I feel like I ought to say something about this.
We’ll always have corndogs
In many ways, Rick Perry might have been a victim of his own success.
After 14 years in the governor’s mansion, riding a freewheeling Texas oil economy and a tea party wave, the son of West Texas cotton farmers looked destined for great things on the national stage.
But an unfortunate memory lapse in a nationally televised debate – the infamous “oops moment” – cost him the instant presidential frontrunner status he enjoyed four years ago.
His new run for political – if not personal – redemption ended Friday when he told an Eagle Forum audience in Missouri that he was ending his comeback bid for the presidency.
Invoking a higher power, the 65-year-old former governor said it just was not meant to be.
“Today I submit that His will remains a mystery, but some things have become very clear to me,” Perry said. “That is why today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States.”
After weeks of struggling to attract voter support or raise enough money to pay his campaign staff, Perry became the first of 17 major Republican candidates to leave the 2016 presidential race.
Well, at least he managed to be first at something in this campaign. You know how I feel about Rick Perry, so I’m not going to waste any time trying to be objective. The main thought I have about this is that Perry was one of the first politicians to hitch himself to the Tea Party wave of 2010, which he then rode to victory in the primary against KBH and the general election against Bill White. It was the last election he’d win, and it’s clear by now that this same wave went on to swamp him in 2012 and now this year. His political instincts for seeing the Tea Party wave coming and taking advantage of it were lauded at the time, though people tended to ignore the fact that he barely cleared 50% in the primary and trailed that icon of the establishment and soon-to-be-two-time-victim of the same wave David Dewhurst by 300,000 votes in the general. Not so easy being a super genius, I guess. As to what he does next, I can’t say I care, but it probably depends to some extent on how long the indictment saga hangs over his head. If he succeeds with the CCA and gets both charges dismissed, he’ll be in a better position to cash in via the usual methods of the professional conservative gravy train than if it drags out for a few years. See Tom DeLay for a good example of the latter. The one thing I feel confident saying is that he won’t ever have to work at a real job. Some guys have all the luck. For more on this topic, if you’re not already tired of it, see PDiddie, Burkablog, Newsdesk, the Current, the Observer, and ThinkProgress.
Well written piece, and surprisingly, I agree with most all of it.
Me too
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