cognitivedissonance:

It is quite epic:

Just to recap, in less than two months Rick Perry has:

1. Suggested that maybe Ben Bernanke should be lynched.
2. Declined to back off his contention that Social Security is an unconstitutional Ponzi scheme.
3. Called climate change a “contrived phony mess” that was cooked up by scientists who have “manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling in to their projects.”
4. Pissed off the conservative base by defending his decision to (in Michele Bachmann’s immortal words) give “government injections” to “innocent little 12-year-old girls.” Said Perry condescendingly: “What I don’t get is what parents don’t understand about an opt out.”
5. Further pissed off the conservative base by suggesting that if you disagree with his policy on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, “I don’t think you have a heart.”
6. Mangled a prepackaged debate attack on Mitt Romney so badly, and then followed up with a statement on Pakistan so inscrutable, that even his supporters started to wonder if he has a three-digit IQ.
7. Proposed that U.S. troops should be used to fight Mexican drug lords. In Mexico.
8. Had to defend himself against revelations that his family leases a hunting spot called “Niggerhead.”

Should we start taking bets on how much longer Rick Perry lasts? I think he’ll hold out until the first primaries, personally. What’s shocking to me is the defense of the Perry family from supporters. From the original Washington Post article:

“It’s just a name,” said Haskell County Judge David Davis, sitting in his courtroom and looking at a window. “Like those are vertical blinds. It’s just what it was called. There was no significance other than as a hunting deal.”

If Perry continues, I have a feeling he’ll be just a name shortly as well - some failed governor that flamed out spectacularly while running for the presidential nomination. 

theperrypost:

Ten reasons why the Texas economy is growing that have nothing to do with Rick Perry

Rick Perry may credit much of Texas’ recent economic success  to the low-regulation, small-government philosophy he has espoused, but some economists say that the governor’s policies aren’t  the only (or even the primary) reason for  Texas’  economic  health.

On the plus side, the Dallas Federal Reserve notes that Texas entered the Great Recession late and came out of it early,  with job growth standing at 2 percent for 2010 and an expected 3 to 4 percent for 2011. And of the 496,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy between fall 2009 and spring 2011, more than half of that job growth came from Texas — a finding Perry has bragged about recently.

Rick Perry has credited Texas’ job growth and economic success to its business-friendly policies, but economists say cyclical factors could also account for the state’s successes. (AP photo)

On the other hand, Texas’ unemployment has remained stubbornly high. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the state’s jobless rate increased from 8.1 percent in 2010 to 8.2 percentin June, while the unemployment rate in nearby states remained lower or dropped. And many of the new jobs in Texas have been government and low-wage  positions.