Rick Perry's ranch keeps Texas governor backpedaling
Republican presidential candidate and Texas governor Rick Perry spent Sunday on damage control after a stinging report in the Washington Post tying Perry to a racial slur used at a Texas hunting camp his family once leased.
The Perry campaign and some Republican commentators downplayed the story, saying Perry was not associated with the use of the name "Niggerhead" at the Throckmorton County property. The word was painted on a large rock at the entrance of the camp, but Perry said he and his father quickly painted over the word when they started using the property and noticed it in the 1980's. Some of the people interviewed by the Washington Post gave different accounts, with one former ranch worker saying he saw the word as late as 2008.
Even if the Perry campaign is right about the story, however, it keeps Perry backpedaling as his campaign continues to falter. Almost immediately after bursting into the race and seizing frontrunner status in August, Perry was left defending controversial statements, weak debate performances and overall questions of electability.
Perry's ties to the ranch were criticized over the weekend by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, the businessman who in recent days has stolen some of Perry's thunder and the only African American vying for the Republican nomination. Cain said Perry was insensitive for not acting sooner to remove the offensive name from the camp.
As conservative voters once intrigued by Perry turn to Cain (as evidenced by his victory in a Florida straw poll) and moderates pine for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to get into the race, liberals suggest Perry's campaign is unraveling.
CBSNews.com special report: Election 2012
"Even though he's running in a party whose primary [does] not have a substantial African-American vote, the average American does not want to be identified to such racial insensitivity," liberal Rev. Al Sharpton told Politico.
David Axelrod, senior strategist for the Obama re-election campaign, declined to comment specifically about the ranch to the New York Times, but he said it illustrates the challenges Perry and other candidates face.
"Campaigns are like an MRI for the soul -- whoever you are, eventually people find out," he told the Times. "Time will tell whether this comes to reflect him or not."
Commentators on the right came to Perry's defense after the story broke. Conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt wrote, "There is no hint of prejudice or race-baiting in Rick Perry's long career in the public eye."
Indeed, one of the recent issues to create problems for Perry among the conservative base was his support for in-state university tuition breaks for the children of undocumented immigrants.
In New Hampshire over the weekend, Perry defended his support for the policy in Texas, but he said at the federal level, it amounted to "amnesty." The Perry camp in New Hampshire emphasized the governor's efforts to secure the Southern border and deny undocumented immigrants drivers' licenses. But in another potentially controversial move, Perry raised the possibility of sending U.S. troops to Mexico to help fight the drug war there.
Perry has made multiple controversial remarks and policy gaffes that have left the GOP establishment wondering about his mainstream appeal. For instance, some on the right questioned his characterization of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, while Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann pounced on the Perry policy requiring young girls to get vaccinated for HPV.
The damage to his campaign is showing; after weeks in the lead, Perry fell behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a Fox News poll last week.
Romney as of late has been polling particularly well in some key early states, where the latest controversy surrounding Perry could derail his campaign. A recent Suffolk University poll in New Hampshire, for instance, put Romney, at 41 percent, far ahead of Perry, who received just 8 percent support.
Popular in Politics
- Obama forgets to salute while boarding Marine One Play Video
- The Ted Cruz conundrum
- Petraeus biographer regrets affair
- As summer approaches, sequestration threatens holiday fun
- IRS' Lerner was asked to resign, refused: GOP Sen. 200 Comments
- Senator: Oklahoma "hit hard, but we're not knocked out"
- GOP Rep.: Obama elected because of Reagan's immigration reforms
- Obama prom pictures surface
And of course this racism is part of the Republican agenda in the bible belt south - the type of people once again horrified by the election of a blaack president.
America should have after the civil war simply do what the English did with their criminals - sent them to Australia. An almost totally unpopulated and very dry continent.
Geezus, I'm positive that if we go dig back 25-30 years on ALL THE GOP CANDIDATES, the media could find some REAL DIRT on EVERY ONE of them!!! INCLUDING MR. CAIN!!! His campaign is really stooping low to come up with this one on Mr. Perry!!!
I honestly also don't care if people hate other people or racial groups, if it has no affect on their decision making. Where is the scoop on whether or not new state hires and political appointees during Perry's decade as Governor represent the demographics where they work,and do all racial and ethnic groups get comparable treatment?
The answer came to me as I was drifting off to sleep last night.
A MUSICAL!
So, I set to work writing the title song. I hope you like it.
See the music video here.
http://www.billschmalfeldt.com/?p=984
Gosh. I sure hope this helps!
.
.
Perry paints over the "n" word - to cover it up... and is being hammerd for it as if he was the one who wrote it in the first place.
.
.
.
Mon-o-mon, I'm glad I'm not one these concrete-block-headed Democrats who are ridiculed daily!
Geeeeeeeeezzzzzz!!!