Above Ground Pool

comments on Rick Perry to my inlaws

I was married back in February [an absolutely wonderful girl] and I have not yet really had the chance to meet my new inlaws. They are coming down in a month or so for our formal wedding celebration and reception but we've not met face-to-face.

Last week my beloved forwarded me an email from her folks, wondering what we thought about Texas Governor Rick Perry as a candidate for President. Here's what I wrote:

Hi there,

[Lovely Bride] passed this on to me and asked what I thought. Ok, here goes -

The informed rumors are that Perry announces his run for the Presidency this Saturday. [He did.]

Other than his hair, which is always too perfect (always!), I like the guy. He's not perfect but he's good, and he (so far) tends to say what he thinks without beating around the bush.

He truly believes in the 10th Amendment and that the Feds have overstepped their Const bounds far too long. He's been an able manager, has been reelected more times as Gov. than any other in Texas history, and has overseen a healthy Texas economy - job growth, balanced state budgets, no state income tax etc while the economy collapses in the rest of the country. He understands that successful businesses, not government, are the key to prosperity and happiness.

No, he's not perfect - he's a politician at his core (in Texas politics, cronyism is a reality). But he's our guy, a graduate of Texas A&M, a solid small govt conservative with good libertarian instincts, and he's probably more electable than any of the other Republican candidates.

He took a lot of flack from conservatives a few weeks ago when he said he was ok with New York legalizing gay marriage. This is his 10th Amendment leanings coming to the surface - He didn't say he personally supported gay marriage, he said New Yorkers could decide to do that and he was fine with it. His handlers later back-pedaled a bit on this but I think he was being honest in his views.

We could (and have) done a LOT worse than someone like Perry. I just don't believe Romney has the strong gut instincts to do what is going to be necessary (seems too concerned with which way the wind blows), Pawlenty just doesn't seem to have any momentum and Bachman is too polarizing (she is playing an important role however).

My biggest fear is that we lose him as governor and then we're going to have to find someone else to lead us into secession (half joking).

So there you have it in a nutshell - Perry good, despite his flaws.

Chuck

And then I remembered something else and sent them a follow-up email:

Oh, and one more thing. One morning last year, while on an outing in the hills of Austin (newspapers said it was a jog), Perry personally shot and killed a rabid coyote which was threatening him and his daughter's dog. The pistol was a small Ruger LCP .380 auto. In honor of this event, Ruger sold a limited number of specially engraved "Coyote Specials" with a howling coyote and the Texas lone star laser-engraved on the slide. I have one. What's not to like?

They wrote back and said thanks for the info and her mom even said she wanted to see the pistol ["Really???", asked my Bride]. It was then I thought to ask if her parents were Democrats. Probably should've known that going in I suppose.

Labels: 10th Amendment, Inlaws, Perry, Pistols

posted by Chuck in Houston @ 1:42 PM