By USDR.
Most political observers have not recovered from former Governor Rick Perry’s (R-TX) first attempt to run for the highest office in the land. Now, it appears he is at again and is facing laughs and jeers. However, when one looks at the Perry record, there is plenty of reasons to take him seriously. The longest serving governor in the history of the state, consistently winning reelection by large margins, a part of an economic policy that created more jobs than the rest of the country, and much more. Yet, this is balanced against accusations of “good old boy politics” with his pushing of a controversial vaccine program for young girls, an attempted “land grab” to a highway system that never happened, and his marginal tax that was finally seriously reformed under the current governor’s administration. Still he’s running, and this is what the media has to say about it:
The Economist: Perry and his “Smart” Glasses
RICK PERRY, a former Texas governor, yesterday threw his hat in the ring for the Republican presidential nomination. Mr Perry faces a steep uphill climb. In 2011 Mr Perry made a late but strong entrance into the GOP race, swiftly surpassing Mitt Romney to claim the lead in the polls. He was just as swiftly undone, however, by a string of gaffes culminating in his inability to recall, during a nationally televised debate, the third of three of government agencies he would shutter, should he be elected president. “Oops,” he said, drawing a blank. That fateful moment, and the error-ridden campaign leading up to it, earned Mr Perry a reputation as a man of low cognitive wattage, unsuited to the intellectual rigours of the Oval Office. If Mr Perry is to stand a chance this election season, he must overcome not only an indictment on two counts of felony abuse of power, but his popular image as a swaggering airhead.
Which brings us to the subject of Mr Perry’s eyeglasses. Mr Perry first appeared in spectacles last summer, causing a mild sensation. The common assumption was that Mr Perry had undertaken to restore lustre to his tarnished reputation by projecting a brainier image. There were many jokes about Mr Perry’s “smart guy” glasses, most of them wildly unfunny. Now, with Mr Perry’s bespectacled announcement of his candidacy, the boring jokes have returned. “Glasses don’t make Rick Perry look smart. He makes glasses look dumb,” tweeted Ben Schwartz, an alleged comedy writer.
Mr Perry’s eyeglasses are surely part of an effort to rebrand him as a thinking man. Mr Perry seems quite keen to let us know that he reads books these days. It is a message that his wife, Anita Perry… (read more)
C-Span: Rick Perry Announces he is Running for President
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