“Texas Gov. Rick Perry capped off his first full day of campaigning in Iowa on Monday by suggesting that if the Federal Reserve prints more money between now and November 2012 it would be akin to an act of treason.

“‘If this guy prints more money between now and the election,’ Perry said, ‘I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we — we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous — or treasonous in my opinion.'”

***
“‘I think you want a president …who is in love with America,’ he said at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines Monday.

“Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod quipped in an email, ‘I’m glad he declared his love for America. Last I checked, he was suggesting that Texas might secede from America, so this is real progress!’…

“Democrats know Mr. Perry is different, and they are beginning to think about a response focused on his personality and his record. That would tie him to former President George W. Bush, and would hit his Texas job miracle as a mirage.”

***
“[A]fter he finished speaking and was about to entertain questions, Perry took off his jacket and handed down from the stage to his wife at front-row table, who passed it on back to his daughter, who was wearing a sleeveless dress.

“‘Excuse me, my daughter’s cold, so I gave her my jacket. And if this shirt’s got a few wrinkles in it, it’s not my wife’s fault,’ Perry quipped. The crowd laughed.

“Perry’s cocky persona and apparent relish for playing gender stereotypes for laughs could sit uneasily with women in a general election contest. Of course, there’s no evidence he’s got any appeal to Democratic women in Texas — or to Democrats there more generally — but half of winning is avoiding angering the other side enough to turn out against you in force.”

***
“Rick Perry has many of the qualities that Romney seems to lack: backbone, core convictions, a killer instinct and a primal understanding of the right-wing electorate. He also has the better story. Where Romney has to run away from his Massachusetts health care bill and downplay his years as a downsizing artist at Bain Capital, Perry can spend the campaign reminding voters that almost half of the new jobs in Obama’s presidency were created on his watch in Texas.

“What Perry doesn’t have, though, is the kind of moderate facade that Americans look for in their presidents. He’s the conservative id made flesh, with none of the postpartisan/uniter-not-a-divider spirit that successful national politicians usually cultivate.

“Imagine if the Democratic Party nominated a combination of Al Franken and Nancy Pelosi for the presidency, and you have a sense of the kind of gamble Republicans would be taking with Perry. And even if that gamble worked, little in his record suggests that he’s prepared to preside over a polarized country, or negotiate his way through a divided Washington.”

***
Click the image to watch.

***
Via Breitbart TV.