Bizarre, Politics, Society

A Lack of Education or Energy? Perry Gaps on Third Agency To Be Axed

Texas Governor Rick Perry appears to want to streamline government . . . if he can just remember which major agencies will be eliminated. I include this tape not to mock Perry — I have previously stated my disregard for politicians in both parties. Rather, in my classes, I have a policy that students cannot read from their notes or their computers in presenting a case. The reason is that I often see lawyers in court who read from notes out of habit. It is a habit formed in law school. What I have found is that students who are barred from using notes tend to develop excellent skills of presentation and quickly become comfortable with speaking without a crutch. I am not saying that this is Perry’s problem who simply appears to have the type of mental block that we all experience from time to time. However, for lawyers and law students, it is a familiar problem in oral presentations. It is a painful 53 second to watch, but it is not an uncommon problem for public speakers and lawyers alike.

Perry is shown struggling with the short list of targeted agencies in the video above:

“Commerce, Education and the — what’s the third one there? Let’s see . . The third agency of government I would — I would do away with, Education, the … Commerce and let’s see. I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.”

I am sympathetic to Perry because we all know how a gap can get locked in with the pressure of a moment. While it makes him look like a three item list is one too long, it is clearly just a common mental lapse at the world’s least opportune moment. Half of your mind is on the answer and half is one the fact that everyone is looking at you struggle with the gap. Of course, it leaves federal employees wondering who is the third on the chopping block. To relieve the tension, the third agency is Energy. This is like being dumped by your high school boyfriend who cannot remember your name in the Dear John What-ever-your-name-is letter.

Yet, in my view, it is far worse of a gaffe for Herman Cain to suggest that China is working on acquiring nuclear weapons.

It is rare to see a modern presidential candidate lose so much ground in debates on pure performance grounds as opposed to his policies. In the age of almost robotic debate performances, candidates usually stay close to prepared and memorized remarks. The fact is that the Republican debates have been quite useful for voters in exposing both the talents and policies of the candidates.

The thing that again worried me is the joking suggestion of Ron Paul that one of the agencies to be eliminated is the EPA — which has been said not in jest by some of the candidates and was a remark that again received applause from the audience.

43 thoughts on “A Lack of Education or Energy? Perry Gaps on Third Agency To Be Axed”

  1. Elaine,

    I’m intrigued by Huntsman and I honestly believe he would present a challenge to Obama far greater than Romney could ever mount.

    I’d never vote for him but there are a lot of independents who would.

  4. The tragedy of this show, and it was the same in in 2007 when the democrats were puttin’ on the glitz, is that people get caught up in the production and fail to look at what’s going on back stage where all the real prep work is done.

    Democrats bought the Obama primary presentation and accepted his savior garb without actually looking at his voting record as a state rep or U.S. Senator. It was all there to see for he had always been a centrist slightly to the right of Bill Clinton. There was no reason to assume that anything other than his rhetoric had changed. If democrats had wanted real change they would have gone for Kucinich who had a clear record of supporting those issues democrats now claim Obama has failed to address. Even Hillary Clinton had a better voting record on those issues than Obama.

    This republican show has 16 declared candidates at this point and time. Some of them have actual voting records one can peruse and learn from. The rest of it is pure flimflam.

  5. Elaine,

    I wanted to add one thing quickly which I feel deserves attention. In Ohio as you know, our ass hole governor (R) just got his butt kicked on attempting to hurt the working class. Yet, people in Ohio had just elected said ass-hole! So why did that happen? Obviously, he does not care about the majority of people here, even those who voted for him.

    We have to figure this out and people have to stop voting for candidates who will harm both them and other people.

  6. I agree about the media Elaine. They are truly in the entertainment business or outright purveyors of propaganda. Glenn Greenwald constantly points out just what you said, that many members of the media agree with and even promote the most heinous crimes committed by the govt.

    It is quite difficult to find information that matters to us most. Instead, we get bread and circuses (well circuses anyway)!

  7. Jill,

    I think we can lay some of the blame for the state of affairs in this country at the feet of the media. Many members of the media don’t seem to have a problem with some of the things that are going on in our government. Where is the outrage?

    Another thing: I consider Jon Huntsman the most reasonable Republican presidential candidate–but you rarely hear anything about him. Why? Probably because he’s not a “sexy” candidate. He’s not batshit crazy. He’s not anti-science. He doesn’t make for interesting media stories. (That said, I disagree with his positions on many issues.)

    As for Romney–I don’t know how he can keep track of his changing positions on issues. He was much more moderate when he served as governor of Massachusetts.

  8. mespo727272 1, November 10, 2011 at 7:32 am

    How do these Republicans find so many people of such mean intellect to stand for the highest office in the land? It’s as though they seek them out as puppets for remote corporate puppeteers. Paranoia on my part, I’m sure.
    =================================
    Paranoia is “baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others”, but when there is a reasonable basis for such suspicion, it is healthy fear.

    Fear is quite healthy in the proper circumstances.

    Unhealthy fear vs. healthy fear is the swirling muddy water we try to see through these daze.

    This post by Professor Turley asks about the possibility of a lack of education, which could also be asked as What Are The Mental Effects of Generations of Propaganda?

    The answer is: detachment from reality (lack of education about reality).

  9. It offends us that the world looks on these debates as a comedy show, but does not offend us when we look at it that way.

    That is a memory gap of global proportions.

  10. S.M.,

    I find that appalling as well. I also see it as similar to people who applaud or support the current war criminal in chief. It just doesn’t make sense and it is wrong.

    I feel people need to take a close look at themselves. If they really want candidates like any of these or Obama, then they should ask the question as to why they will tolerate the harm of others by their candidate of choice.

    Cain has likely harmed these women. Obama is currently still holding Bradley Manning in prison illegally, after knowing he had been tortured. I won’t go on with the list of wrongdoing but I keep wondering what it will take before partisan supporters will stop ignoring the harm caused by their own candidate and stop voting for such cruel, evil people.

  11. eniobob, You were right. My husband said the same thing. I thought Perry would do better.

  15. At least when singing and momentarily forgetting the lyrics I could always fill in with la-la-la-la

  16. Watching the Republican presidential candidates is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You want to look away, but cannot. The scary part is at least four tenths of the country will actually vote for one of these clowns.

  18. You’re terribly generous, Prof Turley. But as someone who has to tolerate this plutocratic buffoon as a governor, I do not sympathize with him. This, to me, is just more evidence of his indifference, cynicism and utter lack of real core principles toward governing in addition to his piss poor skills as a public speaker. He just says what he needs to say to get elected, and this far along in his career as professional flip-flopper, I’m sure he’s having a lot of trouble remembering who’s he’s pandering to at any given moment. Besides, it’s also hypocrisy. He’ll campaign on the “small government” platform but his performance as governor has been nothing short of extensive track record of unchecked power, waste, cronyism and of course, asking the Feds for money. So naturally, he’s clueless about how to really down-size government, seeing he’s never actually done it. And lets not get started on Perry’s unwavering faith in the state’s infallibility when it comes to executing people. You don’t have to be critical and precise when you can just say, “We don’t make mistakes.”

  19. How do these Republicans find so many people of such mean intellect to stand for the highest office in the land? It’s as though they seek them out as puppets for remote corporate puppeteers. Paranoia on my part, I’m sure.

  20. Rickys a Reel Murkin (C) – the kind ya’d like to have a beer with. Not one of them egg head elitists with things like knowledge or ability. He should be our Prezdent.

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