Home » Rick Perry’s eyeglasses: Part II

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Rick Perry’s eyeglasses: Part II — 28 Comments

  1. He does come across with a lot of appeal in that clip.

    Maybe a Rick Perry—Condoleeza Rice ticket for 2016?

    I’d say a Perry—Susana Martinez ticket but that would be maybe too heavy on the Southwestern U.S. representation.

  2. Agree, neo.

    I really like Perry and was mortified by his performance in 2012. I wanted to back him oh so badly, but just couldn’t after I saw what he was like “on his feet” (Obama would have annihilated him in debate).

    I think he should run again. I’m not at all opposed to it.

    And yes, he looks very good. I say that as a 33 year old (straight) male who probably doesn’t look as good as he does. He really rocks those glasses.

  3. And Condoleeza did exactly what that was noteworthy? What qualified her for high office? What achievements did she have in said office(s)? No cheating or looking up her bio. What springs to mind? That is, beyond being female and black and GOP and a Bushie.
    Pushing for a black lightweight regardless of party is black racism, as pushing a woman because she’s a woman is sexist. We have enough of these rotten eggs on the Hill already.
    Merit matters, or at least it should. Especially on Neo’s site.

  4. Rick Perry has a pretty strong resume. He was an Air Force officer and pilot, he ran a family business, and he is governor of a large state which excels in low taxes, energy, agriculture, and high tech industry. Compare that to Obama and Hillary.

  5. And I can testify that in person – he is a very witty and charming guy. He is one of those politicians who is easy and comfortable in his own skin, really, really likes people, likes to be around them, schmooze with them… supposedly Bill Clinton is one of those, as well. So I hear from people who have met him personally. Just as Hilary Clinton is not, and Obama very likely isn’t, either.
    What a pickle for a professional politician to be in – not to really like and enjoy the company of people.

  6. There’s a some propaganda potential being unused in the music community. Generally the only way to penetrate the veil is from the ground up, as a starter. Not top down or externally.

  7. Isn’t it unfortunately that a momentary memory lapse during a debate can derail a campaign but a history of association with radical organizations and a questionable resume is perfectly acceptable? How far we have fallen!

  8. One of the very few Republicans I could actually vote for and not have to hold my nose.

  9. Glasses or no glasses, I want a successful republican governor as the candidate. By ‘successful’ I mean a governor who has lead a state to economic revival and in general pursued policies that benefit a wide range of the citizens of their state. Next I want a well spoken, quick on their feet VP running mate who can will relentlessly attack the dem candidates and cause the lackeys of MSM to pull out their hair and rend their microphones.

  10. I think if Perry runs, his campaign slogan should be something along the lines of:
    ” I’m not great at speeches, I am too busy running the most successful state in the union.”

  11. Perry was a disaster last time. For all his wonderful aspects, he just looked not very bright on every occasion.

    I saw the video Roger Simon put up which showed that Perry was indeed very witty and down to Earth.

    Perry has to be shrewd to have become governor, but I am not sure Texas political shrewd necessarily means national shrewd. Bush, for all his faults, had both and never came across (to me) as not very bright, despite how the Left painted him.

    My immediate thought when I saw the glasses was a deliberate attempt to erase the image Perry had created as being not very bright.

    Bush struck me as a deep guy. Reagan was an intellectual. Palin is extremely intelligent.

    Perry … let’s see.

  12. Last go round when Perry entered the race I thought/hoped that he might be a contender. Then he turned off his transponder (Oops !) and disappeared somewhere over the East coast.

    Of course the Pravda press made sure he could never recover and I doubt they will give him a chance for a resurrection this time. But I wish him good luck.

  13. You already know my thoughts on Perry. But I will add one thing:
    “Call himself “Richard Perry”?
    No. Then the left would call him “Dick.”

    I can see the ads now: “First, there was Nixon. Then, there was Cheney. Haven’t we had enough Dicks in the White House?”

  14. When Kinky Friedman ran for Governor against Rick Perry in 2006, I voted for Kinky. After, all the composer and performer of such immortal songs as They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore, the writer of mystery books, Peace Corps volunteer in Borneo,and camp counselor at his parents’ camp in the Hill Country had all the qualifications to be an outstanding governor. Who could ever forget his stance on gay marriage: “I support gay marriage. I believe they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us.” Kinky got about 13% of the vote.

    Maybe Kinky even has the qualifications for President. Turns out that the Kinkster, three years back, decided that as he could never be elected President, he would support the next best alternative: Rick Perry. Better a drummer with ZZ Top for President than a guitarist and songwriter.

    Rick Perry has never lost an election; I’ve never won one. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with the world. On the other hand, I’ve long been friends with Bill Clinton and George W., and Rick Perry and I, though at times bitter adversaries, have remained friends as well. It’s not always easy to maintain friendships with politicians. To paraphrase Charles Lamb, you have to work at it like some men toil after virtue.

    I have been quoted as saying that when I die, I am to be cremated, and the ashes are to be thrown in Rick Perry’s hair….

    If the issue of the day is jobs and the economy, Rick Perry is certainly the nuts-and-bolts kind of guy you want in there. Even though my pal and fellow Texan Paul Begala has pointed out that no self-respecting Mexican would sneak across the border for one of Rick Perry’s low-level jobs, the stats don’t entirely lie. Compared with the rest of the country, Texas is kicking major ass in terms of jobs and the economy, and Rick should get credit for that, just as Obama should get credit for saying “No comment” to the young people of the Iranian revolution.

    More to the point, could Rick Perry fix the economy? Hell, yes! Texas is exhibit A; Rick’s fingerprints are all over it. He’s been governor since Christ was a cowboy. The Lone Star State is booming. The last time I checked, Texas is kicking in a hell of a lot of the U.S. GDP. Unemployment is lower than the vast majority of the other states. Hell, we could probably even find a job for Paul Begala.

    As a Jewish cowboy (or “Juusshh,” as we say in Texas), I know Rick Perry to be a true friend of Israel, like Bill Clinton and George W. before him. There exists a visceral John Wayne kinship between Israelis and Texans, and Rick Perry gets it…..

    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.

    Interesting that Neo, a New Englander by way of New York had something good to say about Rick Perry.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/24/kinky-friedman-rick-perry-s-got-my-vote.html

  15. Since we’re talking about a possible candidate, there’s a good Daniel Henninger piece in the WSJ — Republican Roulette: The GOP presidential slate looks like a chaotic casino of ideas — that’s worth a read. Couple of excerpts:

    Watching Republicans run for the presidency is an exhausting crapshoot. When election day arrives, there’s no there there. The voters who provide the margin of victory never get the Republican Party and its candidate into focus. There’s a hodgepodge of fine “principles,” but what is your party actually going to do if we let you run the country?

    A Democrat can only love this spectacle. While Republicans stage the Irish family reunion that never ends, Democrats stay united around policies dating to 1964. Tax, spend and pander. You keep looking for anything resembling an interesting revision of their entitlement-state steam engine, but it never comes.

    and

    One imagines GOP presidential dreamers spending weekends sifting polls, phrases, principles and personal obsessions to shape a unique campaign message. Great. But how much greater it would be if just once they gave voters a coherent, consistent Republican message connected to something real.

    The Entitlement State isn’t a bumper sticker. It is a multi-trillion-dollar edifice of laws meticulously expanded for decades by Democrats in Congress. The Great Society wasn’t a speech. Lyndon Johnson politicked it into existence.

    Republicans once did this, too. The Reagan tax cut of 1986 didn’t pass because the Gipper gave grand speeches. It took years of legislative politicking to transform his ideas into law.

    Neither achievement happened without broad party agreement about the goal.

  16. I’m right there with you, Neo. And I though he looked good without the glasses, too.

  17. Don Carlos: “And Condoleeza did exactly what that was noteworthy? What qualified her for high office?”

    Actually Don Carlos, I wouldn’t mind having Condi Rice as Sec. of State right now.

    At least she studied Russian and Russian history, so she might have some good insights into how to handle the Crimea situation – in the very least she couldn’t do any worse than the current set of clowns.

  18. I’m really not sure how Perry could run successful in 2016 after his performance in 2012. It wasn’t just his muddled and confused performance in the debates, but also his inability to successfully bat down accusations regarding his record as governor and his unwillingness to articulate what he would do as president. Repeating over and over again that “Texas is great” will not win anyone the presidency. He will have to step up his game.

  19. I liked Rick last time also. I hope he runs again and can translate that folksy Texas wit into something resembling Will Rogers’ kind of folk wisdom.

    I agree with Henninger. Uniting the Rs behind a focused message that resonates with wishy-washy independents makes a lot of sense. Digging up some of Will Rogers’ insights might be a place to start.

    Aloha. 🙂

  20. I thought he was marvelous in that clip. Humorous, sexy alpha male. I agree about the glasses, and I usually don’t like them.

    And he had that crowd warmed up and loudly applauding him in pretty short order. So this kind of appearance is definitely one of his strengths.

    BTW, I think the young’uns are sick and tired of Milquetoast Nation. Don’t you? (They laughed at his bit about shooting the coyote while jogging.)

  21. John Scotus (any relation to Duns?), don’t forget that the American electorate has a five-minute attention span and a built-in Memory Hole for anything more than two years ago….

    I bet, if he came out of the gate like he did at SXSW, he could make a real fine showing.

  22. Lightweight, Don Carlos? Compared to who? Warren Christopher? Madeline Albright? Hilary?
    Thomas Jefferson?

  23. Have to agree with John Scotus at 1:06 AM about “muddled and confused” and repeating “Texas is great.” Perry did this on every occasion, not one or two, and the media had zero to do with how inept he was or looked.

    True, the Left did their usual “racist” smear job with the ridiculous rock story

    (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/03/texas-governor-rick-perry_n_992712.html),

    but that was ironically the single positive for Perry out of his entire run because he garnered sympathy as a victim.

    Perry comes across as mouthing conservative buzz words without understanding or being capable of explaining the underlying premises.

    It is great he was successful in Texas, but this does not prove a lot about his abilities or prospects. Consider Scott Walker to put this in perspective.

    For a non-Leftist to win an election in our present culture, he must first have a deep and passionate understanding of that culture, the desire to confront it, and the ability to do so effectively given the huge advantage that culture gives the Left.

    Perry does not seem anywhere close, but he is good looking and does seem like a great guy to have a beer with.

  24. “For a non-Leftist to win an election in our present culture, he must first have a deep and passionate understanding of that culture, the desire to confront it, and the ability to do so effectively given the huge advantage that culture gives the Left.”

    If those are your criteria, I would say only Cruz is a sure thing. Rand Paul probably meets that since he goes out to speak to Democrat constituencies on their home turf. Walker may meet that, since he’s had to fight the leftists all the way.
    I can’t think of any other Republican candidates that show a deep understanding of leftist thinking.

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