Here Are 9 Things GOP Presidential Frontrunner Rick Perry Believes


rick perry iowa state fair

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is storming Iowa this week as his nascent 2012 presidential campaign launches into high gear.

The Texan kickstarted his Hawkeye State sweep Sunday, upstaging Ames Straw Poll winner Michele Bachmann at the Black Hawk County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner. If the test of a true presidential candidate is the ability to sit through an Abraham Lincoln impersonator in Waterloo's Electric Park Ballroom, Perry passed with flying colors and the Minnesota Congresswoman flailed miserably.

Though Perry's warm reception in Iowa is a clear warning shot to Bachmann and her fellow GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, his three-day old campaign is still playing catch-up to candidates who have spent the last several months on the campaign trail.

For clues on how the Texas Republican might distinguish himself from the rest of the 2012 GOP presidential field, we took a look at Fed Up!, the Texas governor's 2010 treatise against big government. Here are some of the themes you can expect to see repackaged as talking points for Perry's presidential platform.

The 10th Amendment.

You've probably heard this before, but Rick Perry is all about the Tenth Amendment, which lays out the principle of federalism in the U.S. Constitution.

To refresh your memory, here's what the amendment says:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Fed Up! is basically a manifesto on the primacy of the 10th Amendment. In his author's note, Perry writes that the amendment is "under assault," resulting in an "unprecedented federal intrusion" into the lives of every day citizens. The book is also a kind of 10th Amendment fund-raiser — net proceeds from sales of Fed Up! are donated to the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Tenth Amendment Studies.

Perry's 10th Amendment orthodoxy — which hits a chord with small-government conservatives — has already emerged as a core tenet of his 2012 campaign platform. When GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum attacked Perry Sunday night for saying same-sex marriage and abortion should be left up to the states, Perry fired back:

"It’s one of the places where Rick and I do disagree. I do believe in the 10th Amendment.”

At the same time, Perry has started walking back from some of his more controversial 10th Amendment positions, recently stressing his support for constitutional amendments banning gay marriage and abortion.

(h/t RCP)

Broken Washington Politics.

The central argument of Fed Up! is that the federal government's consolidation of power is threatening American values and way of life.

Specifically, Perry writes that Americans are fed up with:

  • Bailouts
  • Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
  • The Department of Homeland Security
  • Congressional earmarks
  • Obamacare
  • "Activist judges" (particularly those who decide "when life begins and where the 10 Commandments can be displayed)
  • Social Security and Medicare
  • And a "federal government with the "chutzpah to haul every baseball player and other "evildoer" in the world before a congressional committee — or some comic such as Stephen Colbert."

This apparently unwavering commitment to limited federal government is increasingly appealing to conservative voters, even beyond the Tea Party set. As a result, expect Perry to hammer his anti-Washington message without reservation on the campaign trail.

American Exceptionalism

Fed Up! is predicated on the concept of American exceptionalism, and Perry dedicates several pages to outlining why America is "unique in its greatness." Specifically, Perry touts U.S. military and economic accomplishments, American entrepreneurialism, and the U.S. healthcare system.

He goes on to criticize President Barack Obama for his 2009 remark that he believes "in American exceptionalism, just as Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

The Perry campaign has hinted that his 2012 foreign policy platform will reprise these attacks on Obama and emphasize the concept of American greatness. In a brochure sent to top Perry donors Saturday, his national finance director wrote that "Rick Perry believes in American exceptionalism, and rejects the notion our president should apologize for our country."

(h/t NYT)

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/i8DxAVi44kQ/rick-perry-campaign-talking-points-2011-8

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