No, the problem is a lack of preparation. Why not? Everyone knows that he has a debate issue. If he isn't prepared even now, what could that mean? If you really know your stuff, you won't forget. If you don't know your stuff, you must not be terribly interested in it. You are not passionate about it. If you aren't passionate about it, you can't be serious. If you aren't serious, how can you be trusted?
I think Perry can be trusted to be a small government conservative. If he wasn't, we'd have an income tax by now. He's been governor of this state long enough that if the opportunity to add an income tax came along, he would have been for it. It hasn't happened, and it isn't likely to happen as long as he's governor.
But what about us? What does this say about us? Are we serious about this election? Let's keep in mind one thing. One, Ronald Reagan won 49 states, but he wasn't a great debater. He was the Great Communicator, but his debates weren't the reason for that. Being a successful campaigner doesn't require great debating skills. Mondale was the better debater, but it won him exactly one state in 1984. It doesn't matter if you aren't a great debater, or a superior one.
Should Perry's continuing gaffes concern us? Of course. He can prepare himself better, or he will be forced out very soon. On the other hand, his record and his ideas should not be ignored just because he his taking too long to get his act together. If he does have anything upstairs that he can get together. That's because this kind of performance will leave doubts- and we can't afford these kind of doubts. Either he can or he can't, but he can, he'd better hurry about it if he's serious. If we are serious, we'll give him another chance.
Update:
Just as supporters were saying Newt never knocks his fellow Republicans …
excerpt:
But it’s also a little disappointing just because it illustrates even Gingrich isn’t immune to a certain amount of cockiness. Perry was probably the most notoriously over-confident of all, but all the candidates are like this: Let a candidate do well — or even just a little better than he was doing before — and soon he thinks more highly of himself and more lowly of his competitors than his situation warrants.
Gingrich was in the doghouse for awhile too. A little payback is to be expected, but there are limits to everything. Jokes are okay, people need to laugh at themselves. It is healthy to be able to do that. I'll quote what I remember reading about the Bushmen tribe who believed:
"An arrogant man is a dangerous man." The Bushmen are known for their merciless ridicule of others in their tribe in order to keep them humble and gentle.
Update:
I don't read Slate much, so I don't know if this attitude is typical over there:
When Herman Cain's troubles began, getting a Republican rival to attack him was like getting them to oversee a gay marriage in Des Moines. No one wanted to take a swing.
Yeah, maybe they'd like to have Republicans bashing each other. That's why you don't give it to them.
Update:
More here about Perry from Allahpundit.
Should he go for broke now in Iowa? He’s reached the point poll-wise where, if he doesn’t win there, he’s basically finished.
Hold on a minute! I don't necessarily think that this should finish his campaign alone. It is how he handles the situation. Taking a lot of kidding is going to necessary, but it is going to have to stop somehow. So how does he do that? By preparing harder. But he can also carrying around some 3x5 cards with notes on them. I know this is likely to bring a lot more ridicule, but remember this: Obama uses teleprompters. If Obama can do it, anybody can do whatever they have to in order to help themselves. There's no requirement that anybody has to play by rules somebody else sets and don't apply it in all cases.
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