Tag Archives: 2016 campaign

political news, State news, Uncategorized

Perry to Aggies: I'm thinking about running

Here’s a news flash: Texas Gov. Rick Perry said some other things to college graduates besides declining an offer to have a building named after him at Texas A&M University.

Such as — he’s thinking about running for president of the United States of America.

That’s kind of a big deal, yes?

Perry spoke at the Texas A&M convocation. He told graduates the school from which he graduated shouldn’t name the Academic Building after him. Then he went on to say that he’s pondering another run for the White House.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-politics/2014/12/perry-teases-presidential-run-in-speech-to-aggies/#13219101=0

He ticked off his credentials as someone who governed a state with the world’s 13th-largest economy and oversaw a group of individuals who “bicker a lot,” referring to the Legislature.

He told the A&M grads he’ll be looking for a job in about 30 days, just as they will.

Is this a precursor to a presidential run? Yes, it sounds like it to me.

I hope he jumps in. I’ve already spoken out in favor of Mitt Romney getting back into the game. I’m inclined also to welcome Jeb Bush into the Republican presidential field.

Why not — to coin the late Molly Ivins’s term — Gov. Goodhair?

He’s got the look, the charisma, some governing experience and he’s developing a pretty good gift of gab.

Perry’s ideas about the role of government, though, don’t quite set well with some of us out here. He’s inclined to be anti-federal government, which is sort of an dubious stance for someone who wants to oversee it.

But what the heck. He gave us a few laughs the last time he ran for the White House in 2012. Maybe he’s got a few more gag lines up his sleeve the next time around.

Bring it, governor!

 

political news

'Officially exploring' means Jeb is in

1 Comment

Take this to the bank. It’s a lock. Done.

Jeb Bush is running for president of the United States in 2016.

Yes, another Bush is, um, beating the bushes for votes. He wants to become the third member of his immediate family to occupy the White House. George H.W. “Poppy” Bush served from 1989 until 1993; big bro George W. served from 2001 to 2009.

The Bush “brand” is well established, correct?

And what do the first two Bushes have in common? They presided over an economy that tanked.

It Poppy’s case, the economy cost him re-election in 1992. As for W, the “Great Recession” caused untold grief for millions of Americans who watched their retirement investments vanish into thin air.

OK, were either recessions the direct result of the men’s presidencies? As I’ve noted before, presidents don’t deserve all the blame when things go wrong any more than they deserve all the credit for when things go right.

But these events happened on their respective watches.

And that is the “brand” that Jeb will have to overcome.

Voters’ memories are long, you know?

But Jeb Bush has a record of his own as a former Florida governor. It’s a decent one at that. The state ran well under his governorship. And I do like his moderate stand on immigration reform, which is natural, given that he’s married to a Mexican woman.

He shouldn’t take too seriously the notion that a Republican moderate is doomed to lose the next election. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said as much. But hey, the Cruz Missile is considering a presidential run as well and no one with an ounce of sanity ever is going to suggest Cruz is a moderate on anything.

Bush is yet another old shoe set to run for president. The Democrats have their own in Hillary Rodham Clinton.

My own GOP preference remains Mitt Romney, who’s now sounding as though he, too, will start “actively exploring” a campaign of his own.

This will be fun to watch, yes?

 

national news, political news, State news

GOP field taking shape for 2016

 

You can now — it appears — count lame-duck Texas Gov. Rick Perry as an unofficially official candidate for president in 2016.

Oh, boy! This is going to be fun.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/rick-perry-2016-campaign-113210.html?ml=po

Perry is courting wealthy Texas political donors, holding out his hand, polishing his message, showing off his new self and getting ready to make yet another run for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

Politico reports he has some company among those looking for that Texas largesse. It consists of a fellow Texan, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and a former Texan whose family is well-known around here, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Frankly, the Perry-Cruz competition for the GOP nomination — if it materializes — could prove to be the most fascinating political drama I’ve ever seen. I’m not crazy about either of them. I’ll give credit where it’s due, though: Cruz muscled his way onto the national stage instantly after winning the Senate seat in 2012 while Perry has demonstrated — despite his sometimes prickly public persona — to be a powerful vote-getter in Texas.

The dance they’ll engage in will involve both of them trying to outflank each other on the right, where they’ve both staked out some sizable territory of their own already. One of them — or maybe both — might fall of the stage.

Despite what you might have read about Cruz’s relationship with the so-called “mainstream liberal media,” they love each other. Cruz loves the attention the media give him and the media love him because he is so damn quotable. Perry’s relationship with the Texas media has been rocky at times, particularly since his notable absence from any editorial board interviews during his 2010 campaign for re-election as governor. But he’s burnishing that part of his dossier now as well.

Then there’s Jeb. His last name counts for something in Texas, even if it isn’t worth squat anywhere else. He’s the son and brother of two former presidents, one of whom is held in increasingly high regard (that would be Poppy), the other is, well, still trying to reconstruct his legacy. Jeb Bush, though, is smooth, moderate (by comparison to Perry and Cruz), articulate and marketable among Latino Republicans, given that his wife is Latina and one of his sons, George P. Bush, is about to become Texas land commissioner.

Perry’s 2012 effort fell flat. He’s hoping for a different result this time around. As Politico reports: “’If Gov. Perry is going to run, he’s going to be better prepared, and he’s going to have the resources necessary to compete,’ said Henry Barbour, a Republican national committeeman who is helping plan for a Perry 2016 campaign and organizing next week’s donor sessions.”

So, here we go. Hold on. It’ll be fun … I hope.

 

 

political news, State news

GOP 'ground game' catches Democrats

Give credit where it most certainly is due.

The Texas Republican Party has developed what’s called a “ground game” that in this state more than rivals the Democratic efforts at getting voters to turn out.

The ground game has been credited with giving Greg Abbott an astounding victory in his campaign for governor over Wendy Davis.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/11/07/abbott-had-sophisticated-turnout-machine/

Are you understanding all of this, Texas Democrats?

As the Texas Tribune reports: “The Abbott campaign’s stealthy ground game started with a huge paid field operation, spread out across Texas and costing $5 million to $6 million. The team, aimed largely at identifying and motivating voters who infrequently participate in state elections, was almost 10 times larger than the one Gov. Rick Perry put together in his 2010 re-election campaign.”

That’s what all the money Abbott raised was able to buy him. He managed to put a lot of players on the field all across the state and worked them hard to turn out the vote in places where Democrats used to stand tall.

The Tribune piece attached to this post lays out it quite clearly. Texas Republicans have gotten the message delivered by national Democrats, particularly those who helped elect Barack Obama president twice. The president’s ground game, and his campaign’s masterful use of social media to put his message forward has paid huge dividends.

My sense now is that the 2016 campaign — which now is more or less officially under way — is going to be a lot more competitive than some of us figured it might have been.

National Republican campaign strategists can look to Texas to see how this game is played and how it is won.

It matters a lot, because as the saying goes: Texas is “like a whole other country.”

national news, political news

'Clean break' from Obama? Get real, Rick

Texas Gov. Rick Perry — along with many of those on the right — believe Barack Obama’s presidency has been a hallmark of failure.

I do believe they’ve been living in a parallel universe for the past six years.

Perry went to the Ronald Reagan Library in California and spoke of his desire to make a “clean break” from the Obama years. He is sounding more and more like someone who is considering a second run for the White House, in 2016. Perry said: “I believe that come 2016, if the American people are given that choice, they will be ready for a clean break from the Obama agenda or anything like it.”

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-politics/2014/10/perry-proposes-clean-break-from-obama-years/

A clean break, yes?

Let’s look back briefly:

* The economic stimulus package helped stop the free fall in the financial markets that was occurring when the president took office.

* The package saved the automobile industry and it ended the flood of home foreclosures.

* The economy is adding tens of thousands — even hundreds of thousands — of jobs each month, compared to the 700,000 jobs we were losing each month when Obama took office.

* The budget deficit — which Perry and others have decried — has been cut in half.

* Millions of Americans have health insurance for the first time in their lives.

* We continue to kill international terrorists every day.

* The U.S. is striking hard at Islamic State monsters, with the help of allies.

* The U.S. has led an economic crackdown on Russia over its intervention in Ukraine.

That’s a few things worth noting.

Yes, the past six years haven’t always gone smoothly. The health care rollout was rocky; Iraq hasn’t yet figured out how to defend itself after our departure from the battlefield; peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians keep getting derailed; Iran continues to work toward developing a nuclear weapon; the Syrian conflict has morphed into an international crisis.

Has there even been a time in any presidency where everything has gone perfectly? No.

The Obama years have produced their share of disappointments. I’m more than willing to concede that.

However, the so-called “mediocrity” that Perry decries is nowhere to be found.

We remain the strongest, most indispensable country on the planet. Americans are resilient and are proud — even in the midst of struggle.

 

local news

Courthouse building: opportunity or eyesore?

I ventured recently to Canyon, Texas to interview a West Texas A&M University professor on a project for Panhandle PBS.

And as I usually do when I venture to the Randall County seat, I drove briefly around the Courthouse Square.

There it was. The old 1909 Courthouse building. All dolled up. The yard was manicured. The clock tower was keeping time. The building was nice and shiny. The windows were clean.

Then I looked closely at the windows from my car and noticed the interior was dark. Still. Not a thing going on in there — that I could see.

I keep wondering: What is going to happen to that building?

Randall County vacated that structure years ago. Commissioners Court has moved across the street into what used to be the old county jail. Virtually the rest of the government structure has moved a few blocks east to the Justice Center, which once was home to a Wal-Mart.

County Judge Ernie Houdashell told me a few years ago he was trying to swing a deal. With whom, he didn’t say. He just would tell me that some folks are interested in moving into the building.

It’s also interesting that the Randall County website features the old courthouse structure on his home page.

http://www.randallcounty.org/

Houdashell is a wheeler and dealer par excellence. I wish him well in his search for a worthy tenant. I have a few guesses on who or what might move in there. The Canyon Economic Development Corp. comes to mind. So does Canyon City Hall. I once thought the Canyon Independent School District might be interested, then CISD built that new office complex at the north end of town.

It’s just a shame to see a building with a renovated exterior paid for with historical preservation grant funds and local tax money just sitting there. Empty. Waiting for someone to turn on the lights.

It’s too pretty a structure to remain vacant.

Uncategorized

'Perry vs. Cruz' enters new phase

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Whether the governor of Texas actually serves any jail time if he’s convicted of anything illegal remains an open question.

I doubt he’ll be eating jail food. I’m not even sure he’ll be convicted.

Rick Perry’s indictment for allegedly abusing the power of his office, however, does bring into question whether he’ll be able to challenge for the White House in 2016. Why, he’s not even the most popular Texas conservative thinking about running for the presidency.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/08/16/while-flirting-2016-perry-cruz-woo-same-groups/

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is the darling of the conservative movement these days, although Perry’s been making inroads with the Republican Party base. He deployed 1,000 National Guard troops to protect us against those children fleeing repression in Central America, which of course has the GOP faithful all fired up.

Texas GOP voters, though, seem to like Cruz’s fiery rhetoric. “As the Texas Tribune reports: Even before his recent legal troubles, Perry was already operating in Cruz’s shadow, as most conservative activists in attendance made clear they would rather see the freshman senator vie for the White House in two years than the three-term governor.”

The indictment issued in Travis County is resonating far beyond the Texas capital city. It gives the governor one more potential embarrassment that he must put behind him. His brief run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination ended badly in a series of missteps, misstatements, forgetfulness and downright weird behavior.

Now this.

Say this, though, for Cruz. He’s coming to his friend’s defense, issuing this statement: “Unfortunately, there has been a sad history of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office engaging in politically-motivated prosecutions, and this latest indictment of the governor is extremely questionable. Rick Perry is a friend, he’s a man of integrity – I am proud to stand with Rick Perry. The Texas Constitution gives the governor the power to veto legislation, and a criminal indictment predicated on the exercise of his constitutional authority is, on its face, highly suspect.”

That statement isn’t likely to improve Perry’s possible presidential campaign chances. Look for Cruz to ramp up the conservative rhetoric, hitting every GOP base hot button he can find, even at his “friend’s” expense.

Uncategorized

Oops … Gov. Perry indicted on coercion charges

A Texas grand jury has issued a two-count indictment that goes far beyond any definition of a run-of-the-mill accusation.

The Travis County panel today indicted Gov. Rick Perry on two counts of abuse of power relating to his threat to withhold money from a district attorney’s office if the DA didn’t resign.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/08/15/grand-jury-indicts-perry-abuse-authority/

One charge is of “abuse of official capacity,” the other is “coercion of a public servant.” The former is a Class A felony, the latter a Class C.

OK, I get that Perry is entitled to a presumption of innocence. Thus, he need not quit an office he is leaving voluntarily at the end of the year.

This, however, is a big political deal apart from the criminal justice aspect.

Perry got himself involved in the Travis County DA’s affairs after DA Rosemary Lehmberg was convicted of drunken driving. Perry threatened to veto money appropriated by the Legislature for Lehmberg’s office. Lehmberg also runs the state’s public integrity unit. Lehmberg is a Democrat; Perry is a Republican.

Perry wanted her moved out. Did he abuse his power to seek her ouster? The grand jury has issued an accusation, which I’m going to presume means the panel believes it has enough evidence to support an indictment.

Well, what does this mean for Perry’s believed desire to run for president in 2016? For my money, it delivers a near-mortal wound to whatever ambition he has for higher office. Whether this case gets adjudicated in time for the presidential campaign or not, the indictment becomes fodder that every Perry foe in both political parties will use to beat him senseless.

One final thought …

Let’s not accuse the grand jury of acting on political motives. The prosecutor in this case was a special counsel brought in to avoid any potential conflict of interest.

The political damage is evident. My hunch is that Gov. Perry also has a serious legal fight on his hands.

Uncategorized

Is HRC running for president? Ummm, yes

Gosh, I think I’m ready to bet the farm that Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to run for president in 2016.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/hillary-clinton-takes-president-barack-obama-109887.html?hp=t1

The former secretary of state, first lady and U.S. senator is now putting some serious distance between herself and President Barack Obama.

Why? It seems clear she is reading the president’s poll numbers and doesn’t want to be associated any more than need be to his foreign policy doctrine.

That’s enough — all by itself — to persuade me she’s in, or that she’ll declare her candidacy in due course.

I realize this isn’t a huge flash. Just about every political pundit this side of Arkansas has been predicting she would run. I always had this reservation about it, which stems from the harsh treatment she’s gotten from her foes and the hideous treatment she and her husband, the 42nd president, received when Bill Clinton was serving in the White House.

The sweeping interview attached to this blog post, however, sends an entirely different message.

She wants the big prize and is piecing together the building blocks of a doctrine on which she’ll run.

I will have to dismiss one notion contained in the Politico story, which is that Hillary Clinton “doesn’t have a polling operation.”

Uhhh, yes she does.

Uncategorized

Bush the Elder under the scope

I’ve been saying for years that in my humble view, George H.W. Bush arguably was the most qualified man ever to serve as president of the United States.

The man’s resume is astounding: naval aviator in World War II who was shot down and rescued from the Pacific Ocean; business executive; member of Congress from Texas; envoy to China; director of the CIA; United Nationals ambassador; chairman of the Republican National Committee; two terms as vice president of the United States.

President Bush served a single term in the White House. He lost re-election largely because conservatives turned on him because he felt it necessary to renege on his “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge made at the 1998 GOP convention in New Orleans.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/george-w-bush-book-109621.html?hp=t1

Now come a flurry of books on the 41st president. One of them is by his very own son, the 43rd president, George W. Bush. Another one, by journalist Jon Meacham, is in the works.

We shouldn’t expect W’s book to be an objective analysis. He’s writing about his father and as such he looks at Poppy with understandably affectionate eyes.

It’s worth reading, though, according to early reviews because George W. examines the complicated — but intensely loving — relationship between father and son.

President Bush 41 didn’t write a presidential memoir. He did publish a collection of letters and diary entries that tell the world a great deal about him. Some of which is his modesty and shyness.

That’s OK. Those of us who’ve followed his career know what he was able to accomplish in his long and distinguished life.

As the link attached to this blog notes, though, W’s book about his beloved father well might complicate the Republican presidential campaign lineup for 2016, correct, Jeb Bush? As Politico reports: “The timing of the book won’t be ideal for another Bush: former Florida Gov. Bush, who will have to decide around the release date whether to try to become the third Bush president. He’d be competing for attention with his brother’s book about his dad, and the whole setup might spark yet another round of speculation about the brothers’ rivalries.”

Whatever. I’m glad to see a good man honored by his son’s loving memory.