Perry, The Simplistic Politician with a Small Intellect - A liberals view

Here is an example of an anti-Texas/Perry article which appeared in today’s San Antonio Express News.  The article is in black, italics, and my comments appear in red.  Add your own comments below.

Governor Rick Perry

Intellectually suspect but politically brilliant

By O. Ricardo Pimentel/o.ricardo.pimentel@express-news.net

Updated 12:34 a.m., Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Gov. Rick Perry might have confined his remarks to a critique of the Fed's policy of quantitative easing, buying bad assets by printing more money.

He might have just expressed a fear that putting more money into circulation can cause inflation.

He might have just said that such election-year infusion will mire the Fed in politics.

But our newest presidential candidate doesn't do wonk. He does Texas plain talk. Good, a plain talker is what we need now. And now, upon formal introduction to coyote-shooting Perry, much of the national electorate is mulling which is scarier: That Perry believes what he says or that there is calculated purpose afoot.

Both.

Perry said last week in Iowa that if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were to print more money before the election, it would be “almost treasonous” and that Texas “would treat him pretty ugly.”

This was pounced upon as everything from a rookie mistake to rich irony. Perry had suggested earlier that Texas might secede from the union. Suggested, of course, without actually proposing it.

And this points to a cool calculation that merges belief and cynical purpose. He knows he espouses outlier views and figures he gets more points by espousing them with folksy flourish than by politicking around them. He certainly can't hide from them. There's a matter of the public record.

Underestimate Perry as a hick if you want. He isn't. There is more than a bit of preacher in him but mostly he knows what's worked. Brash talk sells. It marks him, he believes, as the American everyman.

So, climate change is “a scientific theory that has not been proven and ... is more and more being put into question.”  Rick Perry nailed this one.  And since man made climate change legislation is a multi-billion dollar sump pump on the US economy and lifestyle, it makes Perry one of my top picks for President.  He is the first to come out and expose the bad science for what it is.  PS, for those that don’t know, the ice is not melting any more than normal, the temperature is not going up to a point that we will all be burning and the world as we know it will end, and carbon dioxide IS NOT A POLLUTANT.

Evolution is just a theory “that's out there.”  Ah, Ricardo, evolution is a theory.  That is a fact.  And Ricardo, here’s a question for you, how was the universe created?  What came first, and how?  There are no simple answers and to make fun of, and despise, those who have religious beliefs shows how small an intellect you and the secularist really possess.   

Handlers might even now be trying to rein him in. But here's the Perry calculation. Taking on inconvenient science — and the Fed — plays well. It does in this state, where contrarianism and notions of Texas exceptionalism have long homesteaded along the Brazos.  Is Rick Perry a politician, yes, and a good one as you point out.  But he is only repeating what millions of Americans believe.  Yes Ricardo, millions of people can’t wait to see the current intellectual president unemployed Jan. 20^th 2013.    And Texas is an exceptional state, well most of it anyway.  Run the metrics without the areas controlled by democrats and see what you get.  One day, the downtrodden will figure out that government is not their savior and learn that hard work and independence are what lead to the American Dream.  I think you need to look at what shape the other big states are in and do a real side by side comparison.  Then report.

Perry, more than Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are able, will put to the test whether what sounds true sells better than what is true. Simply, Texas' economy makes him more marketable. Mitt Romney is his GOP competition.

Perry is banking on the right wing's discomfort with Romney and that Texas, home to a long and unbroken string of Perry election successes, is more a microcosm of the country than is Massachusetts.  Texas is much more mainstream than Massachusetts will ever be.

Not everyone, of course, even in plain-talking Texas, likens a difference of opinion on monetary policy and election-year timing to treason. But, hey, he's taking on the federal government. That's what counts.

Ricardo, I would love to hear you opinion on this man.
He most likely would be the smartest man in the world,
well at least in your world.

Perry isn't a hick. Neither is he an everyman. He is an ambitious politician campaigning with a tried-and-true playbook — one who is betting that Texas' economic “miracle” will bring all the non-believers on these other issues along for the ride.

But faith — not fact — drives belief in creationism and intelligent design. Denial is all that is required to dispense with inconvenient climate change science.  Ricardo, here you show your lack of intellect.  You say that climate change (I have to assume here you mean man-made climate change) is a fact.  Man made climate change is not a fact, and is a much weakened theory at best.  Everyday more evidence is revealed that reduces the validity of the man made global warming theory.  And the fact that you fail to see that defines you as the one lacking in intellect.

Perry cannot rely on either to convince the skeptics that low taxes and light regulation are responsible for Texas job growth. It's just not that simple.  Newspapers and the media are ones who deal in simplicity.  Your papers rarely tell whole stories.  The main stream media deal in snippets of information usually providing the reader with only a view that is reflective of the person writing the story.  Gone are the days of hard news only.  Now, reporters are mere columnist.  Hence,  the love of the internet.

And, still, no one should count Perry out. Sadly, what might be intellectually suspect can still perhaps be politically brilliant.  You closing hear can only mean that anyone who votes for Perry must be a simpleton.   Well good for you Ricardo…keep that up, it sells papers in some circles.

o.ricardo.pimentel@express-news.net

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/news_columnists/article/Intellectually-suspect-but-politically-brilliant-2136657.php#ixzz1VriWJkTP