Palin’s Pressure on Perry

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Writing about yesterday’s Sarah Palin rally in Iowa, I mentioned the theory that “Palin may enter the 2012 field because of her dissatisfaction with Perry’s campaign.” I resisted the temptation to examine the theory at length, because I wanted to discuss something I’d seen earlier — Dan Riehl’s discussion of the Palin-Perry issue:

For her part, Palin may factor in Perry’s standing in her own decision-making process. . . .
If she opts to run, it will be because she hasn’t heard what she believes she needs to in the upcoming debates, and/or doesn’t trust Perry to bear the standard.

Read the whole thing, because Dan has put his finger directly on something I had previously remarked in passing: Palin has specified September as her deadline for making a decision, and there are three debates in September — Wednesday at the Reagan Library in California, Sept. 12 in Tampa and Sept. 22 in Orlando. If Perry underperforms in those debates, Palin may see the front-runner’s weakness as an invitation to enter the race.

Did I say “weakness”? This morning at breakfast with Da Tech Guy, I picked up the Boston Herald and saw this Associated Press article:

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — He may have been 2,000 miles from the border, but Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry’s immigration record in Texas quickly became the focus in New Hampshire Saturday afternoon.
Speaking to hundreds of Granite State voters at a private reception, the Texas governor was asked whether he supported a fence along the Mexican border.
“No, I don’t support a fence on the border,” he said, while referring to the long border in Texas alone. “The fact is, it’s 1,200 miles from Brownsville to El Paso. Two things: How long you think it would take to build that? And then if you build a 30-foot wall from El Paso to Brownsville, the 35-foot ladder business gets real good.”
Instead, Perry said he supported “strategic fencing” and National Guard troops to prevent illegal immigration and violence from Mexican drug cartels.

Make of that what you will. But according to the article, some Tea Party activists in New Hampshire didn’t like Perry’s answer.

By the time you read this, Da Tech Guy and I will be in New Hampshire, where Mitt Romney’s appearance at a 6 p.m. Tea Party Express rally in Concord is expected to draw a big crowd, including many angry Tea Party protesters.


41 comments

  1. While I realize the political ramifications Perry’s “immigration record” — like the constitutionally weak Governor has anything to do with that really — his answer is in a long line with Texans in the majority anyway.  Fencing the whole thing would be a waste of time as anyone who has been along a lot of the border would know.

    Perry has no option but to tell the truth or lie and tell New Hampshire Yankees what they want to hear because in a state which I can walk my fat ass across in half a day they have no conception of the distances involved in “fencing Texas”.  If the feds would patrol the natural fence (a little somethin’ somethin’ called the Rio Grande) then there would be no issue.

    I’m all for Palin pushing Perry — they all need to be pushed and tested and they will.  However, I’m no Perry sycophant.  I love Palin (it’s appropriate I swear!), but her song and dance is getting a bit old.  I agree with almost everything she says… I still think she’s toxic (to the shame of the nation) and not quite ready for prime time (which is NOT saying she’s stupid — she’s very smart).

    And as always… whichever one emerges out of the GOP Primaries will get my time, my money, and my vote — enthusiastically.  The worst of the lot is light years better than the current Chickensh-t in Chief.

  2. I like the way this campaign is shaking out, as long as it leaves Mitt Romneycare behind. Even when the Democrat is someone I can’t wait to vote against, I want the choice for Republican nominee to be among candidates I could actually vote for.

    That way I don’t have to worry that most people voting won’t share my disgust with the Democrat, and will re-elect him like they did in 1996.

  3. They can build Interstate 10 roughly 900 miles from El Paso to the Louisiana border, but they can’t build a fence a third of that again from El Paso to the Gulf? Yes, Rick, civil engineering is really hard.

  5. the current Chickensh-t in Chief.

    So who was previous “Chickensh-t in Chief” of USA? George W. Bush. Who will be the next “Chickensh-t in Chief”? Sarah Palin or Rick Perry or Mitt Romney or Obama (ver. 2.0)?

    I totally understand your deep rooted hatred of  Obama, but please don’t let  that turn into a hatred of your country.

  6. Machine gun towers and predator drones sound pretty good also. Land-mines and razor wire.  Also, no social services for illegals. Cut the support cord and they will go home.  Oh, and prison sentences for any employer hiring illegals.

  7. What about businesses that hire foriegners (mainly students with non-immigrant visa) who are in the country legally  but do not have a work permit?  They generally get paid by cash and less than the minimum wage. What about that?  Shouldn’t they be deported too and the poor small business owners arrested?  Don’t you think that’s a bit apathetic?

  8. Fences work well in the high traffic areas – San Diego is a great example of fencing success – precisely because they force the traffic into more narrow corridors.  El Paso would be another area that screams out for fencing.

    But along hundreds of miles of rural borders, it just costs billions without being effective.  Too easy to breach in any number of ways – over, under, or through.  To properly defend deserted fencing would require as many agents as to defend the same territory without a fence, so what’s the point?

    It’s one of ideas that sounds great at first but takes only a little thought to see through.  Some prefer not to think at all, though – seems to give them headaches.

    So on this specific issue, kudos to Perry for telling the truth and refusing to pander to the zoo.

  9. What about states like Texas with Governors like Perry that give college aid to indocumentados?  That’ll keep ’em out…

  10. Tsk tsk, Anamika, tsk tsk!

    There’s no evidence in the above post that Threedonia hates America. 

    Nor is Threedonia expressing a new opinion about any “current Chickensh-t in Chief”; not a few conservatives are as unhappy with Dubya as you are.

    No, Threedonia is merely expressing frustration (and I may be understanding matters) with the actions of Obama as they damage America (whether by intent or incompetence is a entirely different subject). 

    One can argue that a measure of a President’s success in office is by how little damage they cause during their term.  In this context, Bush 43 was likely a better President than the current Chickensh-t in Chief in most ways.  How much better is a matter of considerable debate, and not a point of this discussion.  I simply point out the possibility as a counter point to your deliberate obtuseness and palpable hatred. 

    Tsk tsk, Anamika, tsk tsk!

  11. There’s no evidence in the above post that Threedonia hates America.

    Then he should have said “the chickensh-t who happens to be the current Commander-in-Chief.” Or some such.

    By using the words he did–blinded by his partisanship and hatred of Dem Pres/Obama–he was simply dishonoring the office of the President of America.

  13. See, I get what Perry is saying here.  I even sorta agree.

    The problem is that I get the vibe that homeboy kinda isn’t serious about the other parts of the immigration issue, like oh, giving in-state tuition rates to out-of-citizenship illegals or making it harder for just any old douchebag to play whoopsie-daisy and ‘accidentally’ overstay his tourist visa for the rest of his life. 

    That’s why Perry makes me awfully nervous on immigration.  You want to talk about the difficulties of enforcing a massive thousand mile plus border fence?  Fine.  You make a good point.  But a fence and the requisite manpower to enforce it would send a strong signal that America was finally getting serious about controlling it’s borders–which is in the top five things that the federal gubmint should be doing.

  14. Tsk tsk, Anamika, tsk tsk!

    Your lack of reading comprehension shows quite clearly.  Read the last sentence in Dandapani’s comment. 

    Tsk tsk, Anamika, tsk tsk!

  16. The rest of us are sentient enough to understand that Threedonia’s reference is specific to president zero not the office he currently soils.

  17. Actually I liked the idea of enlisting alligators, can they be trained?
    Alas I suspect PETA would be all over that.

  20. Twin razor wire fences with a dead zone in between patrolled by dogs would do a bang up job, and one border patrol agent could monitor several miles of fence.

  21. The office has already been dishonored by the ass-hat currently holding it. Nobody who has previously held the office has dishonored it as much as he, with the arguable exception of James Buchanan. And that’s saying something. Not even Blow Job Billy dishonored the office as much as Barak Hussein Obama.

  22. Another thing that makes such a fence inappropriate as well as impractical is the fact that by necessity it would result in hundreds, maybe thousands of acres of farmland being separated over to the Mexican side of the fence, making them all but worthless to the current owners.

    They need to repeal Posse Comitatus and militarize the damn border. Failing that, they should hire retiring military personnel to man the borders under the auspices of ICE, and put enough there to solve the problem, with orders to shoot those who purposely try to elude the authorities, or who attack them.

  25. In Arizona that land is worthless now, the ranchers and farmers can’t safely work it.  It’s OK, though, Obama put up signs.

  26. Agree 100% King.  Perry is too loosey-goosey on immigration.  Reeks of McCan’t approach last go around.

    [blockquote]In a 2007 Vanity Fair interview, McCain said, “I think the fence is least effective. But I’ll build the g..damned fence if they want it.”[blockquote]

    Not sincere at all.  Build a fence.  Patrol it.

  29. The fence also slows egress, motion sensitive lights and alarms can be mounted on the posts. However there are areas where the fence would run along the edge of a road easement entailing many gates at the entrances to private property. So there are segments of the border where fencing would be inappropriate.

  30. Tell the Israeli’s our theories about fences.  They build them because they know they work.  They are building one right now the length of the Israeli-Egyptian border. Due to be finished in 2012.

  31. JD777, measure the length of the Israeli border. Measure the length of ours. Now factor in that the Israelis have the advantage of interior position, as in they can dispatch quick reaction forces in a fraction of the time it will take us. At that, Perry has set up QRF’s with the TX Rangers along the border already. 

    I really wish some of ya’ll would take a course in elementary tactics and another in basic map reading.

  32. The point of a fence, or other such thing is to slow people down.  An undefended fence is granted, useless.  But a defended fence makes it easier to capture the criminals.

    And somehow (ok, with slave labor and dead peasants) the Chinese managed to build the Great Wall which is not a ravine backed up by buried edge fencing, and razor wire.  A stone wall is a LOT  more expensive.

    This is not remotely a difficult problem to solve if we really want to.

  34. A mere fence won’t work.  It has been tried and failed despite the many advocates who try to say different.  Speaking of El Paso, where I resided for two decades, there IS a fence which is regularly breached by those wishing to cross.  The only thing that held down unauthorized crossings was Operation Hold-the-Line instituted by then Border Patrol sector chief Sylvestre Reyes which was manpower intensive.

    In this instance Perry understands the situation on the ground unlike those who have never been there.

  35. That might be true, but the problem is the minute a fence is put up they’ll say “well now that we have a fence we don’t need as many agents on the border as we used to need”. And since we don’t even have enough there now (even if the fence was already there), there would be even less. Just put the needed people down there with everything they need. For every good point about having a wall there’s a legitimate point against it. For example, it would obstruct the vision of agents more than it would hinder illegals from crossing over.

  36. maybe you should have reviewed the facts that gateway pundit brought to light about the response to Gov Perry’s actual words.   FYI he is now leading by 10 points in Iowa.   This silly focus on the attention seeking palin is ridiculous.   I hope she jumps in when she loses as she will in the primary will her 3rd strike & she can go home.   Oh, it will be Herman’s 3rd strike too won’t it (or is it 4th).

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