Rick Perry may be polling in the single digits, but that hasn’t stopped the former Texas governor from pushing ahead with a messaging strategy that emphasizes experience over rhetoric, and results over flash.
Via the AP:
Perry, who is considering a second run for president, wrapped up a two-day trip to New Hampshire with a speech at the Strafford County Republican Committee’s Lincoln Day Dinner. While he repeated his warning that GOP voters shouldn’t nominate a “critic in chief,” he had plenty of criticism for President Barack Obama, saying his lack of executive experience before becoming president has hurt him and that he hasn’t picked up many management skills on the job. The nation is ready, he said, to move beyond “eight years of this years of this young, very attractive, amazing orator, junior U.S. senator.””I don’t think they’re going to go there,” Perry said. “They’re going to go to a tested, results-oriented executive who has a record of accomplishment.”
This isn’t the first time Perry has thrown shade at his younger potential opponents. During his interview last week with the Texas Tribune, Perry emphasized his own experience over that of other, untested candidates:
Asked about what separates him from Cruz, Perry never mentioned his potential rival by name. Instead, he downplayed Senate experience and alluded to the fact that Cruz’s tenure in office is the same as then-Sen. Barack Obama’s when he ran for president in 2008. “It’s one of the selling points, if you will, to the American people as they decide who’s going to follow Barack Obama,” he said. “I think they’re going to make a rather radical shift, away from a young, untested United States senator whose policies have really failed.”
Ba-zing—because it’s true.
This is a conversation the right needs to have well before the first debate, straw poll, and/or primary election.
I said above that Perry was “throwing shade,” but that’s actually inaccurate. What Perry is doing is pointing out what everyone should be thinking at this point. Men like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have made a name for themselves by getting conservatives excited about activism. They’re making DC listen, one speech at a time—but what about results?
America is starving. She’s sick. She needs a revival, and it needs to come from the desk of someone who has experience building. Perry is busy making a case for his candidacy, and against anyone who can’t pony up a résumé as fine tuned as his own.
He’s not our only option, but he’s doing everything he can to convince us that he can do the job he’s applying for—not just talk about it. We should expect every other candidate to do the same.
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