Rick Perry Thinks America Desires Another Rigid, Anti-Science, Idealogue Governor From The Great State of Big Oil By Joe Romm on Aug 12, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Perry on why he split with Al Gore over climate (12/09): “ I certainly got religion. I think he’s gone to hell.”
Rick Perry, Obama’s dream opponent, is a climate hawk’s nightmare.
First the dream. It is a mark of how weak the Republican field is that Perry, a candidate who is so ill-suited for beating Barack Obama, is viewed as a savior for the party.
The key point about the 2012 election are that Obama is eminently beatable because he is dreadful at messaging, has a poor economy, and is in an unpopular war with meaningful casualties. The latter two factors are key in the “Bread and Peace” model by political scientist Douglas Hibbs (via Salon)
I’m not saying this simplistic model is determinative, only that anyone who thinks Obama is a lock for reelection isn’t paying attention.
What Obama most needs is opponent who gives him an obvious storyline even his team of dreadful communicators can’t screw up. Romney the job-killing flip-flopper certainly does.
But what Obama most wants to do is run as the future versus the past (since the present ain’t hot for him) and to tie his opponent to the increasingly unpopular Tea Party extremists whom independents correctly blame for the debt ceiling debacle.
Perry is, ironically, the worst of both possible worlds for the GOP. He is easily cast as “George W. Bush The Sequel” because that is what he is: A Rigid, Anti-Science, Ideologue Governor From The Great State of Big Oil. And indeed he is a Tea Party darling for his extremist, wacky statements, such as his talk of Texas secession (for more, see TP’s Top 10 Things Texas Gov. Rick Perry Doesn’t Want You To Know About Him).
Remember, to win (lose?) in 2000, Bush himself ran originally as a faux caring, moderate “compassionate” conservative, who advocated in public spending on education and regulating greenhouse gases. Sure he was religious, but he had a classic story to tell, the reformed or saved wastrel. But Perry has no such story, he is just the hardcore zealot Bush turned into — on steroids (see, for instance, Prayer as an adaptation strategy: Texas plans to cut budget of agency battling record wildfires). Indeed even moderate Republicans like Joe Scarborough mock him (see TP’s Scarborough Mocks Perry: Jesus Said To ‘Let People Take Images Of You Praying So They’ll Think You’re A Holy Man).
If Obama wants to run a story line that his opponent represents the past, the policies that put us in this “mess from Texas,” Perry is from central casting.
Don’t get me wrong. Obama could lose to Perry, much as he could lose to Romney — but I don’t think they will unless the economy gets worse.
For climate hawks, Perry is a nightmare.
Once Gore’s presidential Texas campaign chair (in 1988), he now says global warming is “all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight. He even “ Prays for the EPA to Stop Environmental Regulations.”
As the Politico reports:
Rick Perry’s likely entry into the GOP presidential race comes without the green skeletons many of his rivals have tried to shed.
Unlike Mitt Romney, the Texas governor doesn’t believe in global warming science. And unlike Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman, there are no viral ads of Perry touting the virtues of bipartisanship as a solution to climate change….
Texas under Perry’s watch has also become a thorn in the side of the Obama EPA, with the governor often accusing the administration of unfairly targeting the Lone Star State for political purposes.
Perry’s Texas is a lead challenger to the EPA’s “endangerment” finding that declares carbon dioxide emissions a public health threat, setting the stage for regulations. And last month, Perry lashed out against the EPA for including Texas in a rule aimed at blocking power plant pollution from drifting across state lines, calling it “another example of heavy-handed and misguided action from Washington, D.C.”
… “With a Texan in the race, EPA is going to be right in the middle of the show,” said Mike McKenna, a GOP-based energy strategist.
Obama has been lackluster in his EPA. Against Perry, he’d actually have to stand up for clean air, clean water, and a livable climate. Hmm. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
While Perry says Gore has gone to hell because of climate change, the state with the hellish climate is, ironically, Texas. As Grist notes:
But plugging your ears and going “la la la la” doesn’t make global warming disappear. Perry’s state is getting absolutely hammered by heat and the worst one-year drought in its recorded history. The hot, dry weather in Texas is desiccating rivers and lakes, devastating farmers and ranchers, and driving wildfires that have burned up millions of acres. In the face of these crises — which are just what you’d expect in a climate-changed world — Perry proposes neither adaptation nor mitigation but rather supplication. He’s been praying for rain and calling on other Texans to do the same. So far no luck….
As a Texas Republican, Perry is, of course, a friend of the oil and gas industry. He even stuck by BP during the Gulf of Mexico gusher, saying the well blowout was “ an act of God” and insisting that he had “ full confidence” in the company’s response.
Perry has cozied up to the oil-baron Koch brothers. In June, he flew off secretly to Colorado to speak at an exclusive closed-door meeting convened by the Kochs — even as his state was suffering through some of the worst wildfires in its history. In 2010, the Koch Industries’ PAC gave $50,000 to the Texans for Rick Perry PAC.
Perry is big fan of coal too. He tried to speed up approvals and smooth the way for a number of controversial coal-fired power plants proposed for Texas in the mid-00s.
Yes, Texas has pushed wind. But if you want to know the energy future of the U.S. under Rick Perry, you need only look at the eight previous years before Obama took office.
thinkprogress.org |
