Perry Chickens Out of South Carolina Forum For No Good Reason At All

Erick Erickson (who supports Perry, as I do) notes the off-basedness of this charge, citing an attack reported by Byron York:

“It’s obvious that Rick Perry is skipping the DeMint forum because he knew he was going to be asked tough questions about his previous support for gay marriage in New York, as well as his policies in Texas in favor of illegal immigration,” says one representative of a rival camp. “He’s looking for a reason to not actually be compared to the other candidates,” says an official in another camp. “He was grasping for a reason not to show.”

Yes, obviously he concocted a silly excuse to get out of going to a forum which he'd wanted to attend (and planned to attend).

It's not as if, unlike most of the candidates, he has an actual job at the moment, and, unlike all of the actual candidates, a job with critical day-to-day management responsibilities.

And it's not as if Texas is on fire or anything.

With all due respect to Representative Doctor Paul, some people have jobs that involve more than purely-theoretical libertarian-political-club pronouncements; and with all due respect to Representative (also, Doctor) Bachmann this is what an executive job looks like; and with all due respect to Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and so on, it's much easier to schedule your appearances when you actually don't have any other job except for making appearances.

I don't know which of the rival camps put this out there, but it is illuminating as to their mindset. Some of the candidates might be surprised to learn the job they're angling for is actually an executive position, something like a governorship, in which the duties of leadership and coordinating a response to a crisis may occasionally interfere with a speaking gig or campaign event.

Attending two candidate fora in three days (the DeMint forum, and the debate tomorrow night) might seem a little negligent while out-of-control wildfires are burning up his state.

I'm very interested to know which camp believes that a campaign event > actual duties as sitting executive in coordinating crisis management.

I suspect Ron Paul's camp is one of the two making the charge, given that Ron Paul's had the best, cushiest job for 30 years-- one with absolutely no responsibilities whatsoever. That's got to distort someone's worldview, when he's literally been a part of no successful reform or legislation (or budget) for almost the whole of his adult life.

He hasn't had an executive position, and he also hasn't even had any kind of experience in merely dealing with the easier task of writing legislation. I usually look down on pure legislators seeking executive office; but Paul isn't even that.

Having absolutely no job responsibilities whatsoever, except to occasionally put out a newsletter in the form of a speech made to an empty Congress that no one reads or listens to, leaves a man free to contemplate the important things in life, like Jews and gold.

posted by Ace at 03:13 PM

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