| From Ben Smith of Politico, "Polling Perry in Iowa" A spokesman for Texas Governor Rick Perry, Mark Miner, told me today that Perry had nothing to do with a reported Iowa poll that asked about him. The recorded message, O.K. Henderson reports, asked about Perry and Mark Sanford, and then asked, "Are you likely to support a candidate with a strong record of making tough decisions to balance budgets? Would it influence your vote if that candidate had been in office for 25 years?"
Just because Miner says they didn't do it, don't be surprised if they did. Perry's campaign has a history of lying about everything, including 2012 presidential plans. Remember that Perry's pollsters registered the domain -- rickperry2012.com -- back in 2007. Back in July, Todd had done a great wrap-up of Perry's 2012 aspirations: - In early February, Paula Burka with the Texas Monthly laid the framework for an argument that Rick Perry is ready for a national GOP nomination run.
- Also in February, The Economist magazine floated the idea of Perry in '12 citing his decade of problem-causing skills as one of many bullet points for a national run.
- In March, Rick Perry defeated Texas' Senior Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, after tearing her apart and framing her as a reflection of everything that is wrong with DC politics today. Perry conveniently neglected the fact that his 51% Republican Primary victory was accompanied by 49% worth of votes against him.
- In April, Rick Perry shoveled out impressive tons of red-meat rhetoric at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in an effort to continue and raise his national profile.
- Rick Perry has written a book about states rights called "Fed Up," which is due to be released this coming fall. I wonder if Iowa will be on the book stop tour.
- Rick Perry's consultants and pollsters registered rickperry2012.com as early as April of 2007. Only recently was the registration of this domain switched from Baselice & Associates, which are Perry's pollsters, to one very generic "John Schmidt."
But there may be one thing even scarier than all of this: Perry as Governor until 2018: In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Perry insisted again that he has no interest in running for president or vice-president in 2012, but he won't say when, if ever, he will quit running for Texas governor. He's already running for an unprecedented third term and he wouldn't rule out running for a fourth one in 2014 — a feat that would give him a total of 18 years in office and make Perry one of the longest serving governors in American history.
There's only one way to change that -- elect Bill White now. |
