IBD Editorial: Is Gov. Perry Smart? His Record Says Yes

IBD has it pegged but we would like to add that it is not only the liberals spewing this mantra against Perry but Rove and some of the Conservative neocon sites and their writers.  After making his speech at the VFW, the neocon sites went after Perry even more.  Why because he said we shouldn't send our sons and daughters into war without a plan to win along with the resources?

“A president should never send our sons and daughters into war without a plan to win and the resources to make that possible,” Perry said. ”It’s a dangerous world that we live in today. Our enemies often don’t wear uniforms or swear allegiance to a particular flag but instead to an ideology of hatred. As the 10^th anniversary of the attacks of 911 approach, we must renew our commitment to taking the fight to the enemy wherever they are before they strike at home.” (Rick Perry at the VFW)

Now some neocons like Jennifer Rubin cannot stop trashing Rick Perry and along with others are trying to portray him as a religious radical.  The might as well say the Republican grassroots and Tea Party are radicals right along with Rick Perry.  Cannot get over the so-called conservatives who are trashing Perry as much as the liberals.  What does Rove expect to happen?  Certainly not going to get Romney elected in the primary so what is his next plan to take out Perry?    He tried in 2006 and 2010 to take out Perry as Texas Governor but it didn't work.  Why does he think his strategy is going to work this time?  The regular conservative sites have Rove pegged for his attacks on Perry for Romney.  It is having the reverse affect as more and more are defending Perry across the board from the attacks of the liberals and the neocons/lawyers in the Republican Party.

Must be the right candidate with some of the people who are opposing him along with their weak dollar policy.  This is so much like 1980 and what the Bush 41 people tried to do to Reagan in the primary along with the liberal Democrats as the liberals didn't want Carter to face him in the general election.  Rove lost that one as well when he took on Reagan.

Likewise, President Reagan was the butt of leftist jokes for his alleged lack of intelligence. "An amiable dunce," they called him. They also looked down on his humble education — he attended tiny Eureka College in Illinois. 

But Reagan not only knew more about economics than his supposed intellectual betters — having been educated in the pre-Keynesian, 19th-century tradition of economic thought. He had character, courage, conviction and communication skills that made him the greatest president of the 20th century. 

Now they're giving Gov. Perry the same treatment. Good luck. By his lead in the polls, it looks like Americans, rather than dwelling on his transcripts, are cottoning to his common sense and sound policy ideas.   

This editorial from IBD gets it right about Governor Perry.  We have seen him in office as Texas residents and as Governor from north of the Texas/OK border.  Have been very impressed with him since 1990 when he ran for Ag Commissioner.  He is one of the most personable candidates along with that West Texas wit who just makes people feel good to support him.  What you see is what you get with Rick Perry.

Editorial: Is Gov. Perry Smart? His Record Says Yes
Posted 06:58 PM ET 

Politics: Liberals and their water-carriers in the media are trying mightily to characterize Republican front-runner Rick Perry as less intelligent than the president they're bent on re-electing. But who are the dumb ones here? 

Denigrating an opponent's intelligence is one way progressives like to work as they follow the "Rules for Radicals" that Saul Alinsky set out for those who wish to seize power on behalf of the left. Followers of the Chicago Marxist include President Obama. 

One rules says: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It's hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage." 

This is precisely what the left has done with Perry, questioning his mental ability while holding up the president as a paragon of intelligence. Such ridicule, they hope, will goad Perry and those who support him into saying something stupid or regrettable. 

Unfortunately for the left, Perry's no dummy. And Americans, increasingly, are looking at the record of our sitting president and wondering how he could go from failure to failure and not alter course — a mark of someone — dare we say it? — who isn't very smart. 

How intelligent was it, for example, for Obama early in his term to make a deal with Russia giving up our planned missile defense in Eastern Europe in exchange for help with Iran (which never came)?
What was the president thinking when he signed ObamaCare into law, even though surveys showed 89% of Americans said they were satisfied with their current health care plan? A costly, care-rationing program that Americans want repealed will cost well over $1 trillion over 10 years. 

Cash for Clunkers ran out of money its first week, and GM recently announced that taxpayers won't ever get their money back. A huge waste of money that didn't revive car sales. A smart move in retrospect?

Then there was the brilliant $839 billion stimulus, which so far this year has resulted in an economy growing at a near-recessionary 0.7% while unemployment remains stuck above 9%. And the big thinkers at the White House would like to do it all over again! 

Didn't the cerebral Obama think twice before running up $4 trillion in debts in less than three years, pushing America's total indebtedness above $14.5 trillion, or 100% of GDP, and bringing about the first-ever downgrade of the nation's credit rating? 

What brainiac decided to walk away from longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, so that the fundamentalist, America-hating Muslim Brotherhood can write a new constitution and take power? 

What was the president thinking when he backed a rebel insurgency in Libya without knowing who will take power once Moammar Gadhafi is gone? Meanwhile, we've largely abandoned our best, and only, democratic friend in the region, Israel, which appears on the verge of war with the Palestinians and possibly Iran and Egypt. Has this been intelligent? 

Not only is this partial record abysmal, but Obama seems dead-set on repeating the same errors — seeking more stimulus, pushing more targeted tax breaks for favored industries and perpetuating the absurd myth that we can recover by creating "green" jobs. 

Perry? The knock on him is that he's a Texan with a Texan's drawl. For elitist liberals, a southern accent is akin to a mental disability. 

He's also a graduate of Texas A&M, not some fancy Ivy League school, like Obama and most of his aides and Cabinet. Enemies deride him by calling him "Gov. Goodhair." But let's look at the record. 

Perry served his country as pilot of C-130 transport planes — huge, $130 million aircraft that carry very important cargo, including troops and equipment. Does anyone believe the U.S. Air Force would entrust such a responsibility to someone of limited intelligence? 

It also takes more than a little savvy to win every political office you've sought. And so far, Perry's eight for eight. He's been governor of the nation's fastest-growing, most business-savvy state for 10 years. 

Since June 2009, Texas has produced nearly 40% of all net new U.S. jobs. He talks about small, manageable government, and delivers. Every one of his budgets — every one — has been balanced, and his state has a $6 billion "rainy day fund." 

Remember in August, when S&P downgraded U.S. debt from AAA to AA+? In 2009, S&P upgraded Texas' rating from AA to AA+. If only we had such a dunce in the White House now. 

To recast a quote from Forrest Gump, "intelligent is as intelligent does." Perry seems to do lots of smart things, despite lacking the elitist credentials of the so-called leaders in today's dysfunctional, hyper-incompetent Washington. 

But this is an old slur. Whenever the left doesn't like someone, they resort to ridicule. That happened with Harry S Truman, who didn't even go to college but who as president made courageous and often unpopular decisions — such as resisting Soviet expansionism — that later turned out to be right. 

....

Source:  IBD

Now we have an ad by Bachmann's front group PAC attacking Rick Perry on being from the south and increasing the budget in Texas.  The ad is on Hot Air.  Here is a excerpt from one of the Hot Air writers about the ad:

The ad begins airing in Columbia, S.C., today and will run for one week on CNBC, Fox News and CNN. 

“Nobody will go after Rick Perry so I thought I would,” PAC founder Bob Harris told CNN. “His record doesn’t match the big talk.” 

That’s not quite right, of course: Plenty of conservatives have gone after Rick Perry — and I’m firmly in the camp of those who maintain every conservative candidate, no matter how appealing or how promising, has to be vetted (in fact, the more promising, the more rigorous the vetting should be!). But the ad’s selective images, piddly background music, cheesy substitution of “hombre” for “man,” and pseudo-Southern-sounding narrator combine to make the ad likely to be ineffective. A big spender Rick Perry might be, but a hick he is not. He’s of humble origins and from the South, yes, if that’s what the ad is driving at, but, more importantly, he’s a seasoned politician who professes a strong brand of conservatism at the same time that he displays energetic executive leadership. The ad’s thinly veiled attempt to portray him as backwoods rubs the wrong way, especially when it comes from a conservative organization that surely knows the MSM will do what it can to perpetuate the “gee, aren’t Republicans dumb” meme.

Agree 100% about vetting a candidate and what was wrong with the Obama campaign -- media did not vet Obama and what they did find, they covered up.  Now for what the Perry campaign said as they immediately shot back:

ABC news 

Rick Perry’s presidential campaign lashed out at a pro-Michele Bachmann Super PAC that is planning to run a television ad in South Carolina seeking to portray the Texas governor as unworthy of Tea Party support. 

“Gov. Perry is a proven fiscal conservative, having cut taxes, signed six balanced budgets, and led Texas to become America’s top job-creating state,” Ray Sullivan, communications director for Perry’s presidential campaign, said in a statement on Thursday. “Congresswoman Bachmann’s front-group ad is patently and provably false. Unlike Washington, the Texas budget is balanced, does not run deficits and limits spending, even as Texas added jobs and population in big numbers.” 

Anyone with an ounce of brains would know when you have as many new people moving into Texas as has happened since Rick Perry has been Governor, your budget is going to grow by leaps and bounds.  What did Texas do under Perry -- they balanced the budget by 'cutting' and at the same time made sure there was plenty of money in the rainy day fund in case something catastrophic happened.

Thought this was the perfect place to show the ad from Rick Perry talking about who he is since the Bachmann ad portrays him in a negative light being some hick from the south:




Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota who has never been an Executive at any level in Government is taking on a Governor from the Southwest as one poster said about Bachmann "She's a da.. Yankee so what do you expect?"  She tried her superior act in Waterloo, IA, when she camped out in her bus while Perry spoke, and then making a grand entrance to Elvis music which did not go over well.  She said she was at a family reunion and why she couldn't share dinner with them but she lied as she didn't attend the reunion.  Then Rick Perry waited around to have a few words with Bachmann and shake hands after she was finished speaking but she refused to acknowledge he was in the room.

A southerner or westerner would shake hands and talk to a fellow Republican unlike what Bachmann pulled.  In fact, having grown up in the north and lived in Texas and Oklahoma for the last 21 years along with almost five years in Southern California, I will take the friendliness of the people in this part of the Country any day to what I saw growing up in Ohio and even worse the farther east and north you go.  Rudest people I have ever met were in Massachusetts when we were there on an Air Force Industry assignment for nine, long miserable months with Vermont and NY State coming in a close second.

I will take a Western Governor any day of the week over someone from a Democrat state whose state supported Obama and elected a Democrat Governor in 2010.  Bachmann's people don't even understand that Texas is part of the Western Governor's association.  Poor choice for an ad and poor choice of words to run in South Carolina shows she is not ready for prime time.  The wording in the ad is offensive to those of us who live in this part of the Country.

Bachmann is about to find out how they play politics in the big leagues and obviously with this ad in South Carolina shows she is not ready for prime time.  I know how PACs work so don't bother to say she or her husband didn't know about it -- if you believe that there are pigs flying by my window.

Bachmann is late to events and some events she didn't show up at all in Iowa.  Why doesn't some reporter ask her why the House Tea Party Caucus she founded that has no meetings and never takes a stand on anything?  They might discover that all the hype was to position her to run for President.  Why not check out her anemic legislative record?  Wouldn't take long to discover she has not been in the front of the pack submitting bills.

This should be an interesting debate at the Reagan Library with Bachmann's people pulling this stunt with running this ad in South Carolina filled with lies against Governor Perry.  Maybe I should start a rumor she is Rove's next candidate but then she does have Rollins as a consultant so she doesn't need Rove for being underhanded.  Originally Rollins went to Ross Perot in 1992 against Bush 41 and Clinton.  This little gem sums up Rollins ads against opponents -- would bet he had a hand in that negative ad against Perry as it would fit his style:

Bachmann will also have to especially avoid gaffes that can be linked to Rollins’ political baggage, and, perhaps most important, be willing to play a little dirty. “The negatives feel good,” Ed Rollins told the Washington Post around the time of the Huckabee incident. “It’s like being a boxer when you’re young. To me, hitting somebody, knocking somebody down, is a great feeling. Firing out a negative ad just feels amazing.”

This ad filled with lies is right out of that Rollins playbook -- he wanted Huckabee to run a negative ad against Romney but when Huckabee refused Rollins showed the ad to the media as this was the kind of ad Huckabee was not running so he was still able to get out his trashy ad.

IMHO Rollins is a scumbag consultant any way you want to slice it with his negative ads mentality which fits right in with this ad running in South Carolina filled with lies trying to use a stereotype against Govenor Perry.