PERRY AND MORE PERRY: RICH LOWRY,BRIAN BOLDUC
http://www.nationalreview.com/
I was at the same event as Brian and got the same impression–this was a draft stump speech by Gov. Perry. There are three things a presidential candidate generally needs: 1) presence (does he fill the room?); 2) a narrative (does his biography and/or record add up to something?); 3) a theme (does he have a point in running?). Based on tonight, I’d say Perry could well have all three. Let’s take them in order:
1) I’d never seen him give a speech before, but he delivered a pretty effective stem-winder. He was passionate, funny, and sincere. He got a standing ovation and as soon as he finished people began to leave the room, i.e. they were there for him.
2) The Perry narrative is that–during a crisis of unemployment in the nation at large–he has made Texas into a jobs machine with a program of commonsense conservatism. He was filling in for Donald Trump tonight and said at the beginning of his speech, “He’s known for saying, ‘You’re fired.’ We’re known [in Texas] for saying, ‘You’re hired.’” He said someone told him recently, “‘Perry, you’re jobs-obsessed.’ I said, ‘Yep.’” Later on in the speech, he noted that his “state has a sign out that says, ‘Open for Business.’”
3) His theme is that Washington needs to adopt a Texas-like program, be cut down to size, and leave the states to be “laboratories of democracy.” He referred a couple of times to the “Oz of Washington.” He sarcastically said, “Those people in Washington know everything,” before hitting the EPA, ObamaCare, and the NLRB. He complained of the “tragedy that’s happening in America, of losing our freedom.” He warned that the “entrenched powers in Washington” will be hard to fight. Left unsaid–only for now, perhaps–is that he’s the man to fight them.
Perry will inevitably draw comparisons with George W. Bush, but there’s at least one big difference: This Texas governor is not selling “compassionate conservatism.” His message is limited government, pure and simple.
Perry Hints at a Presidential Run By Brian Bolduc
Tonight, Gov. Rick Perry (R., Tex.) offered “a Texan’s view” of how to revive the economy — and a hint that he would run for president — to the New York County Republican party at the Grant Hyatt in New York City.
“It takes a special reason to get us out of Texas,” Perry joked to the crowd. Usually, he traveled outside of the Lone Star State only to convince companies to relocate their headquarters within his state’s borders.
Perry boasted of the state’s economic affluence — a product, he argued, of his administration’s policies. Recently, the Lone Star State has created more jobs than the other 49 other states combined. And that success comes from three principles, Perry said: First, “don’t spend all the money.” Second, “have a regulatory climate that is fair and predictable.” Third, have “a legal system that doesn’t allow for over-suing.”
For examples of policies built on these principles, Perry pointed to his initiatives: tort reform, which led to an increase of 20,000 doctors in the state, and legal reform, which instituted a policy of “loser pays.”
Besides his brief policy outline, Perry touted his confident conservatism.
“I’m proud to call myself a conservative,” Perry declared. “Because conservatives have won the war of ideas.”
“Why would you change your name if you weren’t proud of it?” he asked before pointing out that liberal activists now call themselves progressives. “You can change your name, but you can’t change your colors,” Perry said.
“Washington is not going to go quietly into the night,” Perry warned, before invoking the Tenth Amendment. The federal government was created to be an agent of the states, “not the other way around,” Perry insisted, while thrusting his fist downward.
“The states are supposed to lead the way; they are the laboratories of innovation in our country,” Perry said. “I want to see New York state again [as] a place where we have to look at what we’re doing it in Texas because we’re losing workers to New York. But we can’t do that if the federal government is forcing us into a one size fits all.”
Afterward, Perry asked the crowd to take out their cell phones and text the word “leadership” to 95613. “We’ll keep you in the loop,” Perry promised — a barely veiled hint toward a presidential run.
“Are you ready to take this country back?” Perry asked the crowd before leaving the stage. From his speech tonight, he seemed to be running for president.
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