Palin’s Disappearing Act Holds a Warning for Perry
By ROSS RAMSEY
NYT
In the array of governors who turned to national politics — a collection that includes four of the last six presidents and a horde of contestants who didn’t make it — Rick Perry looks a lot more like Sarah Palin than like George W. Bush. And not just in his politics.
Mr. Bush went from announcement to primary to the presidency without John McCain or Steve Forbes or the hanging chads in Florida turning him into a running punch line. Republicans made their examination and picked their guy.
Mr. Perry got into this with all of the attributes Republicans were looking for. A fresh face? Check. Able to leap tall donors in a single bound, hauling in pallets of money? Check. In line with social conservatives? Check. Copacetic with fiscal conservatives? Simpatico with the Tea Party? Good speaker, good-looking, nice family? None of Ms. Palin’s baggage but all of her constituents? He checked every box.
The governor has a record of electoral victories all the way back to 1984, including in a couple of difficult races against Jim Hightower and John Sharp and some that were difficult on paper and easy in fact, against Tony Sanchez and Kay Bailey Hutchison. The first two were against then-popular Democrats, the others against a businessman with a bottomless pit of political money and against a sitting senator who was, by some accounts, the state’s most popular Republican.
(More here.)
NYT
In the array of governors who turned to national politics — a collection that includes four of the last six presidents and a horde of contestants who didn’t make it — Rick Perry looks a lot more like Sarah Palin than like George W. Bush. And not just in his politics.
Mr. Bush went from announcement to primary to the presidency without John McCain or Steve Forbes or the hanging chads in Florida turning him into a running punch line. Republicans made their examination and picked their guy.
Mr. Perry got into this with all of the attributes Republicans were looking for. A fresh face? Check. Able to leap tall donors in a single bound, hauling in pallets of money? Check. In line with social conservatives? Check. Copacetic with fiscal conservatives? Simpatico with the Tea Party? Good speaker, good-looking, nice family? None of Ms. Palin’s baggage but all of her constituents? He checked every box.
The governor has a record of electoral victories all the way back to 1984, including in a couple of difficult races against Jim Hightower and John Sharp and some that were difficult on paper and easy in fact, against Tony Sanchez and Kay Bailey Hutchison. The first two were against then-popular Democrats, the others against a businessman with a bottomless pit of political money and against a sitting senator who was, by some accounts, the state’s most popular Republican.
(More here.)
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