Cheat To Win

corycorybobory:

Author’s comment: It’s honestly hard to believe that he is a real person

it really is

He’s real and he’s fucking repulsive.  White Straight Male Privilege at its worst, people.

What I wouldn’t give to see a debate like this…

It seems we living the American dream
But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem
The prettiest people do the ugliest things
For the road to riches and diamond rings

Perry took just about every available opportunity to attack Romney on everything from his economic record as governor to immigration—sometimes both at the same time. He answered one question about health care in Texas by attacking Romney’s hiring of illegal aliens, which was a bit head-snapping. “It’s time for you to tell the truth,” said Perry about Romney’s use of a firm that hired illegal aliens. Going after Romney on immigration is a double win for Perry: It helps weaken Romney and helps clean up Perry’s problem with conservatives who don’t like his in-state-tuition-for-children-of-illegal-immigrants policy.

Perry wasn’t just attacking. As if taking a page out of Romney’s playbook, Perry avoided some chances to attack and used questions as opportunities to promote his record in Texas and his energy policies. He looked like a candidate who wanted the prize.

Perry is clearly growing more desperate with every passing week.  As the New York Times pointed out, it actually isn’t clear that Romney “ever knew directly that his landscaping company was using illegal immigrants to tend his lawn.”

Let it go, Perry.  You better come up with something more substantive than that if you want to be more than a footnote who went down throwing dirty punches.

Sources: Slate and NYT

Of course, it’s just as easy to make the argument that Perry is crazy and Bachmann is stupid. As Rebecca Traister, the author of Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women,points out, a lot of Bachmann’s early gaffes—that the Revolutionary War started in New Hampshire (that would be Massachusetts), that John Wayne was born in Waterloo, Iowa, (that would be serial killer John Wayne Gacy)—were more “stupid” than “crazy.” Conversely, to many secular Americans, Perry’s ties to religious groups that claim that Texas is “the prophet state” sound, well, crazy.

Then there is the way the media has dealt with the health issues both candidates have faced. The dust-up over Bachmann’s alleged migraines emphasized her femininity: Would she be able to handle the many high-pressure decisions and controversies that come with the presidency? Perry’s back troubles, in contrast, have been used as fodder for speculation about his lackluster debate performances or as a starting point for a debate over the medical use of stem cells. (He received an injection of his own stem cells as part of back surgery in July.)

I couldn’t agree more - there has been rampant, though subtle, sexism against Bachmann in this race.  The media is quick to marginalize her as crazy (and, in subtext, as a woman), whereas a candidate who is equally gaffe-prone is simply mocked for being dim-witted.  Slate knocks it out of the park again with this article noting that Perry and Bachmann are portrayed through different lens in the media as a result of their gender expression.

No comment.

I typically don’t vote for Republicans. I also try not to vote with my libido.

Though it’s been impossible this Fall not to notice how the GOP debates have played out like soap operas. I’m not talking about all the in-fighting. Put the TV on mute and the comparison still holds. The crop of wannabe 2012 Republican nominees look more like daytime screen stars than Walmart shoppin’, vaccine-hatin’, caramel macchiato- mispronouncin’ conservatives who think Zumba class is a liberal conspiracy. There’s former Utah governor Jon Huntsman with his uranium tan, Rogaine-box cover hair, and perpetually bemused eyebrow cock that seems to always say I’d rather be on the beach filming an Enya video. If Mitt Romney looks bizarrely familiar, it’s because you’ve seen him canoeing in a Lipitor commercial. Michelle Bachmann—yes, she’s a lunatic who shouts “innocent 12 year old girls!” like she’s chasing the R. Kelly vote, but this can’t be the first time your boner has embarrassed your brain.

I’d skew towards Huntsman in terms of IQ and Romney for sheer looks, but damn if Rick Perry wouldn’t make a great telenovela villain.  Muy caliente, indeed.

Perry took the attacks like a veteran, but it was not a good night for him. Romney was polished, he had his answers prepared, and his attack lines honed. If you were scoring this as an academic exercise, Romney would be the clear winner. But the audience of Tea Party activists in the hall for the debate co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express and CNN weren’t grading on that scale. They appeared to like Perry much more than Romney. That’s the broader split that exists in the larger Republican electorate: Do GOP voters want the ragged, forceful, conservative Perry—or do they want the measured, methodical, and less ideological Romney?

Oh, Slate.  Thank you so much for attacking the root of Perry’s problems.  He wants credit for what he’s said in the past while simultaneously ducking the attention - or just evading the question entirely.  I’m fascinated to see how this strategy works out for him.

The rising presidential candidacy of Gov. Rick Perryof Texas is stirring excitement for many Republican voters but is creating unease in some quarters of the party’s establishment, particularly over his views of Social Security, which are at the root of an intensifying competition with Mitt Romney.

The decision on Monday by Tim Pawlenty, a former Republican presidential rival, to support Mr. Romney’s campaign signals the beginning of an effort by some party leaders to try to slow the ascent of Mr. Perry — or to push him to explain positions that are considered provocative.

As the race for GOP Presidential hopefuls narrows down to two men (especially in the eyes of the media), the NY Times posits that GOP elite question Perry’s ability to win moderate and independent voters in swing states.  Despite his double digit leads in some new CNN polls from last week, these leaders think Perry still might not be able to appeal to suburban voters in the same way that Romney does.

Part of me agrees with them from a purely strategic viewpoint: Perry is a force to be reckoned with in elections.  However, he may be too far right of center to win in this increasingly embittered country of ours.  That said, heaven forbid he actually does beat Obama and we have to settle in for the “Dubya: the Sequel.”

Obama “had $800 billion worth of stimulus in the first round of stimulus. It created zero jobs.”

— Perry

Perry is wrong. The surplus created jobs; it also saved jobs. But there has not been a net gain in jobs because so many jobs were lost early in Obama’s presidency. Since the stimulus bill was signed, the number of overall jobs in the United has declined by about 1.9 million.

Economists differ on the effectiveness of the stimulus, but most say it has at least some effect (ie, created at least some jobs.) A recent review of nine different studies on the stimulus bill found that six studies concluded the stimulus had “a significant, positive effect on employment and growth,” and three said the effect was “either quite small or impossible to detect.”

Even I knew that was a lie.  See the other “facts” thrown around in last night’s debate checked by the staff at the Washington Post here.

There is a parallel between Galileo and the debate over climate change, but it’s not the one Perry intended to make. Galileo’s groundbreaking scientific findings were not “outvoted” by other scientists, but by the clergy and the Vatican, who based their astronomical theories on the rigorous scientific tome known as the Bible. What the Galileo example really demonstrates is that ideology has been used as a weapon and shield against actual empirical evidence for hundreds of years. And it continues to this day, courtesy of political leaders like Pope Perry.

NY Mag is basically the best thing to ever happen to me.  Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that Perry continues to make these gaffes and is eventually relegated to a footnote in the event known as the 2012 Presidential Race.

* Jon Huntsman: After a nonexistent performance in the August Iowa debate, the former Utah governor was much more part of the conversation this time around — delivering jabs to Romney and Perry as he tried to contrast his record in the Beehive State with theirs. Huntsman also looked like he belonged on the stage tonight — a major change from his August showing. His biggest problem remains that his tonal approach to the race — sensible moderation — still doesn’t seem to fit the Republican primary electorate. But, for tonight, Huntsman did himself proud.

Taken from a Winners and Losers article in the Washington Post, this blurb doesn’t even begin to describe the appeal of Huntsman.  Not only does he buck the current GOP trend by refusing to dabble in sensationalism, he’s practical, erudite, and thoughtful in his responses.  

That said, we live in America - so that insufferably sophomoric Perry is leading in polls.

The fight for the Republican presidential nomination began narrowing into an intense and ideological battle at a debate here Wednesday night, with Gov. Rick Perry of Texas andMitt Romney sharply clashing over Social Security, health care and each other’s long-term prospect against President Obama.

A series of spirited exchanges between the two men, which revealed differences in substance and style, offered the first extensive look into the months-long contest ahead. They traded attacks on each other’s job creation records and qualifications to be president, overshadowing their opponents in the crowded Republican field.

I’m actually pretty bummed I missed this.