Quoted: The thing that people seem to be overlooking is that in Texas, the job of Governor isn't worth a bucket of warm spit. The Lieutenant Governor is the one with the real influence. Besides, it's a foregone conclusion that the Republican candidate will win the general election. Might as well have some fun with the campaign.
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I am not so sure that Carole is out of the running. Perry has made an ass out of himself over and over again, and he only kicked into high gear with the gun stuff in the last six months. Perry also, if you recall, pushed through in-state tuition for illegal aliens and signed hate crime legislation after promising not to.
I was a big Perry supporter initially. In fact, I was relieved that he was in. Bush just wasn't terribly active, he didn't have much of an agenda, and he was a pretty poor governor. Bush's inability to motivate the Leg to do anything was a subject of jokes. Bush didn't have the background and was not respected -- he has essentially no grasp of really important issues and showed no willingness to learn. Perry was well liked (and respected) in the Legislature and considered a subject matter expert in a few areas, like water law. Fickle though that may be, the respect of the Legislature counts -- Bush was regarded as well-meaning, even by liberals, because he was earnest and personable, but clueless, and everyone in the Legislature saw that. Perry was seen as a good person to ally with and a solid supporter of a reasonable agenda.
Well, Perry got in and that changed. He alienated almost everyone, and the Legislature (which still respected him to a degree) kept him at arms length. His battles with Carole over, ahem, simple math were embarassing (well, people were embarassed for Perry).
In the last year, he seemed to slowly realize that he was going to have to be a real governor and he has been making an effort, but his pretty conservative "Panhandle libertarian" point of view has pretty much been dropped in favor of being a rattle-snake-waving Republican moonie with a fervent ignorance of fundamental economics and a desire to please ever big business interest he can, like, well, like GW. This doesn't look good.
Would Kinky sign a .50 ban like Arnold? Yes, probably.
Would Perry? Yes, definitely, if Bush told him to or his polling numbers suggested that. I am very disappointed here in him, but I just don't know where the "old Perry" went.
Carole wouldn't sign a .50 ban. In fact, she would probably buy one just to wave around to piss people off (that is a serious weakness of hers).
I am not sure that Perry is a sure thing. I am not sure that Carole's run is the hopeless kamikaze flight that people have said that it is. And I am not sure that Kinky looks that liberal compared to Perry.
EDIT:
I really liked Perry. I really did. I remember seeing him in the elevator election night in the Capitol and thinking "Hot damn! We finally have a normal Conservative Democrat back in and things will work right again and we can start getting rid of the liberals!" I was really psyched. He had a very solid track record. I don't know what happened or why.