Karl Rove says Rick Perry must explain some 'toxic' statements
By Michael Muskal
September 7, 2011, 10:32 a.m. With all eyes poised to watch Texas Gov. Rick Perry take on the rest of the Republican field, political analyst Karl Rove on Wednesday warned that the new leader in the race for the GOP presidential nomination will have to find a way to deal with past comments, especially his critical remarks about Social Security.
Speaking on "Good Morning America," Rove said the Perry camp has to do more to explain the governor's comments that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and a failure. Perry first used those terms in his book, "Fed Up," but has repeated the sentiment in campaign stops.
Perry supporters "are going to have to find a way to deal with these things," said Rove, a frequent contributor to Fox News and chief political aide to former President George W. Bush, who has feuded with Perry.
"They're toxic in a general election environment and they are also toxic in a Republican primary," Rove said of the characterization. "And if you say Social Security is a failure and ought to be replaced by a state-level program, then people are going to say 'What do you mean by that?' and make a judgment based on your answer to it."
snip...(please note i am cutting things short
Republicans "can blow it" by "having a candidate who could not appeal to the swing voters in this election who are conservative-minded independents, Latinos and white working-class voters," Rove said. "The primary has to be a process by which our candidate is strengthened, not weakened, and emerges from the end of it ready to conduct a general election campaign for the voters who are up for grabs in this election."
Polls show that Perry runs very well among conservative "tea party" movement supporters, but is less strong among other Republicans and independents.
Still, Rove warned, it is still early in the nominating process. At this stage, four years ago, the leading candidates were former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, both of whom fell by the wayside.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-rick-perry-rove-20110907,0,7339010.story
Perry's fiery 'Fed Up!' may come back to haunt him
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press – 4 days ago
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Maybe Rick Perry's not so "Fed Up!" after all.
Just nine months ago, the Texas governor released a rhetorical bomb-throwing book under that title. He dismissed Social Security as a New Deal relic that smacked of socialism. He said states' rights trump all else. He suggested that the Supreme Court's nine unelected "oligarchs in robes" could have their rulings overturned by two-thirds votes in both houses of Congress.
Now that the Republican is running for president, his campaign has begun distancing itself from some of the candidate's own words on issues such as Social Security and states' rights.
Pulling back won't be easy because "Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington" is anything but the nuanced list of general positions that fills the pages of most presidential candidates' books.
Politicians "typically don't take strong positions. They are largely biographical and usually not specific at all," said Adam Bellow, editorial director of Broadside Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, who edited Sarah Palin's two books. "It is unusual," Bellow said of "Fed Up!," ''but we are in an unusual moment."
Perry, who's shot to the top of many public opinion polls among the GOP contenders, hasn't shied away from bashing Social Security. Last month in Iowa, he said the program "is a Ponzi scheme for these young people." Later, he told reporters, "I haven't backed off anything in my book. So read the book again and get it right."
Campaign spokesman Mark Miner said "no one can argue that Social Security isn't broken."
"The goal was to put these issues on the table and ensure they're addressed," Miner said.
But, in his book, Perry goes well beyond criticizing the program's financing problems and vilifies the entire concept as a failed social experiment.
"Like a bad disease," he wrote, New Deal-era initiatives have spread. "By far the best example of this is Social Security." The program "is something we have been forced to accept for more than 70 years now."
Already, Perry communications director Ray Sullivan was reported as saying that the book is not meant to reflect Perry's current views on Social Security — even though "Fed Up" was published just last year.
While skewering the program might help Perry with tea party supporters, it could cost him with elderly voters in Florida and other important states were he to win the nomination, said GOP strategist Ford O'Connell....
snip...(notice i cut this short again for some folks
"Any candidate who displays general election weakness, because his radical views scared seniors, independents, or soccer moms, would be disqualified in the GOP nomination process. A vote for such a candidate in a primary would be seen as a vote for Obama in the general."
snip...(notice i cut this short again for some folks
In "Fed Up!" he writes, "If you don't support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol, don't come to Texas. If you don't like medicinal marijuana and gay marriage, don't move to California." Elaborating in July about New York's decision to allow same-sex marriage, he said, "that's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me."
Perry has since clarified that he's against gay marriage anywhere, and last month signed a pledge that, if elected, he would back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, which would preclude a state's choice.
He devotes an entire chapter to lambasting the Supreme Court, anticipating that the justices one day issue a ruling forcing nationwide gay marriage on the country. As a check on judicial power, he proposes allowing Congress to override the high court with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.
"While ideas like that may sound very cogent to Perry, he may have a real problem explaining them," GOP strategist O'Connell said.
The governor has long known his book could be problematic in a national campaign. As the polls closed on election day 2010, giving Perry his third full term as governor, he told The Associated Press that "Fed Up!" proved he was too conservative to seek the White House.
"I think probably the best display, the best concrete evidence that I'm really not running for president is this book," Perry said, "because when you read this book, you're going to see me talking about issues that for someone running for public office, it's kind of been the third rail, if you will."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtUd6xQYGWNo7baOiY_jRPzVyxQg?docId=899f66b779884dfe844397c186b3540e
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Rick Perry is not a fan of Social Security -- or is he?
The Texas governor and 2012 presidential candidate wrote in his 2010 book "Fed Up!" that the program is a "crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal" that has been wrongly assigned a "mythical notion of salvation."
Social Security is an example of the federal government's over-reach and a benefit "clearly intended to be a permanent fixture of the entitlement state," he wrote.
And Perry often resorts to inflammatory language to pillory the program.
"It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people," he told an Iowa crowd over the weekend. "The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie."
Fightin' words, for sure.
snip...(cut short again for those that want me to cut the message short...
Fixing Social Security: The 'low hanging fruit'
In his book, Perry wrote that individuals would have done better if allowed to invest savings on their own, rather than entrusting the money to the government.
And that would be a radical change to the program -- one that helped sink former president George W. Bush's Social Security reform plan.
Perry wrote that "if you say Social Security is a failure ... you will inherit the wind of political scorn."
That assertion certainly reflects traditional political thinking. But Fichtner thinks the public might be catching on.
"The public is starting to get smart to politicians who are using rhetoric to mask the debate," he said.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/30/news/economy/rick_perry_social_security/index.htm
2012 Republican presidential candidate and Texas governor Rick Perry has said he believes social security and Medicare are unconstitutional, as are financial regulations. Do we need metaphorical cops on Wall Street? He also thinks global warming is a hoax. Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jv-3h6miuI
And, when it comes to his fellow GOP presidential contenders, Santorum's survival strategy is clear: attack early and often. The former Pennsylvania senator, for example, was one of the first candidates to assail Texas Gov. Rick Perry for saying that it was acceptable for individual states to pass laws allowing gay marriage.
And Santorum didn't stop there. Lately he has been raising questions about Perry's record as governor of Texas (he calls it a "mixed bag") his conservative credentials ("I'm still waiting to hear," Santorum said) and his past.
When asked about Perry's endorsement of Al Gore in the 1988 presidential race back when Perry was a Democrat, Santorum didn't skip a beat.
"I just don't understand how someone can call themselves a Reagan conservative when he wasn't for Reagan and he wasn't for the conservative movement at the time Reagan was there," he said.
snip...
Here's more of presidential candidate Rick Santorum's conversation with ABC News:
Q: Do you consider Rick Perry to be a true conservative?
Santorum: "I'm still waiting to hear. This is one of these candidates that's come out of the block and been recognized as a top-tier candidate really having done very little explaining his record and we'll see in these debates if his record on a whole variety of issues is going to bode well for people in a Republican primary. The reason his numbers are great is because everybody is talking about him. Well, he was governor of Texas and he can certainly take credit for the record of job creation in Texas. But he also has to take responsibility for the decisions he's made as Governor and so far that hasn't been talked about. Let's see what his positions are and what he'd do when he comes to Washington as opposed to the fact that Texas — even before he was governor — was pretty attractive to jobs and has done well as a result of that."
Q: Can you pinpoint any one aspect of Gov. Perry's record that voters need to turn a more skeptical eye on?
Santorum: "I'll leave it up to the debates. There are a lot of issues that I have a lot of concerns about. Everything from his immigration policy to his social policy to some of his health care pronouncements — a lot of things — raising taxes. He's got a record as ten years as governor that's a very mixed bag. Plus his political endorsements. Having a guy running for president who says he's a conservative who supported Al Gore for President in 1988 — this was after Ronald Reagan so he was at least a little slow on the uptick when it came to the conservative movement."
Q: What about Perry's reversal on the wisdom of mandatory HPV vaccinations for young girls in Texas? Is it enough for him to say, "oops, I made a mistake"?
Santorum: "It's enough to say oops if when fully briefed on what he did that after being fully briefed he made a mistake. But he kept this position for years and in fact was hostile towards those that opposed him. It's only in recent months that he has decided it's an oops. That is an election day flip flop for no other reason except that his position is an untenable one. And having the government step in and require this type of vaccination for 12 year old girls without, with parents not having the right but to object. I mean it was forced other than parent's objecting."
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/rick-santorum-rips-rick-perry-he-wasnt-for-reagan-and-he-wasnt-for-the-conservative-movement/
Karl Rove Weighs in on Sarah Palin, 2012 Race
Former president George W. Bush's top political advisor discusses shape of race.
04:07 | 09/07/2011
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/karl-rove-interview-sarah-palin-2012-rick-perry-14462681
By Michael Muskal
September 7, 2011, 10:32 a.m. With all eyes poised to watch Texas Gov. Rick Perry take on the rest of the Republican field, political analyst Karl Rove on Wednesday warned that the new leader in the race for the GOP presidential nomination will have to find a way to deal with past comments, especially his critical remarks about Social Security.
Speaking on "Good Morning America," Rove said the Perry camp has to do more to explain the governor's comments that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and a failure. Perry first used those terms in his book, "Fed Up," but has repeated the sentiment in campaign stops.
Perry supporters "are going to have to find a way to deal with these things," said Rove, a frequent contributor to Fox News and chief political aide to former President George W. Bush, who has feuded with Perry.
"They're toxic in a general election environment and they are also toxic in a Republican primary," Rove said of the characterization. "And if you say Social Security is a failure and ought to be replaced by a state-level program, then people are going to say 'What do you mean by that?' and make a judgment based on your answer to it."
snip...(please note i am cutting things short
Republicans "can blow it" by "having a candidate who could not appeal to the swing voters in this election who are conservative-minded independents, Latinos and white working-class voters," Rove said. "The primary has to be a process by which our candidate is strengthened, not weakened, and emerges from the end of it ready to conduct a general election campaign for the voters who are up for grabs in this election."
Polls show that Perry runs very well among conservative "tea party" movement supporters, but is less strong among other Republicans and independents.
Still, Rove warned, it is still early in the nominating process. At this stage, four years ago, the leading candidates were former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, both of whom fell by the wayside.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-rick-perry-rove-20110907,0,7339010.story
Perry's fiery 'Fed Up!' may come back to haunt him
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press – 4 days ago
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Maybe Rick Perry's not so "Fed Up!" after all.
Just nine months ago, the Texas governor released a rhetorical bomb-throwing book under that title. He dismissed Social Security as a New Deal relic that smacked of socialism. He said states' rights trump all else. He suggested that the Supreme Court's nine unelected "oligarchs in robes" could have their rulings overturned by two-thirds votes in both houses of Congress.
Now that the Republican is running for president, his campaign has begun distancing itself from some of the candidate's own words on issues such as Social Security and states' rights.
Pulling back won't be easy because "Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington" is anything but the nuanced list of general positions that fills the pages of most presidential candidates' books.
Politicians "typically don't take strong positions. They are largely biographical and usually not specific at all," said Adam Bellow, editorial director of Broadside Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, who edited Sarah Palin's two books. "It is unusual," Bellow said of "Fed Up!," ''but we are in an unusual moment."
Perry, who's shot to the top of many public opinion polls among the GOP contenders, hasn't shied away from bashing Social Security. Last month in Iowa, he said the program "is a Ponzi scheme for these young people." Later, he told reporters, "I haven't backed off anything in my book. So read the book again and get it right."
Campaign spokesman Mark Miner said "no one can argue that Social Security isn't broken."
"The goal was to put these issues on the table and ensure they're addressed," Miner said.
But, in his book, Perry goes well beyond criticizing the program's financing problems and vilifies the entire concept as a failed social experiment.
"Like a bad disease," he wrote, New Deal-era initiatives have spread. "By far the best example of this is Social Security." The program "is something we have been forced to accept for more than 70 years now."
Already, Perry communications director Ray Sullivan was reported as saying that the book is not meant to reflect Perry's current views on Social Security — even though "Fed Up" was published just last year.
While skewering the program might help Perry with tea party supporters, it could cost him with elderly voters in Florida and other important states were he to win the nomination, said GOP strategist Ford O'Connell....
snip...(notice i cut this short again for some folks
"Any candidate who displays general election weakness, because his radical views scared seniors, independents, or soccer moms, would be disqualified in the GOP nomination process. A vote for such a candidate in a primary would be seen as a vote for Obama in the general."
snip...(notice i cut this short again for some folks
In "Fed Up!" he writes, "If you don't support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol, don't come to Texas. If you don't like medicinal marijuana and gay marriage, don't move to California." Elaborating in July about New York's decision to allow same-sex marriage, he said, "that's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me."
Perry has since clarified that he's against gay marriage anywhere, and last month signed a pledge that, if elected, he would back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, which would preclude a state's choice.
He devotes an entire chapter to lambasting the Supreme Court, anticipating that the justices one day issue a ruling forcing nationwide gay marriage on the country. As a check on judicial power, he proposes allowing Congress to override the high court with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.
"While ideas like that may sound very cogent to Perry, he may have a real problem explaining them," GOP strategist O'Connell said.
The governor has long known his book could be problematic in a national campaign. As the polls closed on election day 2010, giving Perry his third full term as governor, he told The Associated Press that "Fed Up!" proved he was too conservative to seek the White House.
"I think probably the best display, the best concrete evidence that I'm really not running for president is this book," Perry said, "because when you read this book, you're going to see me talking about issues that for someone running for public office, it's kind of been the third rail, if you will."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtUd6xQYGWNo7baOiY_jRPzVyxQg?docId=899f66b779884dfe844397c186b3540e
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Rick Perry is not a fan of Social Security -- or is he?
The Texas governor and 2012 presidential candidate wrote in his 2010 book "Fed Up!" that the program is a "crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal" that has been wrongly assigned a "mythical notion of salvation."
Social Security is an example of the federal government's over-reach and a benefit "clearly intended to be a permanent fixture of the entitlement state," he wrote.
And Perry often resorts to inflammatory language to pillory the program.
"It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people," he told an Iowa crowd over the weekend. "The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie."
Fightin' words, for sure.
snip...(cut short again for those that want me to cut the message short...
Fixing Social Security: The 'low hanging fruit'
In his book, Perry wrote that individuals would have done better if allowed to invest savings on their own, rather than entrusting the money to the government.
And that would be a radical change to the program -- one that helped sink former president George W. Bush's Social Security reform plan.
Perry wrote that "if you say Social Security is a failure ... you will inherit the wind of political scorn."
That assertion certainly reflects traditional political thinking. But Fichtner thinks the public might be catching on.
"The public is starting to get smart to politicians who are using rhetoric to mask the debate," he said.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/30/news/economy/rick_perry_social_security/index.htm
2012 Republican presidential candidate and Texas governor Rick Perry has said he believes social security and Medicare are unconstitutional, as are financial regulations. Do we need metaphorical cops on Wall Street? He also thinks global warming is a hoax. Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jv-3h6miuI
And, when it comes to his fellow GOP presidential contenders, Santorum's survival strategy is clear: attack early and often. The former Pennsylvania senator, for example, was one of the first candidates to assail Texas Gov. Rick Perry for saying that it was acceptable for individual states to pass laws allowing gay marriage.
And Santorum didn't stop there. Lately he has been raising questions about Perry's record as governor of Texas (he calls it a "mixed bag") his conservative credentials ("I'm still waiting to hear," Santorum said) and his past.
When asked about Perry's endorsement of Al Gore in the 1988 presidential race back when Perry was a Democrat, Santorum didn't skip a beat.
"I just don't understand how someone can call themselves a Reagan conservative when he wasn't for Reagan and he wasn't for the conservative movement at the time Reagan was there," he said.
snip...
Here's more of presidential candidate Rick Santorum's conversation with ABC News:
Q: Do you consider Rick Perry to be a true conservative?
Santorum: "I'm still waiting to hear. This is one of these candidates that's come out of the block and been recognized as a top-tier candidate really having done very little explaining his record and we'll see in these debates if his record on a whole variety of issues is going to bode well for people in a Republican primary. The reason his numbers are great is because everybody is talking about him. Well, he was governor of Texas and he can certainly take credit for the record of job creation in Texas. But he also has to take responsibility for the decisions he's made as Governor and so far that hasn't been talked about. Let's see what his positions are and what he'd do when he comes to Washington as opposed to the fact that Texas — even before he was governor — was pretty attractive to jobs and has done well as a result of that."
Q: Can you pinpoint any one aspect of Gov. Perry's record that voters need to turn a more skeptical eye on?
Santorum: "I'll leave it up to the debates. There are a lot of issues that I have a lot of concerns about. Everything from his immigration policy to his social policy to some of his health care pronouncements — a lot of things — raising taxes. He's got a record as ten years as governor that's a very mixed bag. Plus his political endorsements. Having a guy running for president who says he's a conservative who supported Al Gore for President in 1988 — this was after Ronald Reagan so he was at least a little slow on the uptick when it came to the conservative movement."
Q: What about Perry's reversal on the wisdom of mandatory HPV vaccinations for young girls in Texas? Is it enough for him to say, "oops, I made a mistake"?
Santorum: "It's enough to say oops if when fully briefed on what he did that after being fully briefed he made a mistake. But he kept this position for years and in fact was hostile towards those that opposed him. It's only in recent months that he has decided it's an oops. That is an election day flip flop for no other reason except that his position is an untenable one. And having the government step in and require this type of vaccination for 12 year old girls without, with parents not having the right but to object. I mean it was forced other than parent's objecting."
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/rick-santorum-rips-rick-perry-he-wasnt-for-reagan-and-he-wasnt-for-the-conservative-movement/
Karl Rove Weighs in on Sarah Palin, 2012 Race
Former president George W. Bush's top political advisor discusses shape of race.
04:07 | 09/07/2011
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/karl-rove-interview-sarah-palin-2012-rick-perry-14462681
