Tea Party Debate: GOP Candidates Attack Perry But Newt Kept His Eye On The Ball

Governor Rick Perry walked on to the stage at the Tea Party debate last night as the official front runner according to the RCP average using a variety of polls from multiple organizations.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal sat in the audience as Perry's guest after issuing a statement giving Perry his endorsement.

Jindal released a statement Monday saying, “Rick Perry is the candidate who can lead our party to victory in 2012."

“His record on job creation simply cannot be beat, and the one million jobs he’s helped create as governor is a stark contrast to the 2.4 million jobs lost on President Obama’s watch."

If Americans watching the debate didn't already know that Perry was the front runner in the field of GOP candidates which include the Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman, they certainly would have figured it out fast enough by the way the GOP field of candidates piled up attacking Rick Perry on stage.

The headline on the original NYT article read "Perry Wears a Bull's-Eye at G.O.P. Debate," yet when clicking the link provided over at Memeorandum, the headline now reads "Perry Is Target as Republican Candidates Take Aim."

Politisite.com has provided transcripts of the debate, part one , two, three and four.

As I said in a previous post about the last debate, people truly interested in the answers the candidates gave, but didn't watch the debate, can click the four links above and read those answers. Determine and interpret them yourselves, no one needs a political pundit, writer, reporter or blogger telling them what they should or shouldn't think.

What I noticed clearly from last night and I will quote the whole segment here below, is that while Newt Gingrich is not my candidate of choice, he kept his eye on the ball, which is to unseat Obama in 2012.

BLITZER: Governor Perry, speaking of Social Security, you’ve said in the past it’s a Ponzi scheme, an absolute failure, unconstitutional, but today you wrote an article in USA Today saying it must be saved and reformed, very different tone. Why?

PERRY: Well, first off, the people who are on Social Security today need to understand something. Slam-dunk guaranteed, that program is going to be there in place for those. Those individuals that are moving towards being on Social Security, that program’s going to be there for them when they arrive there.

But the idea that we have not had the courage to stand up and look Americans in the face, young mid-career professionals or kids that are my children’s age and look them in the eye and said, listen, this is a broken system. It has been called a ponzi scheme by many people long before me. But no one’s had the courage to stand up and say, here is how we’re going to reform it.

We’re going to transform it for those in those mid-career ages, but we’re going to fix it so that our young Americans that are going out into the workforce today will know without a doubt that there were some people who came along that didn’t lie to them, that didn’t try to go around the edges and told them the truth.

BLITZER: Governor Romney, you said that Governor Perry’s position on Social Security is, quote, unacceptable and could even obliterate the Republican Party. Are you saying he could not, as Republican nominee, beat Barack Obama?

ROMNEY: No, what I’m saying is that what he just said, I think most people agree with, although the term ponzi scheme I think is over the top and unnecessary and frightful to many people. But the real issue is in writing his book, Governor Perry pointed out that in his view that Social Security is unconstitutional, that this is not something the federal government ought to be involved in, that instead it should be given back to the states.

And I think that view, and the view that somehow Social Security has been forced on us over the past 70 years that by any measure, again quoting book, by any measure Social Security has been a failure, this is after 70 years of tens of millions of people relying on Social Security, that’s a very different matter.

So the financing of Social Security, we’ve all talked about at great length. In the last campaign four years around, John McCain said it was bankrupt. I put in my book a series of proposals on how to get it on sound financial footing so that our kids can count on it not just our current seniors.

But the real question is does Governor Perry continue to believe that Social Security should not be a federal program, that it’s unconstitutional and it should be returned to the states or is he going to retreat from that view?

BLITZER: Let’s let Governor Perry respond. You have 30 seconds.

PERRY: If what you’re trying to say is that back in the ’30s and the ’40s that the federal government made all the right decision, I disagree with you. And it’s time for us to get back to the constitution and a program that’s been there 70 or 80 years, obviously we’re not going to take that program away. But for people to stand up and support what they did in the ’30s or what they’re doing in the 2010s is not appropriate for America .

ROMNEY: But the question is, do you still believe that Social Security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out and returned to the states or do you want to retreat from taht?

PERRY: I think we ought to have a conversation.

ROMNEY: We’re having that right now, governor. We’re running for president.

PERRY: And I’ll finish this conversation. But the issue is, are there ways to move the states into Social Security for state employees or for retirees? We did in the state of Texas back in the 1980s. I think those types of thoughtful conversations with America, rather than trying to scare seniors like you’re doing and other people, it’s time to have a legitimate conversation in this country about how to fix that program where it’s not bankrupt and our children actually know that there’s going to be a retirement program there for them.

ROMNEY: Governor, the term ponzi scheme is what scared seniors, number one. And number two, suggesting that Social Security should no longer be a federal program and returned to the states and unconstitutional is likewise frightening.

Look, there are a lot of bright people who agree with you. And that’s your view. I happen to have a different one. I think that Social Security is an essential program that we should change the way we’re funding it. You called it a criminal…

PERRY: You said if people did it in the private sector it would be called criminal. That’s in your book.

ROMNEY: Yeah, what I said was…

(APPLAUSE)

ROMNEY: Governor Perry you’ve got to quote me correctly. You said it’s criminal. What I said was congress taking money out of the Social Security trust fund is like criminal and that is and it’s wrong.

BLITZER: Congressman Paul, let me expand this conversation. Do you agree with Governor Perry that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme?

PAUL: Well, I agree that Social Security is broke. We spent all the money and it’s on its last legs unless we do something. One bill that I had in congress never got passed was to prevent the congress from spending any of that money on the wars and all the nonsense that we do around the world.

Now the other thing that I would like to see done is a transition. I think it’s terrible that the Social Security system is in the — the problems it has, but if people wouldn’t have spent the money we would be OK.

Now, what I would like to do is to allow all the young people to get out of Social Security and go on their own. Now, the big question is, is how would the funding occur?

BLITZER: All right. Hold that thought for a minute, because I want Herman Cain to get involved.

Are you with Governor Perry that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme?

CAIN: I don’t care what you call it, it’s broken. And here’s my solution.

(APPLAUSE)

CAIN: Start with optional personal retirement accounts. In 1981, the Galveston County employees, they opted out because that was a very short window of opportunity. They took it.

Today, when people retire in Galveston County , Texas , they retire making at least 50 percent more than they would ever get out of Social Security.

(APPLAUSE)

Secondly, allow younger workers to have personal retirement accounts as an option.

Now, to answer this gentleman’s question, current seniors will not be affected. It’s to give the option to the younger workers.

The Galveston County model worked, and it also worked in the small country of Chile . Instead of giving it to the states, let’s give it back to the workers. That’s what personal retirement accounts will do.

(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: Governor Huntsman, when it comes to reforming Social Security, is anything from your perspective off the table?

HUNTSMAN: I don’t think anything should be off the table except maybe some of the drama that’s playing out here on this floor today. I mean, to hear these two go at it over here, it’s almost incredible.

You’ve got Governor Romney, who called it a fraud in his book “No Apology.” I don’t know if that was written by Kurt Cobain or not. And then you’ve got Governor Perry, who is calling this a Ponzi scheme.

All I know, Wolf, is that we’re frightening the American people who just want solutions. And this party isn’t going to win in 2012 unless we get our act together and fix the problem.

We all know that we’ve got entitlement problems, we’ve got Medicare, we’ve got Social — the fixes are there. I mean, the Ryan plan is there, for heaven’s sake.

We’ve got the answers. We don’t have leadership. That’s the problem.

BLITZER: Speaker Gingrich, would you raise the retirement age for Social Security recipients?

GINGRICH: No, not necessarily, but let me start with — I’m not particularly worried about Governor Perry and Governor Romney frightening the American people when President Obama scares them every single day.

(APPLAUSE)

GINGRICH: This is eating into my time.

Let me just say to all of you –

BLITZER: Let me just pinpoint the question. What would you do to fix Social Security?

GINGRICH: OK. But can I also expand for a second? Because that was not a rhetorical joke.

President Obama twice said recently he couldn’t guarantee delivering the checks to Social Security recipients. Now, why should young people who are 16 to 25 years old have politicians have the power for the rest of their life to threaten to take away their Social Security?

Gingrich then went on to answer the question.

Fact is, the GOP candidates trailing so far behind Rick Perry, sort of have to go on the attack because the initial spike Perry received in polling did not dwindle after the newness of his candidacy wore off, but instead started expanding and the candidates naturally felt the need to try to take him down a notch.

Personally I don't think Gingrich stands a chance of becoming the GOP nominee to go up against Barack Obama in 2012, but I do hope he stays in the race until the end, because he does know how to keep the endgame in mind, which isn't what Republican candidate eventually receives the nomination, it is the battle that begins afterward against Barack Obama's campaign to be reelected for four more years of his policies and agenda.

A CNN poll yesterday showed that Perry has a double digit lead over all the other candidates and that the plurality of Republican voters feel he is more electable against Obama in 2012.

I believe after last night's debate, that still holds true.

At this point I see this GOP primary as a lead up to Rick Perry preparing for a major boxing bout against Barack Obama and the GOP candidates that piled up on him last night are the sparring partners helping him prepare.


[Update] Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: 'Newt as VP?" - Last night I summed up my feelings on Twitter about Gingrich, writing that I “[d]on’t want him as our nominee, but love having him on our side.”

PS- Next debate will be presented by Fox News, on September 22.

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CNN Poll: Republicans Believe Perry Has Best Chance To Beat Obama

Rick Perry news this morning comes by way of a new CNN poll which shows that Republicans think Governor Rick Perry has the best chance to beat Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election with a double digit lead on all other GOP candidates.

Other findings:

"Perry doesn't simply have the most support in a hypothetical ballot - he also tops the list of GOP candidates on every personal quality tested," adds Holland.

Thirty-six percent, for example, see him as the strongest leader in the field, with Romney second at 21 percent. According to the poll, 35 percent say Perry is the Republican candidate most likely to get the economy moving again, with Romney in second at 26 percent.

Nearly three in ten say that Perry is the candidate who is most likely to fight for his beliefs, with Palin in second place at 23 percent and, significantly, Romney in a distant tie for fourth at just 11 percent.

But Perry's biggest strength may be the electability factor, with 42 percent saying he has the best chance of beating Obama next year. Some 26 percent say Romney has the best chance of defeating the president.

"That may go a very long way toward explaining his rise in the polls, since three-quarters of all Republicans say they would prefer a candidate who can beat President Obama over one who agrees with them on major issues," says Holland.

Concerning for Perry, is likability factor where one in four rate him well, especially if he does end up winning the GOP nomination.

While Barack Obama receives high disapproval ratings on all key issues , his personal likability still rates well.

Voters like the man, they just think he is doing a bad job as President.

If Obama and Perry go head to head in 2012, voters would have to decide if they prefer someone that can get the job done or someone they like but has proven he cannot do the job.

Perry, via USA Today, has a piece where he explains the truth behind his Social Security messaging:

These are the hard facts: Social Security's unfunded liability is calculated in the trillions of dollars. Last year, annual Social Security outlays exceeded annual revenues for the first time since 1983. The Congressional Budget Office projects that outlays will be roughly 5% greater than revenues over the next five years, worsening as more and more Baby Boomers retire.

By 2037, retirees will only get roughly 76 cents back for every dollar that is put into Social Security unless reforms are implemented. Imagine how long a traditional retirement or investment plan could survive if it projected investors would lose 24% of their money?

I am going to be honest with the American people. Our elected leaders must have the strength to speak frankly about entitlement reform if we are to right our nation's financial course and get the USA working again.

This is a hard topic for any candidate because as soon as they address Social Security reform, their opponents, whether they are GOP rivals or opposing party rivals instantly start screaming "he hates old people" or "he wants to kill grandma".

Perry's honesty may be paying off though in his refusal to back down on the topic as Campaign 2012 points out, the CNN poll shows a high level of support for Perry from GOP voters age 65 and older.

In a new CNN poll that finds Perry at the front of the Republican pack, the Texas governor's lead among GOP voters age 65 and older is actually bigger than his lead among younger voters. Fifty-two percent of respondents over 65 say Perry is their choice for president, versus just 21 percent who choose Romney. In the overall numbers, Perry leads Romney 32 percent to 21 percent, with Ron Paul following at 13 percent, Bachmann and Gingrich at seven percent each, Herman Cain at six percent, and Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum at two percent each.

Republican voters over 65 also believe Perry has the best chance of defeating President Obama in next year's general election. Perry leads Romney 58 percent to 22 percent among older voters on that question.

Breaking down the age results in different categories, Perry leads Romney by 24 percent to 19 percent among GOP voters under 50. Among GOP voters 50 and older, Perry leads Romney by 41 percent to 22 percent

Stanley Kurtz from NRO gives a brief history of the Social Security/Ponzi-scheme analogy and provides examples of "quite a few very respectable liberals" having made the same analogy in recent history that Liberals are prepared to blast Perry for making now.

Quick Reminder: On Monday, Sept. 12th, CNN will broadcast the "Tea Party Republican Debate," live from Tampa, Florida at 8 p.m. ET. Follow all the issues and campaign news leading up to the debate on CNNPolitics.com and @cnnpolitics on Twitter.

Full CNN Poll results (pdf)

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Multiple Polls Put Rick Perry As GOP Frontrunner And Other Perry News

While there is still over a year to go before the 2012 presidential election and preliminary polling is just that, patterns and trends are key to see which candidates are rising and which are falling behind.



FiveThirtyEight (leans Dem) shows Governor Rick Perry has risen above every other GOP candidate in the race to see who will be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. Perry has done this in a matter of two weeks since he has declared his candidacy while his name recognition is still shy of Mitt Romney's.



This finding is consistent among multiple polls from a variety of polling organizations.

Primary polls can be erratic, so the rule is not to get too worked up about any one set of numbers. But now there have been five surveys conducted since Rick Perry announced his presidential campaign — one each from Gallup, Rasmussen Reports and Public Policy Polling, and two from YouGov. Each shows Mr. Perry having vaulted into a lead over Mitt Romney.

On average, Mr. Perry gets 26 percent of the vote in the new surveys, as compared to 16 percent for Mr. Romney. By comparison, in polls conducted in the month prior to Mr. Perry’s announcement, he averaged 14 percent to Mr. Romney’s 21 percent.

David Limbaugh, tweets an image of a younger Barack Obama compared to a younger Rick Perry .. Via The Politico



Since we are on the topic of Perry, among many many others writing about Perry, head over to Daily Beast for a very entertaining endorsement for Perry by one of his former opponents for Governor, by Kinky Friedman.



Teaser:

So would I support Rick Perry for president? Hell, yes! As the last nail that hasn’t been hammered down in this country, I agree with Rick that there are already too damn many laws, taxes, regulations, panels, committees, and bureaucrats. While Obama is busy putting the hyphen between “anal” and “retentive” Rick will be rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.



A still, small voice within keeps telling me that Rick Perry’s best day may yet be ahead of him, and so too, hopefully, will be America’s.

Yet another article pertaining to Perry's candidacy shows that Perry's rise has struck fear into Team Obama as well if their latest email blast to Texas supporters is any indication. They want dirt, they want complaints against Perry to use against him and they even set up an online form for people to use to that purpose.



Last (for now) but not least, Perry told Laura Ingraham on her radio show that "Mitt is finally recognizing that the Massachusetts healthcare plan he passed is a huge problem for him."



He is right, that is one issue conservative voters and many many independent voters will not forget, especially since Obamacare is so similar to Romney's Mass. healthcare law and the majority of Americans are still opposed to that.



YouTube clip below is the the audio of that interview:







The headlines are focusing on Perry's comments about Romneycare, but in the interview above, Ingraham and Perry discuss many other issues, so if you have the time, listen to the whole thing.



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Rick Perry Is A Liberal's Nightmare

The New Republic has a two-page piece out that is a must read if you are a conservative and want a good laugh for the day.



The headline pretty much covers it with "Rick Perry: The God-Fearing, Know-Nothing, Pistol-Packing Embodiment of Liberals’ Worst Nightmares."



Go read, have a good laugh, then notice that just as they did with Sarah Palin, Liberals are guaranteeing that Rick Perry, who declared his candidacy for President less than a month ago, is already becoming a household name, known far better because Liberals cannot resist talking about him non-stop.



After tossing his hat into the ring just two weeks ago, Perry has taken a double digit lead in the GOP field and is already tied with Obama according to Gallup surveying registered voters and Rasmussen has him only three points behind Obama.



Other Perry headlines to note today include but are not limited to;



Rick Perry's Sophisticated Campaign Machine



Rick Perry signs Susan B. Anthony List pledge.



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Confidence In Obama Declines And He May Lose Pennsylvania

Yesterday, Friday August 19, 2011, was a very bad news day for Barack Obama as headline after headline screamed out failure, Democrats losing confidence in his job performance and future, unemployment rising in 28 states for July, he lost 36 percentage points in the Hispanic demographic since he took office, mortgage rates hit a 50 year low, stocks plunged, etc..... all headlines for one day.



Today is not much better as we see that polling in the very blue state of Pennsylvania, a state almost everyone agrees Obama will need badly to win reelection in 2012, is being called "dismal" for Obama.

President Barack Obama, who political experts say will need a win in Pennsylvania to retain the White House, dipped to 35 percent approval among the state's registered voters, according to a Muhlenberg College poll released Friday.



The results come on the heels of a bad week in polls for Obama that showed him first dropping to 39 percent nationwide in Gallup's daily tracking poll. Then another set of Gallup results Thursday showed only 26 percent of Americans approve of how Obama is handling the economy.



These numbers are a huge blow to Obama who won the state handily in 2008, and a significant drop in just a few weeks from when Quinnipiac University polled Pennsylvania voters and found the president with 43 percent job approval.

It isn't just PA where Obama is seeing news like this, it is across the country and across the demographic board where he is suffering a horrendous steady decline in support.

The trend for all 27 groups has been negative. And although the margins of error on this calculation (represented by the red bars in the chart) are fairly high, the decline has been statistically significant in 24 of 27 cases.



Three groups in particular stand out for having especially large declines. First is what Gallup terms “pure independent” voters, among whom Mr. Obama’s approval rating has dropped by 10 points since the start of the year. These pure independents are true swing voters; Gallup defines the category to exclude the many voters who call themselves independent but in fact lean toward one or another party and behave like partisans.

Is Obama "doomed" yet?



I do not think anyone can be 100% sure, but what is sure is that if something doesn't happen to change the pattern being seen of an Obama free fall in polls, steadily heading downward, if the economy doesn't completely turn around in the next six months, if unemployment continues to rise, then any slightly right of the middle GOP candidate can wipe him out in the 2012 election.



(Cartoon above by Nate Beeler, via Townhall)

Video- Democratic Congressman Peter Defazio On Obama's Job Peformance 'Not So Good'

Video below is Democratic Congressman Peter Defazio discussing obama's reelection chances, his job performance, his lack of leadership ability and his broken promises to his party.







Via Portland News Channel 8, KGW.com:

Asked whether he thought the President had a shot at re-election, Defazio was skeptical.



"At this point it pretty much depends on how far out there the Republican nominee is. You know with a respectable--someone who is a little bit toward the middle of the road--Republican nominee, he’s going to have a very tough time getting re-elected," said DeFazio.



He’s also not convinced the President will do well in Oregon.



"I believe Oregon is very much in play. I mean we are one of the harder hit states in the union, particularly my part of the state. I've just done six town hall meetings, have seven to go but people are shaking their heads and saying 'I don't know if I’d vote for him again.'" Defazio said.



Asked if he was surprised, the congressman shrugged.



"Not at all," DeFazio said. "One guy asked me, 'Give me 25 words what he's about and what he’s done for me.' I’m like, 'It could have been worse."

Obama's reelection campaign platform just went from "Hope and Change" to "It could be worse".



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Video: Perry In NH: Obama's 'Grand Experiment' With Economy a 'Terrible, Terrible Disaster'

Perry in New Hampshire (at the end of the video below): "In my perspective we have spent the last two-and-a-half years in a grand experiment with the American economy and it has been a terrible, terrible disaster."







The Boston Herald provides more quotes from Perry:

“The rhetoric will probably get heated. I’m going to be outspoken, I’m going to be passionate, I’m going to be calling it like I see it,” Perry told the Herald in a one-on-one interview, as he shrugged off Obama’s recent scolding that he should be “more careful” about what he says.



“And if I hurt the president’s feelings, well, with all due respect, I love my country and I love future generations more than I care about his feelings,” the 61-year-old governor added.

I said the other day that Rick Perry was throwing political correctness out the window and that it was about damn time a politician did so and starts calling things like they see them.



I am very glad Perry plans to continue to do so.



Americans will respect straight talk, passion and the refusal to walk softly and beat around the bush for the sake of political correctness.





H/T Hot Air.



[Update] If the quotes above and video above are what Liberal media outlets like Bloomberg calls "subdued", I simply cannot wait to see Perry take off the gloves!



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Vulnerable Senate Democrats Complain, Obama Is Sucking Up All The Cash

33 Senator seats are up in the 2012 election cycle, 10 Republican seats and 23 Democratic seats and Republicans need a net gain of 3 Senate seats (if a Republican wins the presidential campaign) or 4 Senate seats if Obama is reelected, to take control of the Senate and boot harry Reid out of the Senate majority leader spot.



2012 is crucial for Senate Democrats and they are asking the Obama machine to not lock up and max out their richest Democratic donors, via The Politico.

“We have a huge number of incumbents who are up this cycle and a lot of them have taken tough votes to enact significant portions of this president’s agenda and I think that there is a sense that there should be an all-hands-on-deck approach to keep the Senate in Democratic hands,” said one Democratic official familiar with the meeting.

If Obama's policies were more popular, if his disapproval numbers on specific areas weren't so high (71 disapproval on the economy was reported yesterday), then those Senate Democrats that took those "tough votes to enact significant portions of this president’s agenda" could always ride his coattails but those coattails are not there anymore, so they need money.



Money the Obama team is sucking up in his attempt to save his own job for four more years.

Majority Leader Harry Reid and other top Senate Democrats have also asked for at least $10 million in aid from the Democratic National Committee as well as the president’s re-election campaign to help underwrite expensive TV ad campaigns and on-the-ground efforts for crucial Senate races in 2012, according to Democratic sources.



In a recent meeting in Washington, Reid, along with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the third-highest ranking Democrat, and Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), who chairs of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, made their pitch to Messina, according to Democratic sources.



Messina would not agree to the request not to max out big donors, and no decision was made on the amount of financial backing that Senate Democrats will get from the DNC and the Obama-Biden campaign.

Without control of the Senate or the House, Barack Obama, if reelected, would spend fours years as a lame duck president but he doesn't really care if anything gets done, all he cares about is not being a one term president.



Gallup chart 8/17/11



With disapproval numbers like the ones above, it is very likely that Obama will be one term prez and he may just take Senate Democrats down with him.



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Far Left Liberals Repeating Their Palin Mistakes With Rick Perry

There is an expression about learning from one's mistakes, a lesson that far left Liberals haven't seemed to comprehend and the recent media, blogosphere, especially those on the far left, frenzy over Rick Perry shows that progressive Liberals didn't learn from the mistakes they made with Sarah Palin.



John McCain put Palin in the spotlight by choosing her as his VP of choice during the 2008 presidential campaign, but it was the far left, progressive Liberals that made Sarah Palin a household name. Who put her in a position she is in now, where every book she writes is a national best seller, candidates she chooses to support tend to do well in elections, facebook notes she writes end up being front page news and reporters follow her like little puppy dogs, is all thanks to the amount of ink, words, media stories and blog posts written about her and most of them by the far left in their attempts to destroy her.



Since Governor Rick Perry declared he is officially running for president in 2012, the political news site that shows the most talked about stories, Memeorandum, has been full of stories about Rick Perry.



Today alone, so far, I see no less that 70+ media articles, blog posts and video moments all about Perry.



Since he is a GOP candidate, one would expect most of the stories to be by conservatives who have a new face in the field, or Perry supporters that feel he would be the best choice as president.



At first it is to be expected that people from the opposite political side would comment, report Perry's declaration to run, perhaps dedicate a post or two to his record and his voting history, but the frenzy is full of misleading moments, cut videos edited for the specific purpose of trying to label Perry as racist, attempts to negate Perry's record in Texas where the jobs growth has been 37% of the nation's total...etc...



Using the numbers on job growth in Texas as just one example, something that was reported well before Perry entered the race, the far left cries "but they are low paying jobs", "unemployment is still 8.2%", "it is Texas oil that is responsible", and on and on they go to attempt to negate the very fact that Texas did have the largest job growth, to claim it means nothing and to make people forget that over the last decade, Perry was indeed the Governor that presided over it all.



So, of course, others step up and dig into the numbers, and show why those attempts are nothing more than hot air blown up the butts of those liberal site's readers.



Political junkies, like myself, will follow the process and learn all we can, but what do the general public, the majority of voters who never open a blog, hear the loudest from their half hour long nightly news?



Job growth in Texas has accounted for 37% of the nation's job creation.



Same thing about the latest bruhaha where Perry said it was almost treasonous for the Fed , to print out more money at time where our credit rating has been lowered for the first time in history, our economy is in the tank and we spend more than we bring in, and that if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did so, the people in Texas would treat him pretty ugly.



Liberals went on the offensive yet again, dedicating hundreds of stories and blog posts to claiming he threatened Bernanke... but what do those that watch the nightly news hear the loudest?



Perry doesn't think printing more money and throwing good money after bad is a good thing.



Those are just small examples of what the frenzy has done for Rick Perry.



The takeaway here is that before Perry entered the race, other than political junkies and those who live in Texas, not many people knew who Rick Perry was.



Days later, thanks in large part to the help of Liberal media personalities and far left progressive bloggers, Perry climbed to the top of the GOP people taking a double digit lead over Mitt Romney and InTrade has Perry listed as 8% more likely than Romney to walk away with the GOP nomination.



No amount of money could have bought Governor Perry that kind of publicity, no amount of campaign ad buys could have catapulted him into the homes of Americans and given him the name and face recognition he now has less than a week after entering the race.



Governor Rick Perry truly needs to start sending out thank you notes to each Liberal media personality, writer and journalist, as well as to every blogger that made sure his comments and speech soundbites made it to the national television news, local and cable.



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Rasmussen: Perry 29, Romney 18, Bachmann 13, Paul 9.

Just days after Rick Perry entered the GOP field of presidential candidates he has taken a double digit lead according to Rasmussen:

Texas Governor Rick Perry, the new face in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, has jumped to a double-digit lead over Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann with the other announced candidates trailing even further behind.



The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary voters, taken Monday night, finds Perry with 29% support. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, earns 18% of the vote, while Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who won the high-profile Ames Straw Poll in Iowa on Saturday, picks up 13%.



Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who was a close second to Bachmann on Saturday, has the support of nine percent (9%) of Likely Primary Voters, followed by Georgia businessman Herman Cain at six percent (6%) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with five percent (5%). Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and ex-Utah Governor Jon Huntsman each get one percent (1%) support, while Michigan Congressman Thaddeus McCotter comes in statistically at zero.

I gather the public prefers a candidate who tells it like it is and doesn't give a damn about political correctness.





[Update] InTrade also has Perry up with 39.8%, Romney 28.2% and Bachmann 7%.





[Update] Hot Air digs into the Rasmussen poll's internals and finds some very interesting results:

Let’s take a look at the internals of this poll. Perry scores highest among men (32%) and women (25%) than any of his competitors. Ron Paul scores best among young voters by a wide margin (29%), but Perry is the only other candidate in double digits (17%). Perry wins all of the other age demographics, and he also scores highest among Republicans (29%) and non-Republicans (28%). Perry also wins every income demographic, above the $40K level with 31% or more of the vote.

Go read it all.



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Video- Rick Perry Throws Political Correctness Out The Window

"If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion."---- Rick Perry on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke







I am seeing quite a bit of rhetoric from the far left today about the comment above made by Rick Perry, with one site actually headlining with "Perry: We'd Lynch Ben Bernanke In Texas."



Wow, if you read the above quote and/or watching the 49 second video, you will not see or hear the word "lynch" once, yet liberals feel it is alright to make up tall tales and exchange the actual words said with what they want their readers to believe was said.



Even the site that created the YouTube video above adds the words "Perry threatens Bernanke."



Really? That is a threat?



Excuse me if a take a second to laugh my butt off at the sheer terror the far left is feeling over Perry's entry into the presidential race.



Ok, sorry about that, done laughing... sorta.



No, that wasn't a threat, it is simply a statement of fact. The fine people of Texas would not be nice to Bernanke if he ordered more money to be printed at this time.



It is about damn time a politician threw political correctness out the window and started calling things like they see them and that is exactly what Rick Perry is doing.



I say, good on him.



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Video- RNC Ad 'Obama's Debt-End Bus Tour '

One minute video below, the ad speaks for itself.







H/T The Note.

Video: Perry's First Campaign Commercial And Michele Bachmann Did Good In Iowa, Until Rick Perry Showed Up

Just a day after Michele Bachmann won the Iowa Ames straw poll, the tide turned a bit for her when Texas Governor Rick perry showed up in town where both candidates attended the Black Hawk County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner.



The Politico reports the contrast of Perry's style of campaigning person-to-person campaigning where he mingles, answers questions and doesn't shy away from interacting with voters, with Bachmann's "celebrity" type campaigning, was duly noted by those in attendance.

But the contrast that may lift Perry, and undermine Bachmann, in their high-stakes battle for Iowa had less to do with what they said than how they said it — and what they did before and after speaking.



Perry arrived early, as did former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. The Texas governor let a media throng grow and dissolve before working his way across the room to sit at table after table, shake hand after hand, pose for photographs and listen politely to a windy Abraham Lincoln impersonator, paying respect to a state that expects candidates, no matter their fame, to be accessible.



But Bachmann campaigned like a celebrity. And the event highlighted the brittle, presidential-style cocoon that has become her campaign’s signature: a routine of late entries, unexplained absences, quick exits, sharp-elbowed handlers with matching lapel pins, and pre-selected questioners.



She camped out in her bus, parked on the street in front of a nearby Ramada Hotel, until it was time to take the stage. Even after a local official’s introduction, Bachmann was nowhere to be found. It was not until a second staffer assured her that the lighting had been changed and a second introduction piped over the loudspeakers that she entered the former dance hall here. By the time she made her big entrance to bright lights and blaring music, the crowd seemed puzzled.



Bachmann’s stump speech drew mostly polite applause until she closed by giving a large apple pie to “the oldest mother in the room” – a local centenarian.



Then she stayed on stage, signing T-shirts from above, which her staff then distributed to a steady but not overwhelming crowd.



Finally, she swept through what was by then an empty ballroom behind a phalanx of six aides who shielded her from reporters and the handful of Iowans who remained.

Perry has also released his first campaign commercial showing the differences between his record and Obama's dismal failure over the last 2 1/2+ years.



Video below:







Rick Perry's official website can be found here.



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Obama's lows, worse ever

LA Times Gallup report shows that Obama has sunk below the 40% approval mark.

New data posted Sunday shows that 39% of Americans approve of Obama's job performance, while 54% disapprove. Both are the worst numbers of his presidency.

Politically this could be his doomsday report as the GOP just rounded out with the official entry of Rick Perry and the official exit of Tim Pawlenty from the GOP field of candidates to run for president in 2012.



Obama is to the desperate point where his public relations efforts are down to throwing hail Mary's in their attempt to win over Independents.



This is not going over well with any of Obama's liberal base, evidenced by Obama's 11 point drop in support for Obama's re-nomination since June, via CNN.



The start of the 2012 campaign season for the presidential race is becoming extremely popcorn worthy!!



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Video- Rick Perry Is Officially IN

Just listened to Rick Perry's speech in South Carolina announcing his definite entry into the 2012 presidential race and it was a great speech. Putting America to work is his platform and it is one that will resonate through the country.



Perry's offical website is live at http://www.rickperry.org/ and his entry into the race is sure to shake up the GOP field.



Video below:







Speech excerpt via The Politico:

"It is time to get America working again. That’s why, with the support of my family, and an unwavering belief in the goodness of America, I declare to you today my candidacy for President of the United States."

Continue Reading



"It is time for Americans to believe again – to believe that the promise of our future is far greater than even the best days of our past. It is time to believe again in the potential of private enterprise, set free from the shackles of an overbearing federal government. And it is time to truly restore our standing in the world and renew our faith in freedom as the best hope of peace in a world beset with strife."



"One in six work-eligible Americans cannot find a full-time job. That is not a recovery, that is an economic disaster."



"Mr. President, you can’t win the future by selling it off to foreign creditors."



"In reality, this is just the most recent downgrade. The fact is for nearly three years, President Obama has been downgrading American jobs, downgrading our standing in the world, downgrading our financial stability, downgrading confidence, and downgrading the hope of a better future for our children."



"I will work every day to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as I can, and free our families, small businesses and states from a burdensome and costly federal government so they can create, innovate and succeed. With the help and courage of the American people, we will get our country working again."

Video added above.



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Video- Closing Arguments From GOP Iowa Debate

The debate had it's moments, long answers, candidates determined to show the contrast between themselves and Barack Obama as they come out swinging at him. A couple snippy moments are being reported on, but all in all, simply another debate which the country will be seeing many of over the next year.



Fox News has the video of the closing arguments which I have embedded below:







One face missing from the debate is Rick Perry who has not officially announced, that announcement is scheduled for Saturday, but has made it clear he will be in the race. As we pointed out in a previous post, Perry is already statistically tied with the GOP front runner, Mitt Romney. Those numbers are bound to change once it is official.



[Update] Another important moment about taxes in video below:







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Rick Perry RE: Presidential Run: 'this is what I’m supposed to be doing'

Halperin- Does any aspect of running for President intimidate you?

Perry- No.



Halperin- Does any aspect of it excite you or enthuse you?

Perry- Yeah, I’m kind of getting to the haul-in point and the idea that, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I mean, this is starting to get to that comfort level and I’ve got the calmness in my heart. I think that was a bit of a hurdle initially but I’m very calm in my heart that this is what I’m supposed to be doing.





For some Conservatives it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas and the gift under their tree is a candidate, Governor Rick Perry, that prior to officially announcing, is already statistically tied with the GOP front runner, Mitt Romney, who officially announced his candidacy a while ago.



Both CNN and McClatchy-Marist polled and found Perry 2 and 3 points, respectively, behind Romney.



The 2012 election will have a focus on job creation, which is where Perry rises head and shoulders above every other candidate. Perry has been the Governor of Texas since December, 2000.



In May, 2011, it was reported that from April 2001 to April 2011 Texas has increased it's private-sector jobs by 732,800. No other state topped 100,000 private sector jobs created in the same time frame.



"Texas added more jobs in the past 10 years than the total jobs of the 19 states, including the District of Columbia, that were positive for job growth."--- The Business Journals



McClatchy:

Perry boasts that Texas has created 1 million jobs since he took office in December 2000, while the national economy has lost 1.5 million jobs.



Looked at another way, 37 percent of all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas, according to Richard Fisher, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Economists at the Dallas Federal Reserve found that since June 2009, Texas added 265,300 net jobs, out of 722,200 nationwide. New York was a distant second with 98,200 and Pennsylvania added 93,000.

Job growth will be a major factor in 2012, but Conservatives will also want to know more about Perry's positions on a variety of other issues as well and the Internet is always a gold mine of information.



Times' The Page interview transcript can be found here.



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Video- IT'S TIME FOR RICK PERRY

H/T PJ Tatler for the pointer to the video from a group called Students4Perry, called It's Time For Rick Perry.



Video below:







Word is, via The Politico that Perry is announcing on Saturday in South Caroline.



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A Primary Challenger For Obama?

Will there be a hard core liberal that stands up and challenges Barack Obama for 2012?

Ralph Nader not only believes there will be but is now saying "I would guess that the chances of there being a challenge to Obama in the primary are almost 100 percent."

The only question, he said, is the stature of that opponent and whether it will be either “an ex-senator or an ex-governor” or “an intellectual leader or an environmental leader.”

In approximately a week and a half there will be “another chapter of this effort,” Nader predicted.

It is seriously doubtful that Democratic leaders would ever nominate someone other than the sitting President, but should Obama be forced to defend himself against a Democratic challenger as well as against GOP candidates, it could be a popcorn worthy campaign season.

The Daily Caller has more on the interview with Nader.

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Poll: Florida Independents Disapprove Of Obama Almost 2 to 1

The Quinnipiac University poll released today has some concerning news for Barack Obama where his overall approval has dropped but among Independents it is nose dived massively.

"President Barack Obama's numbers in the key swing state of Florida have gone south in the last two months. The debt ceiling deal is not making any difference in that decline and any bounce he got from the bin Laden operation is long since gone," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "The president's drop off is huge among independent voters who now disapprove almost 2-1."

The post-debt deal poll shows little change in Obama's May approval among Republicans and Democrats. But among independent voters he plummets from a 47 - 45 percent split in May to a 61 - 33 percent disapproval today.

I am sure those numbers will rise (SNARK ALERT) after the public finds out they are funding his campaign tour of battle ground states in his bid for reelection 2012.


Related:

Obama's new fundraising speech: 2008 was really bad, so I need a second term

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