And to the campaign trail, where Rick Perry has burst on to the scene and has been causing quite a stir.
He entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination just five days ago, but already Texas Gov. Rick Perry is making waves. On Monday, in Iowa, he went after Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, with an ominous warning against any expansion of the money supply.
I mean, printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous -- or treasonous, in my opinion.
Since June of 2009 -- you know, Texas is about eight percent of the population of America total, but 40 percent of all the new jobs created in the United States were in the state of Texas.
Dave Mann, executive editor of the Texas Observer, also said Perry’s first days on the trail haven't been out-of character, considering that “he’s made some rather outlandish comments in the past to get his point across.”
“Even if the Bernanke line was a slip up, the Perry people won't back down,” Mann continued, referring to Tuesday’s suggestion that Fed Chair Ben Bernanke could be almost guilty of treason. “They're not going to apologize or show weakness. Of all the potentially controversial things Perry's said and done over the years, I can remember only one real apology -- when he said 'Adios, Mofo' to a Houston television reporter.”
The “Mofo” comment notwithstanding, Mann and several Texas reporters told The Huffington Post that Perry doesn't have a hostile relationship with the press. He’ll give interviews on the campaign trail, but usually doesn't take a lot of impromptu questions at events and surely won't gab with reporters like John McCain on the old “Straight Talk Express."
However, Perry's made a point of ignoring at least one segment of the Texas media.
R.G Ratcliffe, a reporter who’s covered Perry for the Houston Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman, and is currently working on a biography of the governor, said “his relationship with reporters is better than his relationship with editorial boards.”
Perry didn’t lose sleep when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) racked up newspaper endorsements during their 2010 gubernatorial primary fight. The joke in Perry’s camp, according to Ratcliffe, was that they should give the Hutchinson campaign money to keep running a television ad boasting about support from editorial pages across the Lone Star state.
However, Perry did speak at a Dallas meeting of the National Conference of Editorial Writers last September -- an appearance that didn't help his relationship with editorial boards.
Colleen McCain Nelson, an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, recalled that Perry flouted the ground rules that he’d take questions after addressing the crowd. She said it wasn’t because he appeared to be in any sort of rush, either. “When it came time to take questions,” she said, “he left and posed for pictures in the hall, like he had all the time in the world.”
NCEW president Tom Waseleski, in a letter to Perry, said he was “stunned and disappointed” the governor left without taking questions. “If you had hoped to make a positive impression on this national press group,” he concluded, “I must tell you that you utterly failed.”
WILL THE 2010 STRATEGY WORK IN 2012?
Despite angering some editorial writers -- and taking heat in the press for breaking tradition and not debating his Democratic challenger -- Perry handily won re-election in 2010. Still, Perry's campaign may tinker with the Texas strategy when politically advantageous, such as competing for influential endorsements in close-fought state primary fights.
“I would be stunned if Rick Perry does not go to the Union Leader or the Des Moines Register if they want to do an editorial board meeting,” said R.G. Ratcliffe, referring to the most influential newspapers in early voting states New Hampshire and Iowa.
A Perry spokesman, reached by email, did not offer a comment about the candidate’s plans. But there are already some signs he may be more receptive than he was in the past. In June, Perry reportedly met with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, an indication that he was already thinking nationally months ago. (A Wall Street Journal spokesman declined to comment.)
Republican strategist Mark McKinnon, who wrote about Perry's success despite shunning the media in 2010, said he doesn’t expect the now-presidential candidate to alter his Texas media strategy. I think Perry will incorporate lessons he's learned from recent elections,” McKinnon wrote in an email. “And bypassing the mainstream print media editorial boards will likely be on the list.”
But Randy Evans, editorial page editor for the Des Moines Register, said he hopes Perry considers meeting with the editorial board before the caucuses.
“At a certain point, whether he likes the Des Moines Register or not, or whether he likes the media or not, there’s this whole business of Iowans and readers and that sort of thing, where you’d hope he’d see the value in engaging in that kind of discussion,” Evans said.
All the top Democratic and Republican contenders met with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board prior to the 2008 caucuses, according to Evans, although Sen. John McCain -- who got the Republican endorsement -- only stopped by in September 2007.
Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid said in an email that the paper doesn’t have an editorial board, but said “we do try to meet with all the candidates and like to have interview-stories on each but there is no set calendar for that.
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