God that created your brain must have been on a bender during production. But that many brain farts suggest manufacturing defect which just simply cannot be cured by prayer! Contrary to popular GOP belief, you can't pray away stupid. Just can't!
True..he should take lessons from Palin..she tried to pray away stupid but decided to write it on her hand..triple stupid.
Talking to yourself is not talking to god. I used to pray until i figured out that an omnipotent, all-powerful being should be able to actually talk to you, show himself, and properly reward those who follow his teachings. so far he is 0/3 on those.
Is there anything inside that pretty little head of Gov. Rick Perry? So far, his campaign has been a giant waste of time and a complete failure at everything he has set out to achieve. Even his own Tea Party friends are abandoning him. His fiery and often offensive rhetoric is not backed up with facts or much of a plan for anything. He cannot simply say what will happen under (God forbid) President Perry. He needs to have you know, a real plan based on facts and reality. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Sorry Rick, we already tried a President that prayed a lot to avoid mistakes and he still declared Mission Accomplished years before it was....
What were the exact quotes and entire context in the Mission Accomplished? What was the Mission? No, not what you interpret it to mean, but actually what was said?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Mission_Accomplished_speech
He declared an end to major combat operations in 2003, 4 years before he ordered the surge.... What's your point?
Read the quote closer. The terms Mission Accomplished were not in the speech. They were on a banner put up by the Navy. The Navy offered an explanation for the banner and noted that it was not the end of combat operations. The terms were used in what was accomplished in removing Barack Hussein -- oh er I mean Saddam Hussein -- from power.
Iwo Jima in WWII was a Mission Accomplished but was not the end of the war.
Well, that's a relief. He can just pray away any mistakes he might make as the guy with a finger on the doomsday trigger. I feel much better now. He might start a war here or there or mistakingly have someone executed but it will just take a minute to pray the error into good things. And I was worried that Bush was in a cloud!
There are children starving to death all over the world and perry want's God to take time out from "working in mysterious ways" (letting children die horrible and preventable deaths) to make sure perry sounds good for the cameras? Hmmm, yes I must say that is just the type of man we need as president and just the type of supreme being I want to spend eternity worshiping.
Don't you love it? I can hear Perry's deep and spiritual moral dillema now...."Shucky darn....should I pray for world peace or should I pray that the rest of the world doesn't find out what an idiot I am....Hmmmm...Okee dokee...I'll just pray for the hair today.....Please oh lard...please let the Miss Clairol match my true color....."
I pray that Rick Perry will drop out of this race and stop making a fool of himself.
You know I truly thought Bush was the dumbest guy from TX, I guess not, this guy is plain stupid.
His biggest mistake is thinking he can represent any one other than himself.
Whoa. Another president who makes a lot of mistakes. Like the bushman's main sponsor ken lay, energy czar, gaming the country's energy system for billions in rates increases, blowing up the wtc bldgs on 911, invasion of iraq for wmd's, & the crash of 1929 i mean 2007.
The repubs shot themselves in the foot with this longer primary cycle, it really gave people time to see what these lunatics were all about and it seems the more people know the less excited they are. The smart thing for the GOP to do in 2016 would be to have a short a primary as possible, that way the wingnuts the Koch brothers choose to run wont have time to show the world how stupid they are.
Did you ever try praying to god for a brain? Not that it would do any good, but geez... the scarecrow could've run circles around you on an IQ test...
While he is striving for electability he should pray the gay away.
What an endorsement from someone who wants the presidency of the USA. Perry is a joke.
I want a guy who admits to being prone to mistakes as our President. Gives me a warm feeling.
He also had a pray-athon to make it rain and TX lost more than a million acres to wildfires. So, by now it's safe to say: It's not working, Rick.
Perry is just scary! He is not Presidential, not intellectual, not tolerant of others, and is a "Social Sadist." This blundering incompetent is dumb on Foreign Policy, and dangerous economically. Socially hsi views are that of a Confederate States Of American Politician in or around 1861. His Tea Begger views are on cultural issues is ignorarnt, and his religious views are very narrow. This Tea Begger has no ideas concerning economic fairness, and the Unemployed are expendible. Everyone wave bye to "Scary Perry" America!
In other words, he's dubya 2.0.
This guy needs one of those "bozo" red nose prosthetics....the ones with the rubber bands that wrap around your skull...put it on each and every time you are out in public. Criminy!!