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.
Matt Taibbi has an article about Rick Perry in the latest issue of Rolling Stone:
Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas
The Texas governor has one driving passion: selling off government to the highest bidder
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rick-perry-the-best-little-whore-in-texas-20111026
Excerpt:
Perry’s campaign is still struggling to recover from the kind of spectacular, submarine-at-crush-depth collapse seldom seen before in the history of presidential politics. The governor went from presumptive front-runner to stammering talk-show punch line seemingly in the speed of a single tweet, rightly blasted for being too incompetent even to hold his own in televised debates with a half-bright pizza salesman like Herman Cain and a goggle-eyed megachurch Joan of Arc like Michele Bachmann. But such superficial criticisms of his weirdly erratic campaign demeanor don’t even begin to get at the root of why we should all be terrified of Perry and what he represents. After all, you have to go pretty far to stand out as a whore and a sellout when you come from a state that has produced such luminaries in the history of political corruption as LBJ, Karl Rove and George W. Bush. But Rick Perry has managed to set a scary new low in the annals of opportunism, turning Texas into a swamp of political incest and backroom dealing on a scale not often seen this side of the Congo or Sierra Leone.
In an era when there’s exponentially more money in politics than we’ve ever seen before, Perry is the candidate who is exponentially more willing than we’ve ever seen before to whore himself out for that money. On the human level he is a nonpersonality, an almost perfect cipher – a man whose only discernible passion is his extreme willingness to be whatever someone will pay him to be, or vote for him to be. Even scarier, the religious community around which he has chosen to pull his human chameleon act features some of the most extreme end-is-nigh nutcases in America, the last people you want influencing the man with the nuclear football. Perry is a human price tag – Being There meets Left Behind. And sometimes there’s nothing more dangerous than nothing at all.
i think they have an open bar before the debates just to mess with rick perry.
Mespo — “mean intellect” — great double (triple?) entendre
Maybe, Perry had a senior moment. He is not that smart to start with. Never heard that he had a substance problem, but he could be on pain meds from his recent back surgery. I agree that Cain’s mistake about China was worse.
Should have practiced, but this yahoo made up excuses to avoid a high school forum with his gubernatorial opponent
http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/oct/14/bill-white/bill-white-says-gov-rick-perry-told-students-he-co/
“He is beginning to make Michelle Bachmann look intelligent in comparison. ” (raff) that’s funny!
SwM,
The next step is the recall of Walker in Wis. The people there have been very encouraged by what happened here last Tues.
And … little side note that is indicative of nothing but interesting … I had lunch with my usual monthly bunch last week and one of the ladies is friends with one of the buyers for a large grocery story. He told her the demand for Northern products has fallen way off and he is buying less and less because what he has just sits on the shelves even during sales. 🙂
Perry may have a substance problem, but his bigger problem is that he is addicted to the corporate mantra that greed is not only good, but it is more important than people’s lives and jobs. He is beginning to make Michelle Bachmann look intelligent in comparison. Kind of scary.
WgWard. my first thought about it.
They mentioned today on a newsshow this happens at about the same time in each debate so either it is medical, a med may have worn off or he needs one, or exhaustion allows him to only be able to think cogently for about an hour and a few minutes. Any of the above scenarios does not bode well for a potential president
Gov. Perry was drunk. Again. This would explain both his memory loss and hsi nonchalance and giddyness. http://youtu.be/21z30aNO3cA
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/data-points-to-obama-support-perking-up-as-romney-looks-like-the-nominee.php?ref=fpb
SwM,
That they are … to each his/her own.
Strickland lost by a very narrow margin, exactly 2%, and there was a huge drop in the number of democratic voters in the democrat counties from those who turned out in 2006 … a total of just over 90,000 democrats stayed home.
All the work we had to do this year was thanks to the no-shows. If democrats show up, the teabaggers can’t possibly win anything … that’s why there is such a concentration on voter suppression within the Republican Party.
However, some of that talk is just a thinly disguised attempt at suppression by “true republican believers” posing as liberals. They are easily identified by what we call “thin-skinned” reactions to overt or implied criticism of conservative talking points and candidates.
Hey, if it works, it’s smart politics.
mespo,
Great clip… very funny… Looking forward to “Air Head Week”…
I’m up for a game of Jeopardy between Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman and Rick Perry. Alex could call it “Air Head Week”!
Blouise, The same people that said stay home and don’t vote for Strickland as he is the lesser of two evils are saying the same thing again.
Perry’s new Mantra should be….The Guy’s in college thought I was a dumbass…well they might be right…
Swarthmore mom,
Back a couple of months ago, I thought voting for Huntsman might be an option for me in 2012. I changed my mind when I read his positions on some of the issues.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/10/20/romney-rips-huntsmans-tax-plan/ Huntsman lowers taxes for the very wealthiest and raises them on the poor and middle class.
Rick Perry on -Today This Morning:
“Everyone is going to make some mistakes”
OOOOHHHHH I got it.LOL!!!
Blouise, Huntsman is anti-choice and his tax plan favors the top 1% but independents would go for him.