During an address to the Eagle Forum in St. Louis this afternoon, former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that he is suspending his presidential campaign.
From ABC News:
“We have a tremendous field – the best in a generation – so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be too.”
“That is why today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States,” he said, adding that he has “no regrets” about his run.
He also took what appeared to be a veiled swipe at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. “Demeaning people of Hispanic heritage is not just ignorant, it betrays the example of Christ,” he said.
In recent weeks, Perry has been particularly vocal in his criticism of the real estate mogul.
Perry, who launched his campaign on June 4, has been polling in the low single digits throughout his campaign – most recently at 1 percent in the crucial first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa. He was slated to debate for the second time in the lower-tier debate on CNN next week.
"Today I step aside knowing as long as we fight for the cause of conservatism, our nation is in good hands." – @GovernorPerry
— Rick Perry (@GovernorPerry) September 11, 2015
A few of his fellow candidates weighed in:
Amen. God bless Rick Perry for his continuing commitment to that cause. https://t.co/s3wSHkDYSy
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 11, 2015
.@GovernorPerry is a great friend, and has the best record of any Governor anywhere, anytime.
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) September 11, 2015
.@GovernorPerry is a terrific guy and I wish him well- I know he will have a great future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2015
.@marcorubio statement on Rick Perry's decision to drop out of 2016 race pic.twitter.com/V979RyTC39
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 11, 2015
I've always respected @GovernorPerry's service to our country in the Air Force, and distinguished service to the people of TX.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 11, 2015
This changes not only the field at large, but the nature of next week’s debate in California. Perry was slated to appear during the “early” debate alongside Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, and Lindsey Graham; now, that group is whittled down to four. No word yet on whether or not CNN will alter its format.
Twitter is turning on itself (and, occasionally, Donald Trump):
Remember when you said Rick Perry wears glasses to look smart? https://t.co/jJL0n8BMQi
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) September 11, 2015
Over 100% of net US job creation 2008-14 was in Texas.
Let's vote for the guy who can't make money with a casino in Atlantic City.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 11, 2015
Rick Perry had among the best records of any candidate running for the presidency. He has himself to blame, but also a frivolous electorate.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) September 11, 2015
The GOP wanted to talk about immigration, and the first candidate to drop out is the guy who managed the longest US-Mex border for 12 yrs
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) September 11, 2015
We didn't deserve him as POTUS, honestly. https://t.co/SvwlGCwY3y
— Aaron Gardner (@Aaron_RS) September 11, 2015
16 GOP candidates left, but only half of them have actually won an election since 2002, & 2 of those have only won 1 election ever.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 11, 2015
Here’s the video of his announcement:
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Maybe pandering to illegal aliens and giving conservatives the middle finger wasn’t the best campaign strategy.
Yeah. Seriously.
Does he hold the record for the Rhino going south the fastest?
Why no. That record would belong to the daaaaling of the “Conservative” Tree Sloughs, Mr. Establishment.
Take his position on tax reform. Which position is “grease”. He’s for a flat tax, a fair tax, a little tinkering with the existing corrupt tax code, a rise in tax rates, etc.
The guy is an insult to any notion of conservative principles.
Calling Trump names and condescendingly putting down his supporters is just devastating him in the rankings! Please keep up the good work 🙂
I pointed out facts. YOU are the one who relies on lies and “ratings”.
Perry was in the same position in the polls this time last election cycle. Polls as this point mean jack spit.
The facts:
Rick Perry% in September 2011 polls (‘this time last election cycle’)
31, 30, 26 ,23, 30, 31, 28, 28, 19
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/republican_presidential_nomination-1452.html
The fantasy:
“Perry was in the same position in the polls this time last election cycle”
Wow. You can’t even read a picture!
September 12th had him leading the pack.
Wanna try again…???
DaMav: Perry was in the same position in the polls this time last election cycle as Trump is in this election cycle.
You don’t know any conservatives, or the truth.
Perry was the MOST consistent on control of the border and illegal immigration, contra your little yellow god who favors a “touch back” amnesty and flip-flopped on importing Syrians just this week.
But Perry will still be around when T-rump has gone the way of the Dodo.
Proof of the pudding…
…is in Perry dropping out first. That’s a hard data point that “little yellow god” tantrums won’t cover up.
Funny you can’t defend your little yellow god OR your lies about Perry.
You owe another nickel for calling a poster a liar.
To quote the Sages of Discourse, you’re a putz.
Again, I have to school you on the difference between observing someone is a liar (as I have often demonstrated YOU to be) and “calling” them a liar.
And you calling me names in Yiddish is still calling me a name.
Troll.
RagsSclemiel -you’re at it again, lying about lying, which is the “The deliberate act of deviating from the truth – fabrication, prevarication.
Therefore what are lies in the eyes of an Alter Cocker Momser daily inclined to insult others are obviously NOT deliberate falsifications to individuals with objective minds.
And I have to school you that there is little difference between observing someone is a putz (as I have often demonstrated YOU to be) and “calling” them a putz.
Describing you as a putz is merely descriptive. But if putz offends you goi g forward I’d be happy to substitute Shlemiel: Someone who is particularly useless, clueless inept and often klutzy, physically or mentally. It’s also a synonym for ‘Idiot,’ a term you frequently toss around “in observation” of others, therefore what’s good for the Shlemiel is fair for the Shmegegges.
Any other appellations of description you need clarified, pass them on.
Sincerely, JJTromboneTroll.
גענוג שוין. ביסט א שוואנץ און א דבר אחר.
Milhouse:
I pasted the Hebrew into an online Hebrew to English translation site, and couldn’t get coherent results.
If you translate it to Yiddish I might be able to understand it better, but the little Hebrew I could read has faded from memory.
Most of the Yiddish too. The last times I remember hearing it spoken was years ago in the 2nd Ave Deli in Manhattan, listening to retired Ed Koch verbally blistering various politicians and commentators for the edification and enjoyment of the regulars who all knew him. Ed liked the spotlight. He’d munch on a messily stacked pastrami on rye and keep talking to those around him between bites. He was found of telling Jewish jokes, the old kind you’d hear on early television, or that your uncles would recount after a couple too many swigs of schnapps, Henny Youngman type one-liners. I wish I could recall some he told the noontime noshers, but I can’t.
I just resubmitted your Hebrew words to another translating site. This time the only two English words to be translated were “lick” and “Beast.” Now I’m really curious to know what you said.
דאס איז אידיש, טפש וואס דו ביסט
ריכטיק, ייִדיש , זענען איר טראָון פון ראבינער שול?
Then it’s a good thing he didn’t do those things.
This is along the lines of that person damning Carly Fiorina as “a Jew-hating Islamist symp”. I just don’t know where these people are getting this stuff, or why they expect anyone to believe them. It doesn’t do much for their credibility, that’s for sure.
An honorable man, a great Governor who would have made a fine President. He was probably doomed by the ill-advised attempt in the last cycle, while he was still recovering from back surgery.
Of course we still have a stellar field, but most are finding it as hard to be heard as Perry due to all the coverage of Trump.
He would have been a good president, and might still be one one day. But this was clearly not the right year for him. It was too big a field already, and he had no opportunity to shine.
I’m disappointed. Hopefully this won’t be the last we hear from him — with his experience, proven talents, and solid conservatism, he’d be a quality addition to any President’s cabinet.
Ah, yes, wonderful Gov. Perry…. Compared to the rest of us “heartless” troglodytes, that want illegal aliens given no special treatment.
Sincere thanks for the translation Amy.
No worries, let s/he who has never mis-read a comment and pounced too quickly cast the first stone. But with all due respect, it might help if you were to calm down a bit.
…and that goes for Rags too 😛
/schoolmarm mode off
I must say I like Mr. Perry and am sorry to see him out of the race. I can think of a few of the others who should have been announcing today but didn’t (yes Lindsay, I’m looking at you).
Good governor, decent guy. Perhaps with a Pub win he’ll end up Secretary of Defense.
Of all the candidates he has my vote as the one I would most like to have a beer with and talk BBQ and fishing.
Probably best for him at this point. But worry not, he will be a huge voice of the conservative movement regardless of his position. Heck, whoever wins could do worse for a Sec. Def. in my humble opinion.
He also took what appeared to be a veiled swipe at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. “Demeaning people of Hispanic heritage is not just ignorant, it betrays the example of Christ,” he said.
We’ve seen this sort of stuff from Perry before; it’s a systemic flaw, but whether in his character or just in his speechwriters isn’t clear. This rubbish isn’t just amateurish, it’s downright childish. And, more importantly, it’s no way to rack up votes.
What part of that quote is incorrect?
Oh, you kinda left out a few parts—
Naïve policies gave us the Iranian nuclear deal – an agreement that fuels Iran’s nuclear ambitions rather than prohibiting them. A president who boldly claimed it was his goal to rid the world of nuclear weapons will have a legacy of nuclear proliferation. All because he places his trust in a regime that is the leading sponsor of state terrorism, in the word of radicals, in inspections that can be easily manipulated. My friends, this is not the America I know.
Neither is a domestic economy that settles for two percent growth, and neither is a president who ignores the Constitution and issues executive orders to make law.
Washington needs to return to doing its constitutional duty: standing up a strong military, implementing foreign policy from a policy of strength, not weakness, and securing the border with Mexico.
And they need to get out of the education business, get out of the healthcare business, and stop utilizing EPA zealots to shut down small business.
Washington is not the fount of all wisdom. The best ideas come from the states. Liberal Justice Lewis Brandeis once said, “that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” Each state should chart its own course, whether it is Governor Haley fighting the unions to bring Boeing and Michelin to South Carolina, or Bobby Jindal standing up for school choice. I support the right of states to be wrong, like Colorado legalizing pot. I would rather one state get it wrong than the whole country.
Today Washington has discarded the Tenth Amendment, centralizing power while failing to meet the test of leadership. Our present-day leaders would have us settle for low expectations, low growth, record numbers out of the workforce. To them, two percent growth is the new norm. They want us to embrace their vision of mediocrity. I, for one, will not. As Americans we have the power to make the world new again.
—
And for the record, if a candidate can’t take tough questions from a reporter, how will they deal with the president of Russia, the leaders of China or the fanatics in Iran?
My second warning is this: we cannot indulge nativist appeals that divide the nation further. The answer to our current divider-in-chief is not to elect a Republican divider-in-chief.
Conservatism is inherently optimistic. It celebrates the power of the individual, it believes in free markets over state-controlled solutions. It knows free individuals can govern their own lives better than centralized government. Progressives think we need to protect the people from themselves. Conservatives think we need to protect the people from government.
We have had too much government – too many government answers, too much government meddling – all at the expense of individual freedom.
We need to get back to the central constitutional principle that, in America it is the content of your character that matters, not the color of your skin – that it doesn’t matter where you come from, but where you are going. In an America blind to color, that champions the individual, that recognizes merit, there is no room for debate that denigrates certain people based on their heritage or origin.
We can secure the border and reform our immigration system without inflammatory rhetoric, without base appeals that divide us based on race, culture and creed. Let me be crystal clear: for those of us in Christ, our citizenship is first and foremost in God’s kingdom, our brothers and sisters are those made in the image of God, and our obligation – after loving God with all our heart, mind and soul – is to love our neighbors as ourselves, regardless of where they come from.
Demeaning people of Hispanic heritage is not just ignorant, it betrays the example of Christ. We can enforce our laws and our borders, and we can love all who live within our borders, without betraying our values.
It is time to elevate our debate from divisive name-calling, from soundbites without solutions, and start discussing how we will make the country better for all if a conservative is elected president.
And let me say, I know something about enacting conservative principles. We have done it in Texas.
__________________________________________
See, that was a speech by a principled conservative.
Hey, but with Trump “we’ll have so much winning that you’ll get tired of winning!”
Can you really top that for principled political wisdom? Can you?
Can anyone? – I should have asked. Trump fans say no.
With respect to Gov Perry, and you for posting it, the problem, forever, has been that once elected as President, the fight ends. The words are fine, but as we have seen, over and over, they are just that, words. Now, I am not saying they are just words for perry, we will never know, but for a huge number of us, we no longer believe the career politicians. And we do not trust the R party, at all.
So, a “huge number” of people will completely discount what a man has done while in office, in favor of supporting a man whose entire life has been consumed in BEING “the establishment” on the strength of his words to the contrary.
Daft.
If you’re contrasting Perry to Trump, the people supporting Trump have reason to discount Perry on the primary issue that attracted them to Trump: Illegals. Throughout his tenure Perry has followed a live-and-let-live attitude toward the illegal population, like the bill he signed allowing illegals to qualify for low in-state tuition rates at Texas colleges.
The Trumpeteers may not appreciate Perry’s hug-an-illegal inclinations, or the impression he gives of not being concerned Texas has the second largest population of boarder trespassers in the US, after California. What policies has Perry enacted to reduce those numbers? The illegal population in Houston TX alone is 400,000. Houston and many other Texas cities are sanctuaries via Gov Perry inaction.
All Perry has done to address that issue is grandstand, like he did sending the National Guard to the borders during last year’s influx of Central American women and children. Headlines without action.
As usual, you’re either lying or ignorant.
Perry actively supported (like with state people and funds) the legal challenge to Arizona’s laws, and we would have followed suit with our own had they not been killed by the Feds.
Perry has a population of people living in Texas he can’t do anything to deport, just as does every other governor in the U.S. But Texas ALSO has the most vigorous of all the states border control efforts, and we have put real money in enforcing the border on our own.
Since we DO have illegals we CANNOT deport, the people of Texas determined that it would be wise to take those of college age who QUALIFIED into our state higher education programs at in-state rates. Which simply made sense from a purely pragmatic POV. What should Perry and our legislature have done…dump them on the streets? In Texas, illegals DO pay the same taxes as everyone else, since we are a sales and property tax state. A single-digit share of Texas students at our higher education institutions are illegals, at last check. The measure was considered the best of bad choices, and I know of no Texas legislator who lost their seat over the issue, which would have easily passed over a Perry veto.
Perry tried in 2011 for a sanctuary cities bill. Some form was passed by both Texas houses, but lost all steam when it became apparent that the Feds would do with it what they’d done in Arizona. “Many” cities are two; Austin and Dallas, besides Houston (which is NOT a declared sanctuary city, but a de facto one under recent mayors).
So, as usual, you’re up to your ear holes in bullshit.
PutzPierre: Pay attention.
You thought it was ‘daft’ for “huge numbers” of people to back Trump, and not an experienced politician like Perry. I tried to put it in perspective for your brittle brain, by stating Perry’s ambivalent record on immigration issues, and particularly on illegal immigration, was wishy washy and ambivalent in the minds of many Texas Trump supporters.
Your own mention of Perry’s failure to exert influence to get the City Sanctuary bill passed backs that up (though you failed to mention Perry’s lack of support to back provisions to overturn his earlier Illegal Immigrant tuition legislation as additional proof of his double standard on immigration policies).
Your defense of Perry on immigration is based on the same rationalization you use to criticize Rhino Republicans who justify their votes on practicality and expediency. Your defense of Perry is that he did the best he could do under the circumstances. That’s true. But the argument to that by many of your fellow conservative Republicans in Texas is that his best wasn’t good enough on immigration. He was all hat and no cattle. Which is the primary reason ‘HUGH NUMBERS’ of Texas Republican Conservatives continue to keep Trump at the top of the heap, supporting him in greater numbers then they do native sons Perry and Cruz combined.
Another way to put it is why do so many Conservatives, in Texas and elsewhere, reject YOUR opinions and identify with Trump? You think it could be because they’re just as fed up with elitist pretentious commentators like you who sound as phony to them as establishment politicians? Or a more serious worry for you and the narrow slice of Conservative opinion you represent, that you’re out of touch with reality? And your abstruse and obtuse opinions are tuned out as quickly as TV commercials touting Reverse Mortgages.
Shorter JJ(sad)Trombone…
All bullshit and no bull.
I’ll be your good hard putz, and you can be my soft, moist, yearning receptacle. All day and into the night…!!!
Rag-ala, sweetie, it’s good to see your repressed homosexual tendencies are percolating to the surface. Next thing you know we’ll be hearing you’re getting a marriage license for you and your new male partner at the local license bureau. Hopefully Huckabee won’t be blocking your entry that day
Wait…
NOW you are CLAIMING to be masculine…!?!?!
BWWWWWAAAAAAAHAHAHHA…(gasp)….HAHAHAHAHAHA.
If there was ever a putz-hoster, it is you, honey.
Let me point out that he has not gotten out of the campaign. He has merely suspended his campaign.
I wish politicians would stop doing that: either stay in or get out.
Or to paraphrase a famous short green guy ( and I don’t mean Ron Paul [1]): “Do or do not. There is no suspend.”
Come to think of it a short yellow guy used to say the same kind of thing to me. Usually after he finished laughing when he saw me getting pummeled.
The campaign is suspended instead of ended so they can legally continue to accept donations. This probably is to pay off any debts they have before officially ending the campaign.