MODERN MAN

The Empty Suit

In the wake of the recent New Hampshire debate televised on Bloomberg October 11th, one has to conclude that Rick Perry's star is not just fading; it has crashed into that horrible fate known as FIP (flash in pan). He desperately needed to throw several ideology-policy bombs to the country intertwined with a charismatic assertiveness that demonstrates gravitas and political leadership. Instead, what came forth was mild-mannered folksy boilerplate that one finds in talks to Rotary groups and Kiwanis meetings. His vibrant Texas charm that carried him to the governor's mansion in Austin during the past decade is simply not enough to impress the national media and the dominant power brokers of Washington, so crucial in achieving credibility as a serious presidential candidate. Perry is too light on substance with an embarrassingly weak grasp of the fundamental issues at stake in the national-global arenas, or at least an inability to express his grasp of such issues in clear, forceful orations off the top of his head.

In addition, as governor he callously enacted statist policies of the most fulsome kind such as sidestepping the legislature and issuing an edict to force inoculate 11 and 12 year old school girls with Merck's Gardasil HPV drug. Big dollars in profits were the motive for Merck, big campaign donations were the lure for Perry, and Big Brother gratification was the drive for the statist cheerleaders in the media that tolerated such an outrage.
As governor, Perry also offered shameful bribes to win Hispanic votes by granting discounted college tuition breaks for illegal immigrants in Texas, which exacerbates this tragic problem all the more. Illegals come to America in droves because of a slew of magnets that we allow to exist (jobs, welfare services, dual official languages, state assistance for college, etc.). With this handout, Perry has placed himself in the "hypocritical conservative" camp, and consequently the voters are in the process of consigning him to second-tier status.

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