“Earlier I reported on a super PAC ad run on behalf of the Bachmann presidential effort. The Perry team is not taking this sitting down. It has put out a statement that reads in part:
“FALSE CLAIM: ‘Rick Perry doubled spending in a decade.’
“TRUTH: State spending – the non-federal dollars state lawmakers can control – is six percent lower under Gov. Perry than it was under the two-year budget in effect when he took office, adjusting for population growth and inflation. In unadjusted amounts, state spending is $80.5 billion for the 2012-13 biennium compared to $55.7 billion for the 2000-01 biennium. Texas’ population growth plus inflation since 2001 is 54 percent. The current Texas budget funds the state’s vital needs by operating within available revenues and providing tax cuts for small businesses. Gov. Perry is the only Texas governor since World War II to cut state (general revenue) spending.”
“At a gathering of uncommitted social and evangelical conservatives at the Hill Country spread of mega-donor James Leininger, Perry spent several hours patiently answering queries on a range of issues, from his stand on immigration reform to the depth of his commitment to oppose abortion, people who were in attendance told The Texas Tribune…
“‘I can assure you that there is nothing in my life that will embarrass you if you decide to support me for president,’ Perry said, according to one of the participants, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
“Perry was asked to give his detailed views and thoughts on a variety of personal questions and hot-button social issues, including his recent back surgery, immigration, gay marriage, hate crimes, the extent of his anti-abortion views and the controversy over his 2007 executive order mandating that girls get vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease and the leading cause of cervical cancer (the Legislature overturned the order).
“Perry repeated the answer that he first gave to questions about the HPV flap after he announced for president on Aug. 13: He erred by trying to make the vaccine mandatory.”
“Many Republican Insiders acknowledged Perry’s appeal to conservatives but questioned his ability to win over independent voters. ‘Perry can fire up the base, but this election will be won in the middle, not on the fringes,’ said one. Said another, ‘Having trouble ID-ing a single independent who’d vote for Perry.’
“Democratic Insiders echoed that assessment by an even larger majority. ‘This election is sitting on a platter for Republicans if they do it right,’ said one. ‘Romney is probably good enough. Perry will get drilled by independent voters and women.’ Another quipped, ‘Rick Perry is all base and no swing.’…
“Insiders in both parties raised questions about Perry’s durability under the intense scrutiny of a presidential campaign. ‘As a conservative Republican, I love Rick Perry,’ said one Republican Insider, who added ‘but as a campaign strategist, I know the degree to which a few self-reinforcing oppo-hits can devastate a candidate.’ A Democratic Insider said plainly, ‘Perry’s mouth will do him in.’…
“One Democratic Insider [warned] against underestimating Perry. ‘It’s 1980 again. Some think Perry is too extreme, but it is his ability to appear genuine and confident that voters will remember.'”
“Perhaps this ideological moment is just different, in the same way the 1930s or the 1980s were different. Another dip into recession — a continuing, sputtering failure of the American job-creation machine — might do more than call three years of Obama policies into question. It might call seven decades of accumulating entitlement commitments into question. Can a modern economy remain energetic and competitive when it transfers increasing amounts from the private to the public sector, from young to old, from the productive to the retired? Will America need to break decisively from the European social model to avoid Europe’s economic fate?
“A sense of economic desperation expands the range of policy options. Reagan turned a fear of national decline into a radical revision of the tax code — reducing top tax rates from 70 percent to 28 percent. Today, a second round of recession and an accelerated European economic implosion could create a similar sense of decay and desperation. The normal rules of political realism might be suspended — this time on entitlements.
“It is hard to imagine Perry as the carrier of Reagan-like ideological transformation — though it was also difficult, at one time, for many to imagine an aging actor in that role. But Perry’s critics may find it is not sufficient to declare him outside the mainstream. The mainstream can change.”
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