Rick Perry on Social Security, Immigration, HPV Decision and More

TIME has published and interview with Governor Rick Perry that deals with the Middle East, Social Security, his controversial HPV vaccine decision, immigration and other questions.

SOCIAL SECURITY

But you know there’s concern that you use controversial rhetoric, like calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.”

There may be someone who is an established Republican who circulates in the cocktail circuit that would find some of my rhetoric to be inflammatory or what have you, but I’m really talking to the American citizen out there. I think American citizens are just tired of this political correctness and politicians who are tiptoeing around important issues. They want a decisive leader. I’m comfortable that the rhetoric I have used was both descriptive and spot on. Calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme has been used for years. I don’t think people should be surprised that terminology would be used.

No one gets confused about the point I was making, that we have a system that is now broken. We need to make sure that those on Social Security today — and those approaching it — know without a doubt it will be in place. It will not go away. We’ll have a transitional period for those in mid-career as they’re planning for their retirement. And our young people should be given some options. I don’t know what all of those options need to be yet, but they know instinctively that the program that is there today is not going to be there for them unless there are changes made.

I don’t get particularly concerned that I need to back off from my factual statement that Social Security, as it is structured today, is broken. If you want to call it a Ponzi scheme, if you want to say it’s a criminal enterprise, if you just want to say it’s broken –they all get to the same point. We need, as a country, to have an adult conversation. Don’t try to scare the senior citizens and those who are on Social Security that it’s somehow going to go away with the mean, old heartless Republican.

ISRAEL/PALESTINIAN STATE ISSUE

Do you believe there should be a Palestinian state?

I certainly have some concerns. The first step in any peaceful negotiation for a two-state solution for the Palestinians is to recognize the right of Israel’s existence. They have to denounce terrorism in both word and deed. And they have to sit down and negotiate with Israel directly. Anything short of that is a non-starter in my opinion.

IMMIGRATION

You were attacked by your Republican rivals in Monday’s debate for making in-state college tuition available to some illegal immigrants. What is your assessment of the immigration debate in this country?

The issue of education and in-state tuition is a state issue. It’s not a federal issue, and it shouldn’t be a federal issue. If you don’t like that in Arizona, if you don’t like that in Massachusetts, that’s your call. But in the state of Texas, we made the decision that on in-state tuition for young people — and frankly we don’t care what the sound of their last name is — we’re going to help them to become contributing members of society.

The bigger issue is that you’re never going to have a conversation that is anything more than an intellectual exercise about immigration until you secure the border. That is what we must focus on as a country. I do not agree that building a 1,800-mile barrier is thoughtful. It’s an easy answer. I think it’s a cop out for anyone who’s actually been on the border. It’s like building a wall from Bangor, Maine to Miami, Florida. What does work is strategic fencing in your metropolitan areas, having the boots on the ground. We are woefully understaffed on that border.

We have the technology. Predator drones are being flown in United States air space as we speak. Why not fly those from Brownsville, Texas, to El Paso and to Tijuana and back and use that real-time information for local law enforcement, our state law enforcement and our federal counterparts? That’s how you thoughtfully secure that border, and then you can have a discussion about what type of immigration reform we want to consider as a country. But not until then. Too many times, we’ve been told, if we’ll just pass this immigration reform then we’ll secure the border. And it hasn’t happened.

HPV VACCINE DECISION

Even if you regret the way you implemented it, do you still think that a mandatory HPV vaccine for teenage girls is good public policy?

I think anything that a state can do to fight cancer is a wise and a thoughtful approach. Did I make an error in how I went about this? Yes, I’ve readily admitted that I shouldn’t have used an executive order. I should have had an opt-in and I should have worked through the legislative process. We work for the people of the state, not the other way around. When they say, we don’t want to go there, we’re not going there. But should we be looking of ways to conquer all of these different cancers that are out there? Absolutely. And I’ll tell you what I am not ashamed of: I have spent the better point of my public service life trying to defend life and find cures for diseases that are impacting millions of people in our country.

There are other questions and answers covered, so head over to TIME and read the rest.

Other Perry news

According to RCP's 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination average, Rick Perry is still leader of the GOP pack with a double digit lead on over all the other Republican candidates. RCP uses the latest polling from a variety of organizations to obtain that average.

Breakdown of Perry's lead on 9/15/11 (This number changes as new polls come and get added it to RCP's averages) I am excluding Sarah Palin because she is not a declared candidate.

Perry - 30.9%
Romney - 19.9%
Paul - 9.3%
Bachmann - 7.1%
Gingrich - 5.1%
Cain - 4.7%
Santorum - 2.7%
Huntsman - 1.4%


Related Perry News

NYTs' The Caucus with "Making the Grade? Perry Says He Didn’t."

Quinnipiac University with "PERRY BLOSSOMS AS BACHMANN WILTS IN VIRGINIA GOP RACE."

.

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.

.

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)

.

Polling News: Obama Sinks, Perry Rises And California Sides With Republicans On Economy

Quite a bit of polling news today starting with a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, via MSNBC, which shows Barack Obama is at the lowest point of his presidency where he has dropped 3 points since July on his overall approval rating putting it at 44 percent, his handling of the economy earns him only a 37 percent approval and 19 percent believe the country is on the right track.

Perhaps most ominously for Obama, a majority of poll takers — 54 percent — think he's facing a longer-term setback from which he's unlikely to recover. Back in January, just 39 percent agreed with that assessment.

Full poll results found here.(PDF)

That poll is followed up with a a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, to which Wapo headlines their article about it with "Obama ratings sink to new lows as hope fades."

More than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and, what has become issue No. 1, the stagnant jobs situation. Just 43 percent now approve of the job he is doing overall, a new career low; 53 percent disapprove, a new high.

Another poll shows that Obama's economic messaging is not resonating well in the very blue state of California which is suffering from 12 percent unemployment and while the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll which finds that "many would rather adhere to party orthodoxy than compromise to address the current economic problems," yet the plurality of respondents, 49 percent, agree with Republicans that slashing government spending to restrain the deficit will better lead to prosperity instead of Obama/Democrat's message for strategic government investments to stimulate the economy where only 37 percent side with them.

"The argument of 'We need to cut the size of government, we need to reduce the deficit' has won, even in California," said David Kanevsky, research director for American Viewpoint, a Republican firm that co-directed the bipartisan poll. "Stimulus is almost a four-letter word here."

With California unemployment mired at 12%, the electorate is clearly dissatisfied with the status quo. Nearly 3 in 4 voters say the country is on the wrong track, up sharply from the 55% who felt that way in November 2009.

Perhaps that is why Democrats have dropped the word "stimulus" almost entirely from their vocabulary as The Hill reports.

Democrats are now being careful to frame their job-creation agenda in language excluding references to any stimulus, even though their favored policies for ending the deepest recession since the Great Depression are largely the same.

Obama's much talked about upcoming jobs speech will undoubtedly also exclude the word "stimulus" and instead people will hear the word "investment" to mean more spending and stimulus.

Gallup finds that since Obama's signature legislation dubbed Obamacare was passed, the number of uninsured people has increased, not decreased.

CNN reports on a different set of polls showing that Rick Perry has widened his lead in the GOP field of candidates for the presidential election of 2012.

The Politico/George Washington University Battleground Poll has Perry atop the field with 36 percent, followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 17 percent and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Rep. Ron Paul tied at 10 percent.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll delivered similar results. Perry is 38 percent of respondent's first choice for the nomination, followed by Romney at 23 percent, Paul at 9 percent and Bachmann at 8 percent.

Last but not least, Rasmussen just released their Generic Presidential Ballot which shows that a generic Republican candidate gets 49 percent support while Obama only receives 41 percent.

Attaching the name of the GOP front runner, Rick Perry, to that question, Perry leads Obama with 44 percent to Obama's 41 percent.

The polling news today is quite ominous for Obama's reelection chances in 2012 and while polls are a wonderful way to track patterns and trends, they are still just a snapshot into the minds of Americans at any given time.

.

Video -Tim Scott Hosts Gov. Rick Perry Live

Video below



Stream videos at Ustream

H/T TeamRickPerry@Twitter.

Video from Tim Scott.

.

Is The Mainstream Liberal Media Dumb?

The Politico has a very unimpressive five-page piece asking a question about Rick Perry "Is he dumb — or just “misunderestimated?”

Another Texas governor who drops his “g’s” and scorns elites is running for president and the whispers are the same: lightweight, incurious, instinctual.



Strip away the euphemisms and Rick Perry is confronting an unavoidable question: Is he dumb — or just “misunderestimated?”

Perry has an accent, went to a regular college versus an Ivy League college, he doesn't read "policy-heavy books late into the night," and OMG, he listens to advisers and colleagues before forming certain opinions.



That is just some of the blather from the first page of The Politico piece.



In the meantime, they causally mention Perry "ranks as the longest-serving governor in Texas history," without worthy mention that in that time the state has had the largest growth and has been responsible for over seven times the amount of private sector job growth than any other state in the country.



A must read reaction to this idiocy over at The Politico is from William Teach over at Pirate's Cove who is waiting (with much snark) for other profile pieces like:

We’re still waiting for his other pieces “Is Maxine Waters Insane?” and “Is Obama a complete failure?” Also “How do we know Obama’s brilliant when we’ve never seen any school transcripts or papers?” I hear he’s planning on releasing his article “Why does everything the Smartest Man In The World™ touches turn to poop?” very soon. Of course, those others are based on reality, rather than a liberal attack job on a guy who is leading the GOP primary field

Teach continues on about Perry:

....But, there’s no doubt that he Gets Things Done. And his state seems to be doing a whole hell of a lot better than Democrat run states like, say, California, which sees its businesses streaming into Texas. Perry is, in fact, a leader, someone who knows how to get things that work in the real word done around him. And, we don’t necessarily need “idea men”: we need leaders who solicit the ideas from the professionals, then makes it happen, and generally convinces people that this is the best thing to do.

In reading discussions regarding The Politico piece I saw that Hot Air provides the "dumb" memes the media has thrown at just about every Republican presidential candidate, yet they rarely if ever bother mentioning , especially not in a five-page piece, the "dumb" factor from Obama's own record.



Via Hot Air:

Notice that these memes never get applied on the other side of the aisle, either. Did any media question Obama’s intelligence when during the campaign when he made these whoppers?

• The Selma March in 1965 did not contribute to his birth in 1961.
• Kansas tornadoes in May 2007 killed 12 people, not “ten thousand”.
• Afghans do not speak Arabic.
• Within 24 hours, Obama reversed his assertion that Iran did not pose a “serious threat” to the US to an assertion that the threat is “grave”.
• “On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”
• 57 states

No, they didn’t. Why? Because the media only uses the weird, scary, and idiot memes for Republican candidates, that’s why.

Is it any wonder why the majority of Americans believe there is media bias and why 2 to 1 they believe the media favors liberals/Democrats and make no effort to hide their bias anymore?



While some wonder why the media isn't asking the "dumb" question about Barack Obama, I believe the more appropriate question is why they aren't looking into the mirror and tagging their own forehead with a "DUMB" sticker?



.

Rick Perry Favored By Republicans And Tea Party Supporters

Gallup's new numbers are out and Rick Perry seems to at the front of the pack still, among Republicans who identify "government spending and power" as the set of issues most important to them as well as a smaller lead against Romney among Republicans who say "business and the economy" is their top issue.



Findings also show that Perry is more popular among Tea Party supporters than any other candidate as well.

Rick Perry's candidacy has attracted strong initial support from Republicans who identify themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement. Perry leads by 21 percentage points over the closest contenders among this group, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. Among Republicans who say they do not support the Tea Party movement, Romney and Perry are essentially tied.



These results are based on an Aug. 17-21 Gallup poll, which showed Perry overtaking Romney as the front-runner for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination among all Republicans nationwide.



The poll finds that 58% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents identify themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement, with 36% saying they do not consider themselves supporters. Included among the group of Tea Party supporters is a smaller group -- representing 12% of Republicans -- who say they are "strong" supporters of the movement. Among this smaller group, Perry's lead is even greater, 46% to 16%, over Bachmann, with all other candidates in single digits.



In Gallup's July measurement of Republicans' nomination preferences, before Perry officially entered the race, Romney held a slight edge over Bachmann among Tea Party supporters, 29% to 23%. Romney led Paul by 25% to 16% among nonsupporters.

The breakdown is explained over at Gallup on the lead Perry holds over Romney on the Government spending and business and economy issues, but there is no doubt that 3 weeks into his official campaign, Perry has slid into the candidate of choice for many.



NRO explains why Perry is popular with those that recognize his name already and why he will become more popular as more match him up against Romney and others.

• As “America’s jobs governor,” Perry is a one-man antidote to Obama’s venomous policies, which have held unemployment above 9 percent for 25 of the last 27 months. Across all 50 states, between June 2009 and June 2011, the Dallas Federal Reserve calculates that 49.9 percent of America’s net new jobs arose in Texas. July was its eleventh straight month of payroll expansion, with 29,300 Texans finding work. Nearly eleven years into Perry’s governorship, Texas inarguably is No. 1 in job growth.

During Romney’s single four-year term, however, the U.S. Labor Department ranked Massachusetts No. 47 in job growth. Employment increased just 0.9 percent between January 2003 and January 2007. At that time, U.S. job growth was roughly 5 percent, reports WSJ.com’s Brett Arends. Romney did keep Massachusetts ahead of Ohio and Michigan — two Rust Belt job sieves — and Louisiana, crushed by Katrina.

Read the whole thing.



Job growth and the economy are going to be two of the most important issues for the 2012 GOP nomination and for the 2012 presidential election and Perry stands far above all other GOP candidates as well as above Barack Obama on records alone.



Unless unemployment is drastically reduced and/or the economy grows at an impossible rate over the next year, Obama has nothing to campaign on except his speeches which are nothing like those he charmed voters with in 2008, because now there is a record behind him and it is ugly.



Obama's signature issue, Obamacare is still opposed by the majority of Americans and his unprecedented spending spending spree and deficit increases in the last two and half years have failed to stimulate the economy or produce the job growth promised with unemployment still over 9.0 percent.



No doubt as more Americans, especially Independents, learn more and are able to compare Perry's record with everyone else in the field of candidates and Obama, Perry's national lead will increase.



.

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.



.

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.



.

Dem Pollster Puts Rick Perry In The Lead In Iowa

Public Policy Polling (Democratic) has released their Iowa poll findings which puts Governor Rick Perry in the lead of the GOP pack of candidates.

The race is pretty close four ways in Iowa but Rick Perry is the new favorite among Republican voters in the state. Among announced candidates he's at 22% to 19% for Mitt Romney, 18% for Michele Bachmann, and 16% for Ron Paul. Further back are Herman Cain at 7%, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum at 5%, and Jon Huntsman at 3%.



If you throw Sarah Palin into the mix the numbers are pretty similar with Perry at 21%, Romney at 18%, Bachmann at 15%, Paul at 12%, and Palin registering at only 10%.

Hot Air points to PPP's Twitter feed which states:

11:34 (CT): Our national GOP poll, out tomorrow, is better for Perry even than the Iowa one. Double digit lead.

Bachmann did win the Iowa Ames straw poll on the same day as Perry declared which means that he received votes in that poll from write-ins but his name was not listed, so this latest PPP poll would imply that as of Perry's entry the good people of Iowa has taken a good look at him and like what they see so far.

Perry Vs Obama: Putting America Back To Work

Back to work



Since Rick Perry's South Carolina speech declaring his intention to run for president in 2012, his main focal point has been getting Americans back to work. In every speech he has mentioned it. He has put his plan out there.



It has been one of his most used expressions at every stop, in every conversation.



Today I see Barack Obama thinks it is a good expression, one that resonates with the public, so his weekly address is even titled "Getting America Back to Work."



Nice thought, but who is the public going to give more credence to when it comes to jobs and job growth?



The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, who has presided over a state that is responsible for approximately 37 percent of all the nations jobs created or the man, Barack Obama, that has presided over a country that hasn't seen unemployment under 9 percent since his first year in office?



No-brainer!



.

Video- Palin Backs Perry's Bernanke Remarks

Video below:

PALIN: [Perry] called it like he saw it and I always respect people for doing so. What Governor Perry is voicing concern about is something I wrote about on Facebook pages about ten months ago, this quantitative easing or monetizing our debt, essentially printing money out of thin air, which will eventually devalue our dollar and, I think, lead to inflation, in order to make it look like our debt isn’t as bad as it really is, and Governor Perry was voicing great concerns that many of us share. He just used some more candid terms, I think, than some of us would have used.



DOBBS: Even you?



PALIN: Well, yeah, that’s a good point. Perhaps I would have used similar terms. But I do share his concern though.

H/T Think Progress.

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!



.

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.



.

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.



.

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.



.

The Miracle Of Jobs Growth In Texas

Just read an excellent piece over at Political Math about the "miraculous" jobs growth in Texas over the last decade from a non-Rick Perry supporter. Yep, someone that doesn't like Rick Perry for our next president and was prepared to dig into the raw data and prove why Texas's job growth numbers were not spectacular, then proved the exact opposite.



He doesn't credit Rick Perry with the tremendous growth that has occurred in the decade Perry has governed the state of Texas, but he does counter the liberal arguments that are being spouted across the media and liberal blogosphere.



Teaser:

So I was going to drive my point home that Texas was nothing special by looking at their raw employment numbers and reporting on those. That's when I saw this:

Go read the rest, see the charts and the raw data provided.



H/T Just Karl.



Follow that up with Kevin D. Williamson's facts and figures on the same topic over at NRO.



.

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.



.

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!!



.

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.



.