Rick Perry, Barack Obama, America, Love and Your Mama [mature content warning]
TweetIs Rick Perry the guy who will finally say “Adios, mofo,” to President Barack Obama?
Well. Barely four days in the race, Texas Governor Rick Perry has probably made more news than all the other candidates put together have made in the course of their campaigns to date. Many in the media seem to think that a lot of it is of the “foot-in-mouth” variety, but I would suggest that they are dramatically failing to comprehend the mood of the American people.
The whole situation can be encapsulated in the recent exchange regarding the concept of love for America. Rick Perry had made a comment in Iowa about his own love of America, and how he believed that Americans wanted a president who did truly love America, and so he was questioned as to whether he was casting aspersions on our current president’s level of amour for L’États-Unis. From ABC‘s blog The Note:
Just hours after presidential candidate Rick Perry said that he would be the kind of president who would be “passionate” about America, the Texas governor suggested that President Obama may not share the sentiment.
“I think you want a president who is passionate about America — that’s in love with America,” Perry said during a visit to the Iowa State Fair on Monday.
At a Republican Party event Monday night, a reporter asked Perry whether he was suggesting that President Obama does not love America.
“You need to ask him,” Perry responded. “I’m saying, you’re a good reporter, go ask him.”
In that latter exchange, Governor Rick Perry demonstrated a savoir faire (that’s right: I’m practicing in advance of launching an all-French version of La Cinch Revieu later this decade) far beyond his four days in the dreaded “national spotlight.” Instead of apologizing, backtracking, equivocating, or even explaining at length (which can itself be death) Perry responded in the perfect manner: he turned the question back upon the reporter and—in this case—back upon the real subject, i.e., President Barack Obama. I think that even after these very few days of Rick Perry as a candidate for president, we know very well how he would respond to any question about his love for America. After about five years of Barack Obama being in that “national spotlight,” does anyone really know exactly what his answer would be? (I mean, of-course he would say that he loves America; but with what nuances and qualifications? On what terms, exactly? I am convinced that no one could say for sure.) Rick Perry’s initial statement coupled with his response to being challenged on it flies in the face of much conventional wisdom about a prudent and carefully-managed presidential campaign, and at the same time is exactly right-on and to-the-point. People wonder what Barack Obama really thinks of America as it has traditionally been versus how he has sought to reinvent it. Some of us have wondered from back in 2007 or so; others (the critical mass of “middle” voters in America) have only come to wonder it after seeing how he has governed these past few years.
President Obama’s response illustrates how ill-prepared he really is to face someone as direct and as savvy as Governor Perry appears to be. (In the first place, if he had half a brain, he wouldn’t even respond to one of about a dozen Republican candidates who are out there saying things about him. However, since he is probably the most partisan and thin-skinned president the United States has ever had, he simply can’t help himself.)
Asked whether Perry’s remarks were disrespectful, Obama said he would “cut him some slack” as a new candidate.
“Everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn’t like running for governor or running for senator or running for Congress, and you’ve got to be a little more careful about what you say,” Obama said on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”
Mister President Obama: The American economy is a complete disaster after nearly three years of you being president (during two of which your party had effectively complete control of the House and Senate). Do you really think that the critical mass of the American people (versus your dedicated-albeit-dwindling liberal acolytes) are interested in hearing you whine about the inappropriateness of some implied criticism sent in your direction? Merely to do so makes you appear even more self-obsessed and petulant than you already seemed. Your 39% approval rating just took another hit.
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Forget what ABC, Jay Carney, Karl Rove and even Ann Coulter are saying about Rick Perry. His pulse right now is beating in perfect time with the very voters he needs to win.
Anything can happen in politics—we know that. And as Donald Rumsfeld assures us, we must always wonder about the unknown unknowns. But as of this moment, Rick Perry is not only going to sweep the Republican nomination, but he is going to stomp all over President Barack Obama in November of 2012.
(This is not an official endorsement. But it certainly is a heartfelt wish that we weren’t 15 months away from election day.)
