So, my daughter and I have been terribly amused by Governor Rick Perry announcing that he’s going to run, since we’ve actually met him face to face. It was a little over two years ago at a Tea Party event in San Antonio, and I will confirm that in person he is quite brashly charming. And I even have pictorial evidence, since there was a photog from the San Antonio Express news who commemorated the event.
I blogged it thusly a day or so later, in writing up the 4th of July event at the Rio Cibolo Ranch:
“…the biggest element in the program was Governor Perry signing off on our “Contract with the Constitution” – a statement of principles, which we would like to present to every elected politician or prospective politician. If they sign off on it – good and well; if not … well, then, that says something. And if they sign off on it, and then don’t keep to it … that says something else. Up until the last minutes, we were under the impression that he would just zoom right in, introduce Marcus Luttrell, sign off on the Contract and zoom out again. He actually stayed for about three hours, some of it in rustic little banquet hall where the VIP dinner was being held, and the rest in the backstage area. When the VIP dinner was over and a lot of the guests were scattering to their seats in front of the stage, Blondie and I went and bought plates of chopped brisket on a bun from the food vendor, and brought them in to eat in the relative coolness of the hall. We sat next to the elderly lady known to us all as Matt’s Mom; Matt is the webmaster for the Tea Party Committee. His Mom comes to all the meetings and events with him. On Matt’s Mom’s other side was Other Matt, the husband of another Committee member who was wearing his 82nd Airborne baseball cap. After a bit, Governor Perry came over, and pulled up a chair opposite and began ragging on Other Matt, the old paratrooper for jumping out of perfectly good airplanes; the Governor had been an Air Force transport pilot, it transpired. So we had quite a frivolous and merry conversation, with Blondie ragging back at him, when he confessed that he had broken a collarbone lately in a bike accident – but not a motorcycle, a mountain bike, and I recommended that he give up on the VIP chicken dinner, and try some of the brisket from the vendor outside. Not quite sure why he glommed on to us, out of the people left in the hall – possibly because we didn’t want to talk politics or ask for a picture.”
I think, out of all the major-league politicians in 2009-2010 — and surely a governor has to count as major-league — he was one of the very first to sense that the Tea Party was genuinely a real movement of real people, with passion behind them, and the determination to go the long, hard road, and had the assurance to act on it. I think he knew, quite early on, that it was something he had better get out in front of. He’s a professional politician, for god’s sake, with (apparently) excellent social instincts. He was really working the crowd at the 4th of July Tea Party, and seemed to be loving every single second of it. Much later, I told a male acquaintance who knows him (Texas is the worlds’ biggest small town; everyone is connected by about two degrees of separation) about this encounter. I said that my daughter and I both had the feeling that if the venue had — by some miracle — been the NCO club on a Saturday night, that we had been hit on by a flirtatious and amusing man. The male friend chuckled, and said, “Yeah, but he was hitting on you, politically!” In any case it has worked for Blondie – she’s very much pro- Perry at this juncture.
The local nick-name for him is “Governor Good-Hair.” He does tend to go wherever the prevailing winds would take him — but at least he is paying attention to those winds, unlike some other professional pols that I could name.
He’s really quite nice. I got the feeling his handlers at the time tried to limit his interactions with us normal folks very often, so it was a huge treat for him to sit down with people and talk about normal stuff like books and so on and so forth. It was a nice causual conversation between adults.
He looks a bit like George Clooney.
As an outside observer, of all the candidates for President of the USA, he seems like probably the best. I think Sarah Palin would probably make a good President too but there are too many haters/misogynists/snobs to make that likely.
Above all what you need is somebody who is practical, wise, experienced.
Maybe he didn’t single-handedly turn the Texas economy around but he didn’t mess it up it either.
Right On. ” he didn’t single-handedly turn the Texas economy around but he didn’t mess it up it either.”
One of the strokes of genius that the founders of the INDEPENDENT Republic of Texas had was to limit the amount of time that the legislature could meet. A state congress only every other year limits the amount of petty legislation that can be produced, and forces the politicians to focus on the primary purpose of their job: create and pass a balanced (required by the state constitution) budget. There is plenty of wrangling and arm twisting, but it seems to get done. And many of the special pet projects desired by specific legislators (or their lobby groups) don’t make it to the docket, so to speak, because there simply isn’t enough time in the legislative session.
Rick Perry has both influenced and benefited from this process, but he is also savvy enough to recognize that business friendly is where Texas wants to be. Probably the most important influence he has had was in shepherding the Tort Reform process that brought reform to the Medical industry and Doctors back to Texas. He is sincere in his push to get government (and overbearing legal and regulatory requirements) out of the way and let business and the market do their magic.
Many observers in the Capitol (Austin is a island of blue in a sea of red politically, look at a county election map) have derogatory nicknames for him, and love to make snide comments about his hair. But for the most part for the last 12 years he has been a solid and steady conservative governor who has been instrumental in leading Texas to where it is now: the most successful, business friendly, and job creating state in the country.
I like the story of his shooting the coyote – with a little .380 (and a laser sight!) Whereupon some other Texan said (perhaps tongue in cheek) that “no self-respecting Texan would carry a pistol with a caliber less than .40”
Considering the job Obama has done not for, bit to, this country I would say that if even Satan were running today he’d have a good chance.
I like the story of his shooting the coyote – with a little .380 (and a laser sight!) Whereupon some other Texan said (perhaps tongue in cheek) that “no self-respecting Texan would carry a pistol with a caliber less than .40”
Considering the job Obama has done not for, but to, this country I would say that if even Satan were running today he’d have a good chance.
VikingTX – until 1966 Calif used to have a part time legislature that met every other year and at that time CA was the envy of the world.
Now they are full time, busy passing laws that force so many companies to leave and come to states like TX.
At the same time a comparison was made of the 2 state legislators –
Besides meeting every other year in TX they are paid a miniscule sum – $7500? while ours get $130,000/year plus all the perks they can steal.
Which led some wag to say, “ Who says you can’t buy stupid?