Was Rick Perry’s Campaign Doomed From The Start?
The Other McCain Thinks So
By Dell Hill
Hat Tip - Robert Stacy McCain
In somewhat of a surprise, Texas Governor Rick Perry has suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination to run against President Barack Obama in this Novembers election. I say “somewhat of a surprise” because Perry had hung his Stetson on doing well in the South Carolina and Florida primaries, in hopes of re-igniting his chances. It’s fairly obvious that his internal polling showed no improvement what-so-ever, so the decision was made to pull the plug.
Blogging pal, Robert Stacy McCain, writing at TheOtherMcCain, offers up his opinion of today’s events.
“Rick Perry is a good man, and he deserved a better campaign than he got, but his political advisers — Dave Carney and those other guys — had all the wrong ideas, and thus Perry’s “mission” was destined to failure from the outset. Exactly how these men, so widely hailed as shrewd strategists, got so many things so badly wrong is a story that I’m sure will be the subject of many campaign post mortems, like Jennifer Jacobs’s excellent examination of what went wrong with Michele Bachmann’s campaign. But I have neither time nor inclination to offer a full analysis today.
What is important today is to realize that there was never really any hope that Rick Perry could win the presidency. All the hype generated about Perry’s candidacy last summer was mistaken, based on a flawed assumptions about the candidate, about his campaign staff, about the entire strategic conception of the Perry campaign.
It was all wrong, wrong, wrong, from the very beginning, an utter waste of time, money and effort, and everyone involved would have been better off if Perry had never run at all. Instead of asking, “What went wrong?” we should be asking simply, “Why?”
But that question is one that Perry’s most vocal supporters — who loudly and repeatedly proclaimed their candidate the only viable alternative to Mitt Romney — do not wish to contemplate. And so I will simply link my American Spectator report on the Perry press conference, which ought to be the final word on this tragic folly.
It won’t, of course, because the campaign will continue, until it is at least recognized that Perry’s endorsement of Newt “Share Me” Gingrich, like everything else about the Perry campaign, has proved to be a mistake.”
I invite you to read the entire piece by clicking right here.
Dell’s Bottom Line:
Two points here. 1) Now do you understand why I don’t go head-over-heels in support of one candidate this early in the process? It’s really foolish to put your heart and soul into one candidate and then have your hopes dashed by having your “pet” candidate drop out of the race.
And, 2) I don’t agree with everything written by RSM here. Stacy makes no secret of the fact he’s strongly supporting Rick Santorum. He strongly supported Herman Cain before the “Herminator” was forced off the list by two or three women who claimed he was less than a total gentlemen in their relationships.
I understand (and agree) that Rick Perry’s campaign staff made a number of mistakes in their effort to see him forge to the front as a “real conservative”, but the candidate himself is the real reason he’s out of the picture. It was the candidate who stumbled horribly in the early debates, leaving a very bad taste in the mouths of Republicans everywhere. And it was the candidate’s inability to recover sufficiently to even attract more than passing interest from those early mistake filled days. And it’s the public opinion of the candidate that matters most. The campaign staff made mistakes - no doubt about it - but it was Rick Perry who shot himself in both feet by making numerous gaffes - and now you see the results.
I like Rick Perry. He’s done an excellent job governing Texas. Not perfect, mind you, but he’s directly responsible for the high-ranking status that Texans currently enjoy. I also believe he would have made a very good President.
I’m riding NO candidates band wagon and don’t intend to offer my support for one until I see the results of the primary/caucus season and what the Republican National Convention has in store.
However, I do think that the two real Conservative candidates are now gone. I would much rather see Perry and/or Michele Bachmann in the race to the Convention. As it stands, I see no Conservative left to consider. Mitt Romney is ‘Obama Lite’, but I’d vote for him. Newt Gingrich has pluses and minuses, but I’d vote for him. Rick Santorum gives us about the only other ‘anybody but Romney’ choice and I’d vote for him, but I don’t consider any of those three to be my kind of Conservative. And, for me, Ron Paul simply doesn’t count. He’s a Libertarian and I totally disagree with much of his agenda.
The Other McCain Thinks So
By Dell Hill
Hat Tip - Robert Stacy McCain
In somewhat of a surprise, Texas Governor Rick Perry has suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination to run against President Barack Obama in this Novembers election. I say “somewhat of a surprise” because Perry had hung his Stetson on doing well in the South Carolina and Florida primaries, in hopes of re-igniting his chances. It’s fairly obvious that his internal polling showed no improvement what-so-ever, so the decision was made to pull the plug.
Blogging pal, Robert Stacy McCain, writing at TheOtherMcCain, offers up his opinion of today’s events.
“Rick Perry is a good man, and he deserved a better campaign than he got, but his political advisers — Dave Carney and those other guys — had all the wrong ideas, and thus Perry’s “mission” was destined to failure from the outset. Exactly how these men, so widely hailed as shrewd strategists, got so many things so badly wrong is a story that I’m sure will be the subject of many campaign post mortems, like Jennifer Jacobs’s excellent examination of what went wrong with Michele Bachmann’s campaign. But I have neither time nor inclination to offer a full analysis today.
What is important today is to realize that there was never really any hope that Rick Perry could win the presidency. All the hype generated about Perry’s candidacy last summer was mistaken, based on a flawed assumptions about the candidate, about his campaign staff, about the entire strategic conception of the Perry campaign.
It was all wrong, wrong, wrong, from the very beginning, an utter waste of time, money and effort, and everyone involved would have been better off if Perry had never run at all. Instead of asking, “What went wrong?” we should be asking simply, “Why?”
But that question is one that Perry’s most vocal supporters — who loudly and repeatedly proclaimed their candidate the only viable alternative to Mitt Romney — do not wish to contemplate. And so I will simply link my American Spectator report on the Perry press conference, which ought to be the final word on this tragic folly.
It won’t, of course, because the campaign will continue, until it is at least recognized that Perry’s endorsement of Newt “Share Me” Gingrich, like everything else about the Perry campaign, has proved to be a mistake.”
I invite you to read the entire piece by clicking right here.
Dell’s Bottom Line:
Two points here. 1) Now do you understand why I don’t go head-over-heels in support of one candidate this early in the process? It’s really foolish to put your heart and soul into one candidate and then have your hopes dashed by having your “pet” candidate drop out of the race.
And, 2) I don’t agree with everything written by RSM here. Stacy makes no secret of the fact he’s strongly supporting Rick Santorum. He strongly supported Herman Cain before the “Herminator” was forced off the list by two or three women who claimed he was less than a total gentlemen in their relationships.
I understand (and agree) that Rick Perry’s campaign staff made a number of mistakes in their effort to see him forge to the front as a “real conservative”, but the candidate himself is the real reason he’s out of the picture. It was the candidate who stumbled horribly in the early debates, leaving a very bad taste in the mouths of Republicans everywhere. And it was the candidate’s inability to recover sufficiently to even attract more than passing interest from those early mistake filled days. And it’s the public opinion of the candidate that matters most. The campaign staff made mistakes - no doubt about it - but it was Rick Perry who shot himself in both feet by making numerous gaffes - and now you see the results.
I like Rick Perry. He’s done an excellent job governing Texas. Not perfect, mind you, but he’s directly responsible for the high-ranking status that Texans currently enjoy. I also believe he would have made a very good President.
I’m riding NO candidates band wagon and don’t intend to offer my support for one until I see the results of the primary/caucus season and what the Republican National Convention has in store.
However, I do think that the two real Conservative candidates are now gone. I would much rather see Perry and/or Michele Bachmann in the race to the Convention. As it stands, I see no Conservative left to consider. Mitt Romney is ‘Obama Lite’, but I’d vote for him. Newt Gingrich has pluses and minuses, but I’d vote for him. Rick Santorum gives us about the only other ‘anybody but Romney’ choice and I’d vote for him, but I don’t consider any of those three to be my kind of Conservative. And, for me, Ron Paul simply doesn’t count. He’s a Libertarian and I totally disagree with much of his agenda.
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