GOP Finds Its Voice
Election '12: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, addressing a New Orleans Republican conference Saturday, made defeating the president look close to effortless. All he did was recite his record and restate Reaganesque values.
In a single speech, Perry made all the hand-wringing and soul-searching among fellow members of his party in regard to the 2012 nomination look childish and self-absorbed.
There was no magic in what Perry said that spurred the crowd at last weekend's Republican Leadership Conference to erupt into chants of "Run, Rick, Run!" He just relied on straightforward common sense.
In his opening remarks, Perry even dared to apply economic conservative principles to the Hurricane Katrina disaster that destroyed much of the city in which he was speaking. Government has an important role in such catastrophes, he said, but real recovery comes from "individuals taking ownership and doing the hard work and making things happen."
Perry attacked President Obama head-on.
"Unfortunately, this administration in Washington that's in power now clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need, but it's the most qualified to make essential decisions for every American in every area," he said.
"That mix of arrogance and audacity that guides the Obama administration is an affront to every freedom-loving American and a threat to every private sector job in this country."
Tying his message in with the Tea Party movement, Perry declared that "the liberty that inspired our fledgling nation to throw off the chains of oppression" is "being constricted daily by new regulations, obligations that seek to empower government, not the people."
As a result, "we now live in this strange inversion of our founding fathers' vision in which government of the people, by the people, for the people is little more than this outdated notion not very welcome in today's Washington.
"Instead, we have these so-called leaders who ramrod unread health care legislation through the system without revealing the true cost or admitting it will ultimately make the federal government the sole arbitrator and administrator of health care."
Then he turned to his own record. He boasted of Texas' "unmatched job creation" in which the state takes credit for "47.8% of all jobs created in America in the last two years."
The recipe for that success is not complicated.
"I've distilled my economic agenda to what I consider to be some pretty simple guiding principles," Perry said. "Number one is don't spend all the money. Number two is keep the taxes low and under control. Three is have regulations that are fair and predictable so that business owners know what to expect from one quarter to the next.
"And number four is reform the legal system so that frivolous lawsuits don't paralyze employers that are trying to create real wealth."
Perry said that "over the last 10 years we have followed that simple recipe. We've stopped lawsuit abuse. We have one of the lowest tax burdens in the nation. Our per-capita debt is limited. And we keep adding jobs when others are losing them left and right. Those jobs flee other states because of factors like excessive taxation, punitive regulation, frivolous lawsuits."
With all that, Perry also boasted of "$6 billion in a rainy-day fund." And taunted Washington that Texas doesn't have foreign creditors to depend on.
"Our party cannot be all things to all people and our loudest opponents on the left are never going to like us, so let's stop trying to curry favor with them."
With Perry making it look so easy, Republicans already running for president may be asked why they haven't been delivering a message this simple and compelling.