“Perry panic has spread from the conference rooms of Washington, D.C., to the coffee shops of Brooklyn, with the realization that the conservative Texan could conceivably become the 45th president of the United States, a wave of alarm centering around Perry’s drawling, small-town affect and stands on core cultural issues such as women’s rights, gun control, the death penalty and the separation of church and state.
“The epidemic of lefty angst isn’t just a matter of specific Perry policies though; it goes to the heart of the liberal worldview. His smashing debut on the presidential stage suggests that the victory of an urban liberal Democrat, Barack Obama, wasn’t a step toward a more progressive nation, but just a leftward swing of an increasingly wild pendulum, now poised to rocket to the right…
“For Democrats, the pre-Perry GOP primary process was hardly for the faint of heart, as the other candidates have jockeyed to show who dislikes Obama the most. But even as the primary is fought on conservative turf, liberal leaders say they and their constituents see Perry as far worse than your average, hated Republican, and indeed as bad – if not worse – than his hated predecessor in Austin, George W. Bush. And progressives who might have had a hard time getting worked up about Mitt Romney find themselves struggling for superlatives with which to express their fear of a President Perry…
“‘Whether he’s the nominee or not, he absolutely helps fire up our base,’ said Jennifer Palmieri, the vice president for communications at the liberal Center for American Progress. ‘To the degree to which progressives are disaffected and unenthusiastic – this is their ‘holy sh**’ moment.'”
“It was the beginning of what one Romney adviser acknowledged will be a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ strategy. The former Massachusetts governor will seek to continue his disciplined march toward the nomination, focused primarily on attacking and comparing himself to President Obama. But he — and more significantly, his aides and advisers — will be working to take Perry’s legs out from underneath him…
“The early stages of their strategy will feature occasional jabs by Romney — the ‘career politician’ label was thrown to the press in the first few lines of prepared remarks sent out by the campaign Tuesday morning — with a focus on behind-the-scenes conversations with reporters to shape coverage of Perry. But there will be a good deal of waiting also, because the Romney campaign believes that the current third-place candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), will be forced to go on the offensive against Perry, and soon…
“‘We went through Hurricane Palin and Hurricane Huckabee and Hurricane Trump,’ the Romney adviser said, referring to the bright light celebrity names that stoked interest earlier this year: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and businessman Donald Trump.
“Referring to Perry, the adviser said: ‘This is just one more hurricane, but I think we’re at the end of hurricane season.'”
“Romney, in a speech he delivered to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) conference in San Antonio, Texas, stressed his private-sector experience as the major factor qualifying him for the presidency.
“Romney also decried ‘career politicians,’ a subtle shot at Perry, who’s held public office continuously since 1985.
“‘I am a conservative businessman. I have spent most of my life outside of politics, dealing with real problems in the real economy,’ Romney said. ‘Career politicians got us into this mess and they simply don’t know how to get us out!'”
“(1) Romney made his political career out of his ‘close’ 17-point loss to Ted Kennedy. But keep in mind that to only lose by 17, he spent $7M of his own money. But more importantly, this was the 1994 midterm election—so he got blown out during the biggest Republican wave in half a century…
“(3) It’s funny that Romney’s line of attack on Perry seems to be that Perry is a ‘career politician’ because he’s been in elective office since 1984. Well, Mitt Romney would have been a career politician too, if only voters would have let him. He’s been running since 1994. His real gripe about Perry is actually, ‘Hey, that guy wins all the time! No fair!’…
“Douthat says that ‘The greatest danger to Romney’s candidacy — the thing that could destroy him long before the voting even started — has always been that a more appealing establishment candidate would enter the race.’ But that’s not right at all. The greatest danger to Romney’s candidacy is that he has no constituency because he’s not very good at campaigning and, as the electoral results of the last 17 years have shown, voters don’t like him very much. The danger to the Romney candidacy is the candidate.”
“Consider this in the context of the upcoming presidential campaign: Rick Perry can contrast Obama’s truly pathetic record on jobs with his own remarkable success. He can stand before the country in a debate and call out the President on his failed big-government agenda and say, as Charles Krauthammer recently phrased it, ‘Smaller government, I made it work, I created jobs.’ Romney, on the other hand, simply can’t press the President on unemployment without being reminded that the Bay State ‘ranked 47th in the entire country in jobs growth’ during his term as Massachusetts Governor. In other words, while Perry can go on the offensive, Romney would be reduced to defending his own record rather than highlighting Obama’s abysmal performance on the economy.
“Rick Perry suffers from none of Romney’s disabilities on health care. First, he isn’t burdened by a failed health care albatross that will prevent him from aggressively going after the President on Obamacare. Unlike Romney, he can vehemently denounce the insurance mandate as an unconstitutional attack on individual liberty without having any similar abomination in his own record thrown back in his face. Moreover, because his record in Texas has emphasized the free market rather than state interference, he can credibly denounce the President’s top-down approach to health care reform. While Romney must live down an Obama-like inclination toward government-imposed solutions, Perry’s record demonstrates a clear bias in the other direction and allows him to more freely criticize Obama’s big-government philosophy…
“And success on the issues that concern the actual voters, rather than the opinions of establishment retreads, is the only foundation upon which any Republican can build a 2012 victory over Barack Obama. Regardless of which candidate wins the GOP presidential nomination, the President and his minions will use the same strategy. Because they cannot run on their record, they will promulgate a few disingenuous talking points about the real issues and then launch a vicious campaign of personal vilification. Only a candidate with the support of rank-and-file Republicans, including Tea Partiers, and a clear record of success on jobs and health care will be able to survive and overcome this strategy. Rick Perry has what it takes and Mitt Romney doesn’t.”
“Romney’s problem is four-fold: he’s politically ‘fungible’ (to put it politely), he’s from the wrong region of the country (New England), he’s of the wrong religion (Mormonism) and he’s too closely identified with Wall Street (Bain Capital). The Republican base would prefer to nominate a strong conservative, evangelical Christian from the Sunbelt who, at the least, shares their disdain for Wall Street’s reckless stewardship of the nation’s financial system…
“Knowing that the only things standing between Perry and the GOP nomination are a couple of ‘good enough’ debate performances, the GOP ‘establishment’ faces a choice: they can cross their fingers and hope for the best or mount a sustained negative campaign to destroy Perry with the party’s base. It is likely that, after Labor Day, a sustained negative campaign against Perry will be launched.
“The sewage flood-gates have already opened, to some degree…
“The real test, then, will be the five upcoming debates. If Perry does well enough in those to convince the base that he can command the national stage, then the caucus and primary season won’t be long. It’ll be over before you know it.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member