Rick Perry, RIP

ndm

-- Of course, scrapping the departments of education and commerce or at least sharply reducing their remits is not a bad idea.

Of course, there is nothing to stop any state from ignoring the dictats of the Department of Education - just as long as they also say NO to any money that comes attached to its dictats. Montana, for example, was able to ignorre the 55MPH highway speed limit by not accepting any Federal Highway money.

Simon Mason

Perry has form, remember the "The American Revolution was fought in the 16th Century” gaffe from a previous debate

andrew kerins

Perry, and others, have shown themselves to be poor TV campaigners.
The problem is that is you elect a candidate on the basis of being a good performer on TV, as happened in 2008, he may be poor at the real job - running the country.

Good idea

An anonymous Republican governor was quoted as evaluating Perry as "like Bush, except without a brain.". Wow, Perry is dumber than a bag of hammers.
I have no idea where Mitt Romney stands (which way is the wind blowing now).
I wish that Chris Christie was running - he would have been the best Republican candidate by far.

Augustus

"You can stick a fork in him, he's done."

As always, the media is attempting to choose the candidate.

Mount Brimstone

Perry simply had a minor memory lapse while on stage trying to recount a detail, yet he corrected himself later during the debate. This could have happened to any one of the candidates, and happens to public speakers all the time. The media needs to let it go, and stay focused on the meat of their track records and policy proposals.

cg

Mount Brimstone - if the media focus on Perry's accomplishments and foreign policy proposals then he really is in trouble.

Right On

@ Good Idea

Christie is no more ideologically pure than Romney, so he'd have been attacked for decisions that don't fit the current orthodoxy.

Romney is the only viable candidate. He's got an impressive record, he's highly capable, is a strong debater, opens up a number of states (MI, NH, PA, CO) that otherwise wouldn't be competitive.

He's relatively moderate, but the US is in desperate need of a President who can create some unity.

Craig Strachan

Barack's a two-termer.

fifer

Mount Brimstone - nonsense, I'm afraid. If, let's say, Andrew Marr had been unable to remember what a candidate had said in a debate, that could be seen as a reasonable memory lapse (and probably funny too).

This, however, is the candidate. This is the guy who wants to be trusted with running the world's most powerful country. If he had actually thought his policies through he wouldn't have to remember a punchline. The fact that he couldn't shows him up as the shallow, content-free lightweight that he is.

What's amusing about this contest is that the only competent candidate is the one the party really don't want but the one that they just might end up with.

What's worrying is that unfortunately he's also the only one most floating voters would even consider voting for.