Is Rick Perry dumb? (Politico)

[jefferson_dem]

Is Rick Perry dumb?
By: Jonathan Martin

August 29, 2011 04:39 AM EDT

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 Texan’s loyalists reject the suggestion, asserting that it owes to political bias and sour grapes, but Perry himself seems to welcome the low bar. He cracked on the campaign trail earlier this month that the difference between he and Bush was that he went to Texas A&M and the former president attended Yale.

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62214.html

[Cosmocat]

1. He's like Bush ...

without the last name, and has been a VERY strong political figure.

Bush was PUT into power, Perry has been VERY effective politically.

He is formidable, and people can snark about his intelligence all they want - sad reality that for reasons beyond my capacity to understand, the electorate most often gives jobs to lesser capable candidates.

Perry knows how to win elections, bottom line.

I was just cutting my political teeth 12 years ago when I was completely at a loss at how W was a strong presidential candidate and someone like Al Gore was marginalize so strongly.

Sadly, I learned a lot about an election that go boiled down to "a guy you would like to have a beer with."

The right wing WILL define the framing of this presidential election as it sees fit, and the "liberal media" WILL advance that frame, and that frame WILL negatively define Barrack Obama and it WILL positive frame whoever the Rs have on the ticket.

You can book this ...

[Nancy Waterman]

2. He is a typical right winger

Brilliant at aggressive strategy and posturing but totally ignorant about the ramifications of his very shallow sound-bite-based policies. In other words, dumb as a block of wood when it comes to the important stuff but effective politically. I look forward to the ad where his face morphs into that of George Bush's.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. well stated ! nt

[bklyncowgirl]

9. Your estimate is correct and this is why he had a good chance to get elected.

He may be an idiot when it comes to public policy but unfortunately you don't get to do the important stuff if you don't get elected. The Republicans understand that.

[vercetti2021]

3. Um

Yeah he is. He make dumbya look like a liberal and that's fucking terrifying.

[tanyev]

4. Bad grades at Yale vs. even worse grades at Texas A&M.

Yeah, that's really something to be proud of.

[uponit7771]

7. Yeap, bout sums it up for him

[Avalux]

6. Yes he's dumb.

Don't 'misunderestimate' him because he's not the brightest or best educated; he's an expert at kissing corporate supporter ass and knowing how to play the game.

If you were a corporation in this country and could install a president who would destroy any kind of regulation whatsoever, who would you back?

He's also great at RW extremism rheteoric.

He may be actually be genius though; only needed 38% of the vote to continue inflicting pain on Texas.

[rms013]

8. Just another sock puppet for the corpratists

In the current political landscape, for the most part, it is the Benjamin(s) that win elections, not the candidates. In two of the last three presidential 'elections' the winner was not elected by the people. Electoral politics in the US are a sham. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. Bush was dumb, Obama is smart...same results. The current administration has proven the president is just a figurehead. The government is a division of the corporate oligarchy.
Solutions: Election reform. An amendment to the Constitution to remove corporate personhood. Media reform... Fat chance of that happening with the foxes guarding the chicken coup.
The US is a representative democracy, unfortunately you are not represented.

[tavalon]

10. Um, yeah, what was your first clue

He has nice hair though, and big closets. A man sometimes needs big closets to store, um, his myriad hair products.

[LatteLibertine]

11. If

the nation elects this tool we'll get precisely what we deserve.

[GreenStormCloud]

12. The Left ALWAYS claims that the Republican candidate is of lower intelligence.

I remember all the way back to Eisenhower/Stevenson. In every election we have dismissed the Republican and too dumb to pour water out of a boot with the directions on the heel. And we have had our asses handed to us several times. Never dismiss any person who has won their nomination as being stupid, no matter how good it makes you feel to say it.

[hamsterjill]

13. He's dumb.

But he makes up for being dumb by being mean. He's a bully.

[texastoast]

14. He should have stayed a Democrat

He's a man who blows, as in with the wind, an ultimate politician. He left the Democrats when it became known that Texas was heading to be a one-party state.

Imagine that. Perry was a Democrat, and changing parties had nothing to do with a change of heart or values. He is and has always been all about Rick.

[ibegurpard]

15. no, he's an asshole

[Skittles]

16. he is a stupid asshole