Sounds like Texas Gov. Rick Perry might be taking history lessons from the State Board of Education — you know, the panel that adopted heavily politicized and distorted social studies curriculum standards two years ago.
During a post-debate gathering at a Dartmouth frat party (seriously) last night, someone asked Gov. Perry about states’ rights. His response:
“Our Founding Fathers never meant for Washington, D.C. to be the fount of all wisdom. As a matter of fact they were very much afraid of that because they’d just had this experience with this far-away government that had centralized thought process and planning and what have you, and then it was actually the reason that we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown if you will.”
Good grief. The governor who so claims to revere the nation’s founders and the Constitution was off by two centuries — the American Revolution happened in the 18th century. (And never mind the governor’s dizzy comment about “centralized thought process.” He seems to have confused the Declaration of Independence with 1984 — yet another two centuries away.)
Gov. Perry’s history failure has sparked a Twitter storm of other suggested “facts” he might want to study — #PerryHistory. One of our favorites:
For about a week Bloomberg advertised the debate last evening as focusing 100% on the ecomomy. And Perry showed up without an economic plan. Nice job Rick! Our Founding Fathers Martin Van Buren and Harry Truman would be proud of you.
Ann Richards famously said of the elder George Bush that he was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. Rick Perry, on the other hand, was only born on second base but thought he hit a first down.
Oh, like none of yous ain’t never made no misteak? Dang, it’s only a couple of hundred years he was off. Y’know, being in debate can be quite stressful. After all, once you put debate on dehook you have to get defish and dehook it again. That can wear a fella out, y’know? Or as we like to say in Texas, he hit that one out of the cemetery.
Dear God in heaven, it was bad enough you took our wonderful Ms. Ann away from us, but to take Molly Ivins too? I don’t mean to complain, what they thought was an earthquake was just Molly trying to get back so she could cover Ricky’s run. Oh how she would have loved that. She was only 62 when she was taken from us; we need a Molly Jr. about now, but nobody could do what she could do with this as well as the real deal.
Governor Ann, Ms. Molly, gosh how we miss you.
Although I cringe at the thought of a Rick Perry presidency, this is really a no issue in my mind. Speaking off the cuff in the heat of a trying campaign offers numerous opportunities for gaffs, as witnessed by Obama’s fifty-seven state comment after a long day of travel and speeches. The humor is observing the silence from the right wing talking heads over Perry’s miscue, while they were apoplectic with Obama. Oh well! Politics!
Maybe he was referring to the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. Could he mean parliamentary limits on the king’s power? Or which religion should rule the land? Well, given his supporters, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the latter.
Who needs facts when you’ve got all that money? Greenback bandaids to cover those mist aches.
Folks. Take my word for it. I have seen this movie before when Fred Thompson was running for President a few years back. His heart was not in it, and his body language spoke it in volumes. I saw Perry tonight (long after last night’s debate) and witnessed that exact same body language. He may have liked the IDEA of being President in August. However, his heart is not in it now. In fact, I suspect he wants out as quickly as possible and is just biding his time to find a graceful and politically harmless exit.
If TFN and Texas newspapers would give him a big hug and make a pledge not to be nasty to him about leaving—he would be out the door tomorrow. Betcha!!!
Could be that you’re right james, however I personally think Rick Perry probably never heard of the English Civil War, Cavaliers or Roundheads. Since the man is a creationist and chooses to see what he believes rather than believing what he sees with regards to science, I seriously question whether a topic like that ever spent more than a few seconds whizzing around in that Aggie head before promptly being forgotten forever.Lord Dartmouth would have been appalled.
Will Dallas