| I will try to do my best Gomer Pyle impersonation for this one. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
The Dallas Morning News, in what I would call biggest non-surprise, endorsed Governor Rick Perry for re-election.
The endorsement makes for a clean sweep of GOP endorsements for the state races and US Congress by the paper (remember this is the same paper who endorsed Todd Staples because we need "someone who knows Austin", rather than a rancher.)
This is what the DMN had to say about Perry's opponents in the race:
...in advancing ambitious plans for education – including generous teacher raises – Mr. Bell and Ms. Strayhorn come up short on realistic ways to pay for everything. They would bank (as would Mr. Friedman) on income from casinos or slot machines. Both are illegal, however, and the Legislature has stood hard against expanded gambling.
We doubt that either Ms. Strayhorn or Mr. Bell would be the one to run such a proposal through the legislative minefield. For all her eye-catching spunk and eagerness to rumble, Ms. Strayhorn, 67, has a bad credibility problem among key lawmakers stemming from her revenue estimates as state comptroller. A political chameleon given to yapping, the former Republican could easily end up more a divider than uniter.
As for the thoughtful Mr. Bell, 46, a former one-term Houston congressman untested in an executive position, he would have the crippling disadvantage of being an unknown in Austin and a minority-party governor.
And Kinky, 61, the fountainhead of memorable one-liners? We appreciate the occasional levity from the Texas humorist but can't say much more.
While I try to find reasoning for these sweeping endorsements, all I can find is that in each editorial, they seem to endorse the Republicans because their opponents do not have detailed plans of what to do differently. I can not think of any political race in the past where an opponent offered up minute details of every little thing they're running on, so this reasoning is beyond me.
Politicans like Bell, Kinky, and Grandma should only need to point out how much Rick Perry sucks. And the polls show that the majority of Texans agree with that tactic, no matter how much the DMN wants every answer on a silver platter. |
