US Elections: Rick Perry’s Clenched Fists

What presidential hopefuls say or don’t say in debates can change the public’s perception that they are the strongest candidates and have an impact on their fundraising potential, but don’t rely on surveys to tell you anything about the likeability factor—it changes from debate to debate.

Foreign policy seems to be the hardest subject for the GOP candidates—Israel is super good, Iran is super evil, China is, uh, bad—and the biggest bogeyman for them remains President Obama.

The four-term Governor of Texas (longest-serving governor in Texas history) proved with his August entrance and $17 million in his first six weeks in the race that a late entry could have an advantage. In September 72% of Republicans said Perry had the right personal qualities to be president.

You may love him or hate him, but he’s another great American story: Governor “Goodhair” served as a tactical airlift pilot in the U.S. Air Force flying the C-130 for four years. He is commander of the Texas National Guard, which in recent years was deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and to border security operations. It seems easy to trust him. His hardscrabble, humble childhood on a cotton farm, his evangelical, conservative credentials and right-wing rhetoric in recent years installed him as a durable contender in the fight for the nomination.

In the opening week of his campaign, Perry lashed out at the American President. He suggested that Obama does not love America, calling him the greatest threat to the country.

“I think you want a president who is passionate about America — that’s in love with America,” he said during a visit to the Iowa State Fair, where he declared his determination to campaign “like his life depends on it”.

Perry was suitable on paper. His trump card was the job creation record in Texas under his leadership from January 2001 through September 2011. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Dallas Federal Reserve, Texas accounts for 37 percent of new U.S. jobs, which is a disproportionately large number (1.2 million)—even as the rest of the country has lost more than 1 million jobs.

Still, most critics remark that on closer inspection there is nothing really wondrous about the “Texas miracle”, attributing the job growth in the Lone Star state to low taxes, tort reform, minimal regulations and oil industry. The number of Texans making at or below the federal minimum wage has almost doubled, climbing from a little less than 5 percent in 2008 to 9.5 percent in 2010.

It is also interesting that almost half of the state’s employment growth came in government sectors, as Perry took full advantage of public spending to create jobs through government employment.

Regardless of whether Perry can tout his “Texas miracle”, he is right about one thing: He knows how to sign balanced budgets. The state’s economy is growing at twice the national rate, and, since the 2008 crash, Texas has created a disproportionately larger number of minimum paying, without insurance jobs than any other state in the country.

If miracles and God’s messages to Republicans are integral to U.S. politics, so are sex scandals. In late September, with the media hyper-focused on the Texas governor and his red-blooded conservatism, Perry became Larry Flynt’s target.

“Have you had a gay or straight sexual encounter with Governor Rick Perry?”

Pornographic magazine publisher ran full-page advertisements in the weekly editions of the U.S. satirical tabloid The Onion and the Austin Chronicle, offering $1 million to anyone with documented evidence of illicit sexual or intimate relations with the Texas governor.

This was not the first time Larry Flynt put hard-lined Republicans in his crosshairs offering money for evidence of their sexual dalliances, and trying to force them to resign from office. In 1999, newly minted Speaker of the House Robert Livingston stepped down after Flynt claimed to have proof of an extra-marital affair by the married Louisiana Republican.

But Flynt’s effort to troll for dirt didn’t threaten Perry, who continued to rank high as the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll released that week.

Rick Perry knows how to make news. He uses unhelpful rhetoric just to make an inflammatory speech and mask a debate. The Texas governor is the kind of bible-thumping Republican we love to hate. He opposes same-sex marriage. He is not fan of Social Security, debating such options to reform it as hiking the retirement age and privatizing the program. He believes that individuals would have done better if allowed to invest savings on their own, rather than entrusting the money to the government. The Republican presidential candidates regard global warming as a hoax, and Perry is sprinting a few steps ahead saying that climate change is an unproven theory created by “a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”

But he is also the kind of Republican who wants to cut Congressional pay and office budgets in half. He wants to get the Transportation Safety Administration under control and criminalize insider trading by Congressmen. He advocates giving in-state tuition to certain illegal immigrants, and his tolerant position on immigration puts him at odds with Tea Party members.

Not all Republican voters liked him, but many of them believed he could beat Obama in 2012. Everything was going great, and then something changed in Rochester, Michigan. It was something that could happen to anybody, but having it happen to him evoked pity: a lapse of memory, labeled one of the worst debate blunders.

The Texas governor headed into a GOP candidate debate, railing against “cocktail circuit” Republicans and disqualifying his rivals. And then, he just forgot the name of the third cabinet agency he plans to eliminate to reduce the size of the federal government if he is elected into office.

"The third agency of government I would, I would do away with, the Education, uh, the... Commerce and, let's see, I can't. The third one, I can't, sorry," Perry stammered. "Oops."

He tried to laugh off his embarrassment. He even appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and tried to convince Americans he was in on the joke. But Rick Perry didn’t just forget an agency. He set the bar so low that he seemed to forget how to run for President.

Rugged good looks, clenched fists, booming voice, assertiveness skills: Rick Perry can certainly portray the American President in a film. He may not be the best debater, but he seems to know how to advance conservative causes, create jobs and bring anti-Washington messages.

Then again... Is «Oops» the future of the American Presidency?