In today’s Morning Jolt, a lengthy examination of why the phenomenon of Obama’s teleprompters bugs conservatives so much, a trend of Democrats getting increasingly upset with Obama, and of course, the latest suggestion that a GOP standard-bearer who has accomplished more than most of us will ever do in life must be dumb:
Is Mainstream Media Analysis of Rick Perry Dumb?
Look, I have no idea whether Rick Perry is the kind of guy who would get confused if you invited him into the Oval Office and told him to sit in the corner. I do know that he’s been a C-130 pilot, has made a fortune in real estate, and has been elected governor of Texas three times. And unless your name is Rick Perry, you haven’t done that, or at least all of that. So if all of that stuff is so easy that a caveman could do it, why haven’t you done it?
Eh, never mind, here comes Politico with the predictable meme:
Another Texas governor who drops his “g’s” and scorns elites is running for president and the whispers are the same: lightweight, incurious, instinctual. Strip away the euphemisms and Rick Perry is confronting an unavoidable question: Is he dumb — or just “misunderestimated?” Doubts about Perry’s intellect have hounded him since he was first elected as a state legislator nearly three decades ago. In Austin, he’s been derided as a right-place, right-time pol who looks the part but isn’t so deep — “Gov. Goodhair.” Now, with the chatter picking back up among his enemies and taking flight in elite Republican circles, the rap threatens to follow him to the national stage. “He’s like Bush only without the brains,” cracked one former Republican governor who knows Perry, repeating a joke that has made the rounds.
The headline? “Is Rick Perry Dumb?”
“32 years ago, liberals asked the same question about Ronald Reagan,” cracks Don Surber.
The Lonely Conservative ties the Politico story to the phenomenon discussed in the last item: “Blah, blah, blah. Read what you want into it, at least Rick Perry has a pretty successful record to run on, unlike the current president whose superior intellect was, and is, taken as a given by an incurious press. We still haven’t seen his college transcripts. Do you think that if he earned stellar grades those records wouldn’t be on display for all to see?”
At Pajamas Media, Bryan Preston writes, “on the individual cases, Perry vs. Obama, there is a better case to be made that Obama has benefited from luck, from others’ guilt, from social promotion, and from his instinct to conceal what he really thinks, than Rick Perry has. Perry learned to fly military aircraft, has built an impressive undefeated election record in bona fide contests, and led Texas as that state leads the nation in just about every economic category. In a political blind taste test — cover their names and political affiliations — Perry is by far the more impressive of the two. The fact is, east coast elitists are prone to treating anyone not from the east coast or Chicago, or who speaks with a flyover country twang, as their inferiors. And a corollary fact is, East Coast elites tend to treat anyone with Harvard on their resume as automatically brilliant no matter how they actually got into Harvard (unless they’re a Republican, in which case the insults fly). Bush was dumb though he attended both Harvard and Yale and was a successful pro baseball team owner and governor; Obama is smart despite his record of failure in the presidency and his lack of real achievement prior to. Reagan was dumb because he went to Eureka College. Perry is dumb because he majored in animal science at Texas A&M.”
A good way to illustrate the media's "Republicans are stupid" meme is to watch the Saturday Night Live election special they run every four years, which generally includes at least excerpts from all their mock Presidential debates. Dole is portrayed as being mean and angry, McCain is senile and delusional, and the rest of the Republicans are childish idiots. The Democrats in those skits have flaws, but at least they change with the candidate - Gore's something of a bully, Dukakis is a robotic technocrat, Clinton a womanizer. But Republicans get the same caricature almost every time.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'll admit, I'm a Perry fan. I want him elected President.
But it may be better for my sanity if I just take a looong vacation to another country until mid-November next year. Stories like this are going to drive me insane.
We told constantly how smart Obama is, what a great leader he is, how well he communicates. That's the narrative, and the media won't do anything at all to question it, facts be damned
But a Republican candidate? Why, he must be stupid, especially if he's from Texas. Can you believe he didn't go to Harvard? What an idiot he must be. Can you believe those college grades? He's ignorant!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSuggesting that Republicans - and especially conservative Republicans like Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann - are dumb is a frequently used political tool of the left and the American people are mostly immune to it. What I find interesting about the "dumb Perry" strategy is its portrayal of George Bush as the intelligent version of Rick Perry. When did a liberal ever describe George Bush as intelligent? This strategy proves that liberals will do anything, including contradicting themselves, in order to score political points.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI know it's been out for a few weeks now, and it's not officially from the Perry campaign (just Students for Perry, who were encouraging him to run), but I really love the facts in this video: External Link
Rick Perry is obviously a sharp guy (read "FED UP!" -- it's not your typical campaign drivel), but even if he weren't, you simply can't argue against the stats and facts about his stewardship of Texas. Obama certainly won't be able to, at least. And that's what this is all about. Elections are always about choices. The choice in 2012 is a successful Governor with military experience, whose state has created more jobs than any other; or, a failed, in-over-his-head President who really had no business being there in the first place.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not saying Obama is smart. And I think it's a classic play by the media to call any conservative dumb. but I'm telling you, It this case, it might be true.
Rick Perry is not Smart.
I watched the gobernatorial debate last year, here in Texas, when Perry was running for Governor. Both Democratic Candidate, Bill White and Libertarian Candidate Debra Medina MOPPED THE FLOOR with Rick Perry!
He looked like a bumbling idiot.
I'm just saying, as a conservative from Texas, I don't think the rest of the country is ready for another bumbling idiot from Texas.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusesomeone should congratulate Governor Medina on that win.....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI would question the validity of dismissing Perry on the basis of one debate, nevertheless I also question at least as much the validity of what most are using to consider Perry a good choice for the GOP nomination. Sadly the reasons most elections are delusional nonsense versus actual contests of actual policies and ideas is because most people are largely programmed by the idiot/devils' box to not think.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConservator needs to get his facts straight. Perry did not debate Bill White in the 2010 election for TX governor. There was no general election debate.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's the same old stuff--if a Republican doesn't believe in God or wear his religion on his sleeve, whip out the Richard Nixon template. If he (or she) is devout and unrepentantly Christian, particularly if he or she belongs to a Evangelical or Fundamentalist denomination, you pull up the Elmer Gantry template.
Hence, Republicans are either dark and angry or God fearing dumbass cowboys.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIs anybody smart enough to explain to me how Obama's purported intelligence renders him ignorant of what makes liberal policies so stupid as they relate to results?
Or the correlary? How is it that somebody as "dumb" as Rick Perry could possibly preside over such desirable outcomes?
Governor Perry's been in the right place at the right time for the past THIRTY years?!? If that's to be believed, when combined with the President's results, it would appear that Perry's in the right place at the right time yet again!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRick Perry doesn't seem to be the least bit dumb, but I know that if being an idiot was against the law, Chris Matthews would be serving five consecutive life terms.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHaving read Perry's book, I find his ideas pretty well thought-out. Certainly, his arguments will be controversial in a poorly educated nation which has largely rejected federalism, but they are good arguments nonetheless. Perry is no intellectual lightweight. It is amazing how easily led the American people are by sophistry and a silver tongue. All one has to be is liberal and well-spoken and - voila! - a star is born. The reason the liberal elites hate Perry is that they are afraid of him - pure and simple. Their strategy is simply to use ad hominem attacks (e.g. "he has limited mental capacity, so don't listen to him") so that hopefully he can be marginalized. I do not think it will work in this case because Perry has better rhetorical skill than most conservatives.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'll bet Rick Perry can't name all 57 states...for that matter I don't think Politico can either.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere are 58 states. Perhaps you forgot perplexity.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThese days, I'm in a constant state of confusion. Does that count?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr the state of Nirvana where the NORMAL people live.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'll also bet that Perry can't speak Austrian, and since he never crashed an Air Force aircraft, he was probably never in need of a corpse man.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse(this is not a "poor us, bad media" comment - so I'm not sure it will be posted. Seriously, allowing some variety in the comments would be very sportsmanlike!)
If Romney gets the nomination, I seriously don't think the media will portray him as "dumb" - mainly because he isn't. Perry, Bachmann and Palin - well, they speak for themselves. Are they principled? Absolutely. Are they honest and passionate? No doubt. Are they versed on anything worldly? I haven't seen it.
I say let the debates speak for themselves. One's intellect will be bared. No teleprompters for Obama. No "Founding Fathers" or "Book of Genesis" answers for the Republican nominee. Mano a mano.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"No Founding Fathers" answers allowed, huh? So I guess now we have to adhere not only to separation of church and state but also to state and state?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's a mark of how ridiculous our human scoring system is when a person's intelligence is determined solely by which school they attended and their GPA. The best description of Obama is a "post turtle" but since he went to Harvard, people assume that he's brilliant. Perry went to A&M and completed a more down-to-earth major. His GPA just indicates that his primary focus was not on grades. There are kinds of smart that aren't measured in the classroom.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse