That’s the question that The Politico’s Jonathan Martin asks in a long (5 web pages), top page story about Perry, with the catchy title “Is Ricky Perry Dumb?“Â 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 Worldâ„¢ 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
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?
Either way, the article is going to attempt to paint Perry as dumb and worthless
Doubts about Perry’s intellect have hounded him since he was first elected as a state legislator nearly three decades ago. In Austin, he’s been derided as a right-place, right-time pol who looks the part but isn’t so deep – “Gov. Goodhair.†Now, with the chatter picking back up among his enemies and taking flight in elite Republican circles, the rap threatens to follow him to the national stage.
“He’s like Bush only without the brains,†cracked one former Republican governor who knows Perry, repeating a joke that has made the rounds.
So, we’re through the first 4 paragraphs, and everything, including the anonymous “former Republican governor”, attempts to put him in a negative light.
But conversations with both Perry admirers and critics reveal a more complicated assessment about the mind of a politician who has never lost an election—and ranks as the longest-serving governor in Texas history.
The majority of the story is negative, rather than a “complicated assessment.”
He is not an ideas man. Perry hasn’t spent his political career marking up the latest Cato or Heritage white papers or reading policy-heavy books late into the night. Advisers and colleagues have informed much of his thinking over the years.
Look, I’m not a real big Perry supporter: in practice, versus what he says, he seems to me to be another Big Government social conservative with some fiscal conservative leanings. 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.
Then follows some back and forth about Perry, till we get to this on page 3
Those who remember Perry from his days as a conservative Democrat in the state House say he was likable and ambitious – but not considered a thinker.
“He was not known as a particularly bright guy,†recalled Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who worked in Austin at the time. “But he was really charming and clearly a political talent.â€
And what has that “bright guy” in the position of President done? He lives in his own academic world, surrounds himself with other academics, and thinks that doing the same thing again and again will achieve different results.
Then more back and forth, ending with
The mistake, said Johnson, is to infer weakness from Perry’s style.
“The political graveyard in Texas is buried full of people who have underestimated Rick Perry,†he said. “We had a U.S. senator who did that and she didn’t even make the run-off. Sooner or later they’re going to figure out that he’s not just lucky, he’s good.â€
Of course, most people aren’t going to make it that far in a web article. And, no matter what, Democrats will paint Perry as dumb, crazy, anti-intellectual, pick your favorite personal smear from Democrats. What else can they do, though, considering the mess Obama has made?
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
THIS….is the exact same thing they did with Bush. Bush is DUMB and Cheney is dumber hence Obama is the SMARTEST guy in the room.
Intellect is all they have. He HAD NO experience, NO ability……..NO wisdom…..NO resume.
So the quest was to make everyone seem dumb by his standard and then place him on a pedestal as if INTELLECT is the ONLY criteria in judging who should be the POTUS.
Obama wins right. After all he is a professor. Graduated Harvard even though we have never seen his college papers.
Obama is the smartest guy in the room and if they can make the case that INTELLECT IS THE ONLY CRITERIA to determine the POTUS then he wins…….
yet again.
So get ready……every candidate is dumb, a candidate for the short bus and without the intellectual acuity of a slug.
Obama wins by default……that is the MSM’s goal. That is the DNC’s goal and that is the lefts goal.
Anyone but a Republican is the lefts rallying cry……the problem is that the left really only consists of about 35 percent of Americans.
The other 65 percent of us are REDNECKS, KKK, HILLBILLIES, RACISTS, HOMOPHOBES and god forbid……CHRISTIANS……
and we all know none of those have any intellect.
The question is “who is pushing Perry’s interest?”. I have seen his name come up at several blogs. If you say something critical of the man, you are savaged by others in a manner that you would expect on liberal blogs. The messages are uniform. It makes me think that some organizaition is in the background. Considering Perry’s bona fids, I suspect that the Christian Coalition in behind the guy and is doing some social engineering on the web. Would be interesting to check. There are several words that have not been mentioned in the race. No one has used the A word, abortion. Perry is definitely anti-abortion. In fact, he has not meet a law involving tell women what to do that he does not like, even if he has to use executive orders.
The guy is not a real conservative. He likes to get into your lives, he uses the religious excuse to do so.
IN the eyes of the MSM and the Socialists in the Democrat party, if you do not agree with them you are stupid, a moron, or various other names.
the Left has no more ideas other than tax the rich and will belittle anyone that does not agree with their policies. But the people are catching on and the Leftists are loosing power
Word is correct! They call anyone they hate (conservatives certainly) dumb, because THEY CAN’T give a good enough argument against their conservative values. If they could debate them, then they’d have a leg to stand on, but they cannot debate because they cannot win against facts and truth! So instead find a target, focus on it, demean it, savage it, call it names and it may stick!!! It’s all they have, and it won’t be enough this time, I hope! People are tired of their petty and often vicious rhetoric!
trish,
The problem is that they make up stuff and people are so stupid that they think that what the left is saying is the truth. Just look a daiy kos for a short bit and you can see the way they alter reality. A good example is what the do with FDR. The guy was horrible, yet they make him out to be a hero.
[…] headlines coming out of the main stream media. One thing you can count on is the “dumb, evil, crazy” meme will be used against whichever candidate wins the GOP primary.google_ad_client = […]
Ewww, David, I can’t look at the Daily Kos, it makes my eyes blind and my stomach lurch, but I know what you are saying. They do alter reality, and unfortunately, there are those out there whose minds are susceptible to believing only what they choose to hear and or what they’ve been fed by professors or other teachers, and possibly even parents, with agendas!!
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