http://news.yahoo.com/rick-perrys-heart-shows-gops-immigration-problem-203419212.html">Yahoo News 9/25/11
Rick Perry's 'heart' comment shows GOP's immigration problem“I don't think you have a heart.”
When Rick Perry issued this rejoinder to those who oppose his program to give the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition privileges in the Texas university system, his GOP debate opponents (and conservatives generally) jumped all over him.
In addition to his jumbled answers to some questions, it was his low point in the Republican presidential candidates’ debate Thursday night, and it cost him the Florida straw poll two days later. Some tea party activists even suggested that Perry’s attitude on immigration meant it was all over for the man they once saw as their champion to deflect what seemed to be the juggernaut of Mitt Romney – the man many conservatives don’t trust and don’t particularly like.
(snip)
For his part, Romney quickly picked up on the issue.
“I think if you are opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a heart. It means you have a heart and a brain,” Mitt Romney said the next day at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida.
For the record, here’s Perry’s full quote: “If you say that we should not educate children who come into our state for no other reason than that they've been brought there through no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart. We need to be educating these children, because they will become a drag on our society.”
Thing is Rick Perry is the guy who doesn't have a heart - so if the rest of the field thinks he's "soft" they're even more heartless bastards than even he is. :shrug: