Two problems. First, I don't think he can stand the scutiny when the press (properly) begins to dig into the question of how he wound up so rich while serving in public office.
Second, he takes undue credit for the Texas miracle. Texas is succeeding because Texans are different from other folks -- we still go to church on Sunday and go to work on Monday -- and because Texas is different from other states -- we keep government on a leash and allow property, contracts, the rule of law, and free market to do what they always do when given half a chance: create jobs (and prosperity) and reduce unemployment (and poverty).
I'm no fan of Rick Perry. But if he keeps talking like he did recently in London, who knows? Listen:
The hatreds of unassimilated radicals [in theWest] only draw further attention to anti-Semitism in general. It's a familiar problem in a new time. In Europe it ranges as in times past from thuggish abuse to desecreation to commentaries on Israel that cover crude dislike in the veneer of respectable opinion.
There is a way to deal with anti-Semitism, and it's not by smiling politely and hoping that it goes away. The full force of law, when people and property are harmed, is only the most obvious response.
Just as important is what Chancellor Merkel did a few weeks ago, to her great credit, when she called this sin by its name. She has stated in confident, unmistakeable terms that tolerance ends where anti-Semitism begins. It shaped Europe's past, in ways that everyone regrets and no nation can afford to let it shape Europe's future.
* * *
[To] the extremist, it has to be made clear: We will not allow you to exploit our tolerance, so taht you can import your intolerance. We will not let you destroy our peace with your violent ideas.
If you expect to live among us and yet plan against us to receive the protections and comforts of a free society while showing none of its virtues or graces then you can have our answer now: No, not on our watch!
You will live by exactly the standards that the rest of us live by. And if that comes as jarring news, then welcome to civilization.
(Speech, Rick Perry, London, October 14, 2014 (reparagraphed, emphasis added), quoted from Jennifer Rubin, "Rick Perry speaks in London," washingtonpost.com, October 14, 2014) Thanks to Instapundit for calling this to our attention.
In an age of Chamberlains, this speech is Churchillesque.
Anyone who will even say the word "civilization" in a respectful way deserves a listen. (Churchill would go even further and call it, correctly, Christendom.)
I've never heard a speech this good by Mr. Perry, so I assume he has hired a first-class speech writer and foreign-policy adviser. So what? That's how it's done. Unless, of course, you're Ronald Wilson Reagan, in which case you can write this well yourself, to the great annoyance of liberals and progressives.
* * *
Why is it proper for the press to dig into Rick Perry's path to wealth and personal history when it refuses to do the same for liberal and progressive candidates?
Easy: Just because the press behaves improperly when covering its friends does not mean that honest coverage of its foes is improper. They do not offend the principles of righteous journalism when they dig up whatever they can find about a politician such as Mr. Perry. They offend the principles of righteous journalism when they fail or refuse to dig into the lives of Harry Reid -- a public "servant" grown rich beyond measure while in public office -- and other worthies of the left. That's the crime.
Comments