Texas politics daily reading (10 November 2011)

Top Stories: “Oops”

  • Making the best of an Oops moment – Dave Montgomery, PoliTex
    The campaign staff handled a disastrous moment about as well as could be expected. You can’t help but wonder if some of them aren’t rethinking that decision to bail on Newt Gingrich this summer, though.
  • Perry implodes and the pundits pounce – Jason Embry, First Reading
    Consultants to rival campaigns probably weren’t the only ones celebrating last night. The poor Texas lockstep political media, long vexed by Perry’s success not to mention conservative voters/taxpayers, almost seemed on twitter and elsewhere to be enjoying a victory of some sort.
  • Meltdown – Paul Burka, BurkaBlog

    The reason I don’t feel sorry for Perry is that he and his pals have clamped an ideological stranglehold on state government for ten years.

    Lest anyone think the previous reference to the Texas lockstep political media is hyperbole, an astoundingly honest example of their ideological hostility towards conservative Texas and Texans. For good reason, fewer and fewer Texans pay them much attention (correlation!), so here are a few assessments from national conservatives:

  • Thoughts on the CNBC debate – Michael Barone, Washington Examiner

    Well, for about 74 minutes Rick Perry was delivering his best debate performance since he announced his presidential candidacy on August 13. His grammar was not always perfect, he did not fully flesh out his points, but he was forceful, dynamic and seemingly in command. He deftly bragged of the success of his policies in Texas and did better than ever before in explaining how they related to what he might do as president.

    Then came the moment when just about every viewer must have concluded that he ended any chance that he could be a viable candidate: when he couldn’t remember the third of the three federal departments he had proposed to eliminate.

    My younger colleagues at the Washington Examiner twittered that this was the worst moment in a presidential debate for a candidate they had ever seen. Well, I have been watching presidential debates since the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, and it was the worst moment in a debate I have ever seen too.

  • ‘Oops,’ &c. – Jay Nordlinger, National Review Online

    When Perry was fumbling for his third cabinet department, I thought, “He needs a lifeline.” I also thought he should have said, “. . . and a player to be named later.”

    Frankly, I thought his “Oops” was charming. When he said “Oops,” he was saying, to my ears, “That was a fine time to screw up. And that was a fine issue on which to screw up. But, you know? Stuff happens, and it’s not the end of the world.”

    Perry’s fumbling around was very, very human. I know it’ll hurt him. But I don’t think it ought to. What matters is what he is planning for the government, not which departments he can remember at a particular moment.

    Once, Bill Buckley couldn’t remember the name of Evelyn Waugh. He said to me, “Who’s my hero, the author of Brideshead?”

    Do you see what I mean? I think Perry should be cut much slack, but people aren’t like that, maybe especially in politics.

  • Why Perry bombed – Byron York, Washington Examiner

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One Response to “Texas politics daily reading (10 November 2011)”

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  1. Marc Richter says:

    Perry is done and Romney is the guy. As much as conservatives may want someone other than Romney to take the nomination, I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen. We got a group of conservatives that weren’t ready for prime time this year, while Romney went through the gauntlet in 2008. This is his to lose.

    I’m sure Gingrich will be the new flavor of the month but as we all know, his problem is he’s had one too many wives.

    Like it or not, expect Romney and Obama in November.

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