Republican Run Gains Focus as Pawlenty Says Goodbye

Waterloo, Iowa— Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in his first visit to Iowa since announcing his presidential bid, said on Sunday that he felt compelled to run because no one in the Republican field had caught fire with the public.

“This wasn’t something I felt compelled to do six months ago or even three months ago,” Perry said. He was hopeful that “one of the people in our group would explode out and take off and everybody in American could get behind them. That hasn’t happened. My wife basically said, ‘Listen, our country is in trouble and you need to do your duty.’ And that was a pretty clarion call for me.”

Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) will be speaking tonight at a fundraiser for the Black Hawk County GOP. Perry was mobbed as soon as he entered the historic Electric Ballroom. He high-fived a boy wearing an “Americans for Rick Perry” T-shirt, kissed a 100-year-old woman’s cheek and discussed rain totals with farmers.

When one man called him “Mr. President,” Perry replied, “Hey listen, I got a whole lot of asking to do before anything happens out here in Iowa.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty brought clarity to the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, leaving social conservatives Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry as the main challengers to front-runner Mitt Romney.

Mr. Perry, who is the governor of Texas, immediately presented himself as a threat to Mr. Romney in his stronghold of New Hampshire, where the former Massachusetts governor owns a home and leads in state polls. Mr. Perry campaigned there Saturday and Sunday.

Later on Sunday, Mr. Perry moved to make incursions into the home turf of Mrs. Bachmann, a three-term congresswoman from Minnesota. He stormed into Mrs. Bachmann's native town of Waterloo, Iowa, the state that will hold the nation's first nominating contest early next year, going table to table, shaking hands and hugging guests at a packed GOP dinner as loudspeakers boomed the tune, "Deep In The Heart of Texas."

Other candidates have entered with their own media boomlets, only to slip away without seriously challenging Mr. Romney's position as the leading candidate for the GOP nomination. Expectations are high for Mr. Perry, but he is untested outside of Texas.

"If Perry can execute a good launch in the first 30 days and survive the initial onslaught, he has a very good shot at the nomination," said Phil Musser, top political strategist for the now-defunct Pawlenty campaign. "These first 30 days will be make or break."

In Waterloo Sunday night, Mr. Perry told of his upbringing as a farm boy and his years as an Air Force pilot in a speech punctuated by loud applause. He promised, if elected, to slash spending, taxes and federal regulations. He said he would veto spending bills "till the ink runs dry if that's what it takes."

Local advertising executive Jim Mudd, who sat next to Mr. Perry over dinner, came away impressed. "I think Perry is a winner," he said. "Everything he says is in keeping with what we believe in the Republican Party."

Mrs. Bachmann's straw poll victory over runner-up Ron Paul established her as the front-runner in Iowa, but it was Mr. Pawlenty's third-place finish that had the most meaning.

Romney aides are hoping the contest develops into a slugging match between Mrs. Bachmann and Mr. Perry for the most conservative voters, just as the fight between Mrs. Bachmann and Mr. Pawlenty dispatched Mr. Pawlenty while leaving Mr. Romney unscathed. On Sunday evening here, Mr. Santorum excoriated Mr. Perry's position that he would respect New York State's right to approve gay marriage, saying "states cannot do whatever they want to do." Conservatives have also questioned Mr. Perry's executive order mandating the vaccination of 11-year-old girls against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, a move that was overturned by the Texas legislature.

Mr. Romney, who ran a private-equity firm before winning office in Massachusetts, will paint the Texan as a career politician while casting himself as the only major candidate with extensive private-sector experience. And while Romney aides say their candidate will contest Iowa, other strategists here see more reason for him to pull back and let the Minnesotan and the Texan battle it out.

That dynamic could play elsewhere, as well. If Mrs. Bachmann and Mr. Perry split the evangelical Christian vote in South Carolina, Mr. Romney could have an easier chance to win there. If the same thing happens in the panhandle of Florida, Mr. Romney could focus on the swing areas of South Florida and the area between Tampa and Orlando.

Mr. Perry made it clear he will contest all the early states, not cede some ground and play harder for others. "I intend to compete for every vote in every state," he declared Saturday night in New Hampshire. "This isn't just to campaign in a few places."

Mr. Romney isn't responding in kind. He is maintaining his focus on New Hampshire and on fund-raising. On Monday and Tuesday, he will be in New Hampshire, then fly to California, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah to raise campaign funds.

Mrs. Bachmann had said all tax revenues coming in could be directed to paying off U.S. creditors, funding the military and fully financing Social Security and Medicare. But what was left would have meant 68% cuts to virtually every other program, from the Veterans Administration to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to federal education assistance, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a fiscal think tank in Washington.

"We have to reject the new normal" of federal spending under Mr. Obama, she responded.

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace then asked her why she had written six letters asking for money from the president's stimulus plan and writing in those letters that the money for roads and bridges would create jobs in her district.

Many recalls, too much democracy

Happened to watch the election returns from Wisconsin on MSNBC Tuesday night, and if you're honest, you know it was a rough night for progressives. It started to be noticeable on Monday when Ed Schultz (or "Big Eddy" as he likes to call himself), started to have a haunted look. He was out there in Madison surrounded by Union types who would cheer, or boo, or moo on cue, but despite his bluster, you just knew things weren't shaping up the way he'd hoped.

Ed kept going on about how the evil Republicans had poured in all this money, but the recall forces had the enthusiasm and the ground game.

Eddie may have trouble differentiating between enthusiasm and desperation. What he didn't explain is that after all the sound and fury of the recall effort, his team actually lost ground in each of the six special elections this week..

The numbers are still a little hazy, but it appears that the two sides spent around $35 million on the recall, all in an effort to punish Republican State Senators who voted for the Budget Repair Bill Governor Walker introduced in February. This controversial legislation was crafted to cure a $3.6 state billion deficit, and required state employees to contribute 12.6% of the cost of their health insurance premiums and pay 5.8% of their salary into the Wisconsin Retirement System, ending the free ride they'd enjoyed previously. The other two most significant impacts were to limit collective bargaining rights for most public employees and to prohibit employers from collecting union dues.

The result was a political tantrum unlike anything seen in years. For weeks, protests in Madison the state capital dominated cable news shows with their distinct lack of civility. All 14 Democrat Senators fled the state to try to prevent a vote, demonstrators mobbed and camped out at and in the Capital building, Republican lawmakers were stalked at their homes, and local businesses were threatened if they did not join the effort to foil the Governor's legislation.

Though Walker might have moved too aggressively on the collective bargaining issue, most of his package was the kind of fiscal castor oil that states and the federal government will need to get their balance sheets in order. If incumbents in Wisconsin and elsewhere fear immediate retaliation that could cost them their jobs, it will make them even less likely to cut deals and make difficult choices.

Equally troubling is that the Wisconsin recalls have turned into magnets for shocking amounts of special interest money, sluiced into the state by conservative groups and pro-union organizations that see the recalls as an existential battleground. Estimates are that third-party groups have spent as much as $40 million on the nine recall elections, which would more than double the amount spent on all 116 of the state's legislative elections last fall.

Beyond Wisconsin, recall rage remains limited, in part because just 19 states allow recalls elof governors and state legislators. One is California, where voters recalled unpopular Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, a switch that did little to solve the state's deep fiscal and political woes.

At the local level, where at least 29 states allow recalls, Governing.com says 57 mayors faced recall attempts in 2010, more than double the 23 the year before. In some places, recalls seem like political sport: Voters in Johnstown, Colo., tried to oust the mayor in part for his plan to switch from diagonal parking to parallel parking. But they're a sport states would be wise to limit. In an era of growing deficits and dwindling resources, the problems are far too serious to be left to endless second-guessing and permanent campaigns.

Mitt prediction President Obama will lose Michigan in 2012 presidential election

Pella, Iowa - The Republican presidential candidate who's been missing from political action recently in Iowa returned here on Wednesday with a fresh prediction: President Obama won't win Iowa in 2012.

And Mitt Romney upped the ante, proclaiming he would win the state's seven electoral votes if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee.

Romney spoke to reporters in Pella, Iowa, after speaking at a company that manufactures agricultural, environmental and industrial equipment. In the back-and-forth with business people, Romney repeated his slams against the Obama administration: decrying its "job-killing" economic policies, saying he believes officials intend to have a government-run health care system, and blasting Democrats as being beholden to special interests like public worker unions.

In his exchange with reporters, Romney mentioned the president's upcoming bus tour.

"I hope that on his bus tour he actually takes the time to get off the bus and sit down with business people...and ask them whether the policies he's put in place over the last two and a half years have helped or hurt enterprise and jobs in America," Romney said.

The candidate then donned the hat of political punditry.

"I think you'll find that on policy after policy, that if he [Obama] does that he'll learn from the American people and from business people just what I do...that the president's policies have made it more difficult for enterprises to grow and thrive at a time when the economy was in trouble. And that's why I think this president is going to have a tough re-election bid."

Romney added: "Let me make this prediction: he won't carry Iowa in November 2012."

In 2008, then-Senator Obama won Iowa, beating GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain by nine-points in the state. Obama, then a senator from Illinois, also won Iowa's critical caucuses in January of that year.

Meanwhile, there's a question of whether or not Romney can make good on his prediction: of winning Iowa should he become the nominee.

While eating a pastry from Jaarsma Bakery in Pella, Iowa, Romney called The Press to share his thoughts on President Barack Obama’s visit to the Johnson Controls-Saft advanced battery factory in Holland.

“He must be concerned about Michigan,” said Romney, who is hoping his father, former Gov. George Romney, still has coattails when Michigan Republicans choose their presidential nominee next year.

“My prediction is that he won’t carry Michigan in 2012.”

Former Democratic congressional candidate Patrick Miles Jr. said no plans were laid nor promises made Thursday when he re-connected with his old Harvard Law School classmate, President Barack Obama, during a reception at the Johnson Controls-Saft plant.

After commiserating over the plight of Democratic candidates like himself last year, Miles said, Obama assured him “things will look much better next year.”

Miles, who lost to Republican Justin Amash by a 2-1 margin, said he will decide this fall whether to run again.

Holland Republican Pete Hoekstra’s bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Debbie Stabenow took a hit Thursday when state GOP party bigwigs Betsy DeVos, Spencer Abraham and Saul Anuzis endorsed Detroit charter school founder Clark Durant for the Republican nomination.

But by week’s end, Hoekstra could take heart in reports by Michigan Public Radio and Gongwer News Service that Gov. Rick Snyder is likely to back Hoekstra later this month.

Low turnout bemoaned

Moments after Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell congratulated 1st Ward Commissioner Walt Gutowski on his Aug. 2 re-election, commissioners lamented the lower-than-expected voter turnout of less than 9 percent.

Gutowski, who avoided a November runoff by capturing 52 percent of the vote, agreed it was disappointing. But, he quickly interjected, “the outcome was all right.

Is the Republicans’ big problem in 2012 is Hispanics?

Active critic of mine emailed me recently wondering if my strategy and that of other immigrant rights advocates was to defeat President Obama by blaming him relentlessly for the lack of progress on immigration reform and/or urge Latinos not to vote in 2012. Did I want President Obama to be a one-term president, he asked. Did I think a Republican would do any better on behalf of immigrants?

There is no way to sugar coat it. President Obama has failed miserably in his promise to update our flawed immigration system. But as much as our community's grief pushes me to detest, denounce, and defy this administration's terror-inducing immigration policies, I do not for a minute think that getting rid of President Obama or withholding my vote next November will do my family, the community, or the nation any good whatsoever.

The question is not whether I will vote in 2012. The question is how to make my vote count. How do immigrants and Latinos flex their voting muscle to effectively remind our national elected leaders, whoever they may be, that we cannot be taken for granted, especially when it comes to solving a deeply-emotional and personal issue like immigration reform?

Many of us will remember the highly-publicized and often replayed immigration reform promises then candidate-Obama made to Latinos and immigrants at key constituent gatherings, including NCLR's national conference. There were no embarrassing pauses or caveats, or much blaming of the opposing party for that matter, in his speeches as he pointedly chastised a system that blindly separates mothers from their babies. Latino voters were enthralled by the empathy and compassion of his words and gave him our vote by the millions.

For two years in a row, address after address, President Obama held steadfast in his expressed commitment to change the dangerously broken immigration system. He told small groups and large groups alike, elected officials and celebrities, advocates and community members that he was personally committed and engaged in finding a solution. All we were missing, the president would often say, is one or two courageous Republicans. He rarely, if ever, talked about the non-courageous Democrats in Congress that were committed to block any attempt by the White House to pass any type of immigration reform legislation.

There was something else missing from the president's usual words of encouragement on immigration reform: the Obama administration's deportation machine was moving full speed ahead all the while we held out hope for our dose of change to come. For two years the president offered various explanations as to why immigration reform would not happen. He did not, however, have the courage to explain why he felt compelled to tear apart close to a million families and exponentially expand toxic monsters like the "Secure Communities" program.

Democratic pollsters counter that it will be hard for Republicans to campaign on the economy when Republican hopefuls are calling for deeper cuts in social programs that most Hispanics want to preserve. In addition, immigration plays a big role in Hispanics’ voting decisions, they say.

“Immigration is an emotional issue,” Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen told me. “It indicates to us which candidate likes us, and which one doesn’t.”

Several Republican Party leaders, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, have recently launched a Hispanic Leadership Network to woo Latinos to the Republican Party. Last week, I asked Gutierrez how his party can improve its standing among Latinos with its current anti-immigration, anti-social programs rhetoric.

Gutierrez, who supports former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, and considers his candidate to be a “pragmatist,” conceded that Republicans will have a hard time winning with any candidate who Hispanics perceive as hostile to them.

“The Republican nominee will have to be someone who is a moderate,” Gutierrez told me. “We have to embrace immigration: If we are the party of prosperity, we have to be the party of immigration.”

My opinion: Republicans have a big problem with Hispanics. Granted, Obama is facing an economic slowdown that affects Hispanics more than most other Americans, and he has failed to meet his campaign promise to pass a comprehensive immigration reform that could benefit millions of Latinos.

In addition, the Obama administration has deported nearly 1 million undocumented immigrants over the past three years — more than Bush in his eight years in office. But Republicans won’t be able to criticize Obama on any of these counts, because their presidential hopefuls are calling for deeper budget cuts without new taxes on the rich, and come across as supporting the massive deportation of all undocumented immigrants.

Barring a shift to the center that would help Republicans win more Hispanic votes, or a worse-than-expected U.S. economic downturn that would drive Latino voters to stay at home on election day rather than voting for the president, Obama will be reelected in 2012.

Rick Perry campaign to focus on jobs, with optimism

Next to a possible future United States President, Evan Couture of Greenland was all smiles Sunday afternoon.

“It was a great experience,” he said after he and his parents, Len and Michelle, had lunch with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who formally announced his candidacy for President in New Hampshire Saturday. “It was overwhelming.”

Perry briefly attended the New Hampshire Energy Freedom Festival at McIntyre ski area in Manchester, which attracted about 350 people to an event designed to provide a fun day out for members of the New Hampshire Energy Forum.

Perry said he entered the race out of “a duty to serve my country. And our country is in trouble.”

When asked in a swarm of reporters about fellow Republican primary contender and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s victory in Saturday’s Iowa straw poll, Perry said he believed that people were not voting out of anger.

“I think there’s a lot of frustration,” Perry said. “People want their elected officials to listen to them. It seems like we have a federal government that’s not working for the people. It’s the other way around. I share their frustration. I want to make Washington as inconsequential in our lives as possible.

The last part is crucial. Perry and his advisers believe that the Republican field has lacked a candidate who can unite the GOP's factions - Christian conservatives, business interests and small-government enthusiasts - the way Ronald Reagan did. Perry aims to fill the void.

That means projecting confidence, strength and optimism that offers simple answers voters can grab hold of in a time of great anxiety and uncertainty.

"We know the greatest darkness comes just before the morning," Perry told 30,000 evangelical Christians a week ago, part of the run-up to his campaign announcement. Days later in San Antonio, he was even more explicit, telling a legislative conference that while "our fiscal house is built on shifting sands. . . . This West Texas optimist sees our brightest hour just around the corner."

The first step to securing the Republican nomination is to fend off rivals for the devotion of tea party activists and religious conservatives who control the process in the early nominating states.

Bob Vander Plaats, a religious-right activist in Iowa, said Christian conservatives are looking for a candidate "our base could quickly coalesce around." Perry's plan is to attract voters from Michele Bachmann and emerge by the South Carolina primary as the chief alternative to national front-runner Mitt Romney.

Perry's record is not without blemish. And his Republican opponents are prepared to argue that he's not the conservative he claims to be.

They will pick at his lifetime in public office, reports of cronyism, immigration policies that could alienate the right, a mandate to vaccinate preteen girls, a government initiative to take private property for a massive toll road project.

The Perry team aims to dismiss that with a relentless focus on jobs. Perry's campaign strategist, Dave Carney, said in an interview that the 2012 presidential race will be a "macro-election" dominated by the economy.

In large part, Carney plans to take the blueprint of Perry's re-election last year - denouncing a spendthrift Washington and touting his economic record in Texas - to the national stage.

When Perry's opponents attacked his policies, the governor kept talking about jobs, the economy, and freeing the state from Washington's constraints.

Last August, Carney explained how Perry's re-election message would go: "Nothing's getting better, it just gets worse. You can look at it anywhere in the country - Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio - where people have made up their mind. They're not listening to little micro-arguments. This is a macro-election. Whether its jobs or debt or spending, it's crystal clear."

His Christian prayer rally at Houston's Reliant Stadium was a discrete appeal to politically important religious conservatives who want a government that reflects their values, not only on abortion and gay rights but also on spending and debt.

Their moral universe includes not just social, but fiscal issues. Living in debt has become the new living in sin.

"There is a sense that there is a right and proper way in economics as well as personal behavior, and we've collectively as a nation strayed away from that," Green said. "And we need somebody who will have an absolute confidence that he or she can get us back."

Running a general election campaign would require Perry to pivot from an appeal to social conservatives whose extreme views could turn off moderate voters.

Part of the problem with Perry's economic message is that much of the state's job creation has been a shifting of jobs-from California, for example. Business-friendly policies and geographical advantages largely predate Perry, so he's less the cause than the beneficiary.

Carney's blueprint for winning a general election would cast Perry in sharp contrast to Obama on economic issues. He believes voters interpret the president's cerebral and nuanced style as indecisiveness.

If the economy is still struggling next year, Carney believes, the only thing that counts is whether voters believe there's somebody who will fix it. So Carney plans to project Perry in bold colors - direct, assertive and optimistic.

Who is from Republican's will end up running against Obama in 2012

Leadup to the Republican presidential nominating season got interesting Saturday, as one key player announced his candidacy and another dropped out of the race following a test vote of Iowans.

The results of Saturday's straw poll provide the first hint of what Iowans think of the field of Republicans competing for the chance to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

Just prior to the vote, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced he was joining the 2012 Republican race for president. A staunch conservative beloved by the tea party movement, Perry took time in his speech to critique Barack Obama's handling of the economy, and announced : "A renewed nation needs a new president."

Minnesota congresswoman and tea party favourite Michele Bachmann also had an impressive day, winning the test vote with more than 28 per cent of the 17,000 votes cast.

MITT ROMNEY

Romney, who lost the nomination to John McCain in 2008, has been viewed as the early front-runner, topping recent polls of potential Republican candidates by an average of about 5 percentage points, according to the website Real Clear Politics.

He also leads the Republican money race, raising $18.25 million in the second quarter for 2011, more than four times as much as any other contender.

Romney co-founded private equity firm Bain Capital and has pushed his business experience as a way to attack Obama's handling of the struggling U.S. economy. Critics say he was a corporate raider who cut jobs.

He is also known for righting the scandal-plagued 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and a fortune estimated at $250 million.

MICHELE BACHMANN

A leader of the Tea Party movement, Bachmann joined the upper tier of candidates after a strong performance in the first major Republican debate on June 13 in New Hampshire.

A former tax lawyer, Bachmann became the first Republican woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota in 2006.

A fiscal, social and religious conservative, Bachmann could benefit if former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin decided not to run, because the two are similar in politics and appeal to many of the same voters.

RICK PERRY

The three-term Texas governor was second in most polls even before announcing that he would enter the race. He is seen as a candidate who could bridge divides within the party because he is known for promoting job growth and staunch religious conservatism, and is popular within the Tea Party movement.

Perry would have the advantage of being the field's only governor from the South, a powerful party stronghold. Known for his fund-raising acumen, he would also have strong support from within Texas, home to many wealthy Republican donors.

One challenge is the prospect of comparison with another Republican Texas governor known for wearing cowboy boots: former President George W. Bush. Bush's lasting unpopularity could pose a hurdle in a general election.

JON HUNTSMAN

He annoyed the White House by resigning in April as Obama's ambassador to China to consider whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination.

Like Romney, Huntsman is a Mormon. The former governor of Utah and member of a wealthy chemicals family is a moderate, which may make it hard for him to win over conservatives who play a big role in the nominating process.

Huntsman's name recognition is low and his biggest immediate hurdle among Republican voters is his service to the Obama administration. He lags far behind in opinion polls.

SARAH PALIN

Palin, the party's vice presidential nominee in 2008, has not said whether she will run but told an interviewer that she expects to make a decision in August or September.

She has star power and can afford to enter the race relatively late because of her broad name recognition.

Palin made herself a millionaire with two books, the TV show "Sarah Palin's Alaska" and paid speaking engagements.

A leading voice in the conservative Tea Party movement, Palin enhanced her influence by campaigning for its candidates in the 2010 congressional elections.

NEWT GINGRICH

Leading members of Gingrich's campaign team resigned in June, and he has had a poor showing in opinion polls.

The former speaker of the House was the main architect of the 1994 Republican congressional election victory and author of the "Contract with America" political manifesto. Gingrich ended his 20-year congressional career after Republican losses in 1998 elections.

He has faced concerns among religious voters about his personal life. Gingrich is married to his third wife, with whom he had an affair while married to his second.

RON PAUL

An anti-war Republican congressman from Texas who ran unsuccessfully for the party's 2008 nomination, libertarian Paul, 75, is known as the "intellectual godfather of the Tea Party."

His calls for steep cuts in the federal deficit and the size of government have moved to the mainstream of debate in Congress since November when the fiscal conservative movement swept Republicans back into power in the House.

RICK SANTORUM

Santorum, once a leading Senate Republican, was badly defeated in his 2006 re-election bid.

He made a name for himself opposing abortion rights and gay marriage while backing welfare reform. He has campaigned hard to enhance his profile in early voting states but remains far back in the Republican field.

HERMAN CAIN

A radio talk show host and former chief executive officer of Godfather's Pizza, Cain was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's board of directors and has never been elected to political office.

Texas economy credit to Perry?

Democratic national chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, is weighing in on Gov. Rick Perry as a White House wannabe. She's underwhelmed.

"It think he brings just more of the same," she said at the Iowa State Fair while waiting on line to buy- we are not making this up - a deep fried Milky Way bar.

Like other Democrats, she says Perry's claims of a Texas miracle in job creation won't stand up under scrutiny.

"As we say in the South, that dog don't hunt," she said, arguing that many of the new jobs in Texas "have been really created by OPEC and their policy decisions. For Rick Perry to try to claim credit for those jobs is really disingenuous."

On top of that, she said, Perry's Texas received billions in federal stimulus funds. "We're talking about someone who has relied upon the benefits of the Recovery Act funding and policy decisions made by Democrats. This mystique and mythology about his success in job-creation needs to be deconstructed," she said.

Texas's unemployment rate is 8.2 percent, about one point less than the national average, and 40 percent of the nation's new jobs since June 2009 are in Texas, though many are low-wage.

"There is a dramatic contrast with the governor of Texas" when it comes to his record versus the president's on job creation," Wasserman Schultz said. "Not the least of which is that it is extremely difficult for him to deserve credit for that job creation when you have rising gas prices that created oil jobs that he had nothing to do with, when you had military spending as a result of two wars that created military jobs that he had nothing to do with, when you have the Recovery Act championed by President Obama that created jobs in Texas that he had nothing to do with."

She continued: "So it is way overblown to suggest that the job creation in Texas is squarely on the shoulders of [Perry's] policies."

Perry announced his bid for the 2012 Republican nomination in South Carolina on Saturday with a speech grounded in attacks on President Obama. The Texas Republican enters the race as one of the frontrunners for the nomination, and many have already pegged him as the biggest threat to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's candidacy.

In his Saturday speech announcing his candidacy, Perry accused Mr. Obama of "downgrading" American financial stability.

"The fact is for nearly three years, President Obama has been downgrading American jobs, he's been downgrading our standing in the world, he's been downgrading our financial stability, he's been downgrading our confidence, and downgrading the hope for a better future for our children," he said.

When asked about those comments, Wasserman Schultz defended Mr. Obama's record and called Perry's statements "inaccurate."

"I am incredibly proud of President Obama's accomplishments," she told O'Donnell. "This is a president that took on the health insurance industry and reformed healthcare to make sure that every American could have coverage and insurance companies couldn't drop you or deny you coverage; took on Wall Street, made sure that banks were not ever again too big to fail; made sure that we began to get our economy turned around -- so I think Americans are appreciative of the hard work and effort and accomplishment that President Obama has made.

Newest into GOP field, Rick Perry, is longtime friend of Israel

Texas Gov. Rick Perry had a good day Saturday, in large part, because he is a practiced pol. His speech went smoothly, his Web site launched and he did better than many casual observers expected in Ames because he had conducted a stealth campaign there for some time. In July Politico reported:


A new, so-called super PAC supporting a prospective Rick Perry presidential campaign is going up Monday in Iowa with a statewide television buy touting the Texas governor as “a better option” for president.
Jobs for Iowa is spending less than $40,000 for two weeks’ worth of air time on Fox News Channel in the state, a source familiar with the group told POLITICO. But the group is rumored to have the backing of wealthy Texas Republicans who have long supported Perry and are considering expanding the ad campaign to other states in the near future.
That’s undoubtedly more than Rick Santorum spent and certainly more than Mitt Romney did (Romney spent nothing on media buys). Perry had also staffed up in Iowa. By mid-July Perry had “a few volunteers and seven paid staffers, most of whom played key roles in former House speaker Newt Gingrich’s Iowa operation.”


But starting late, Perry needed to put in some resources to at least get his name on the scoreboard in Ames. He did that. It doesn’t necessarily show grass-roots enthusiasm, but it sure does reflect some sophisticated campaigning.


Perry has nonplussed longtime Jewish supporters by claiming that he has been “called” to the presidency and by hosting a prayer rally this month that appealed to Jesus to save America. Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post’s “Right Turn” columnist and a bellwether of Jewish conservatism, took liberals to task on her blog for treating the event as “a spectacle” -- it was borne of deeply considered worries about the country’s parlous state, she said – but Rubin also expressed caveats about the rally.


“His words at the event were restrained but not ecumenical,” she wrote. “And his use of public office to promote the Christian event was, to me, inappropriate. The event, while scheduled last December, is still reflective of the man who would be president. Would he do this in the Oval Office? Does he not understand how many Americans might be offended? Is he lacking advice from a non-Texan perspective?”


Fred Zeidman, an influential Houston lawyer who has known Perry for decades and has hosted him at his home, said, “None of us remember him being quite as devout as he seems to be now, but we wouldn't necessarily have known.”


Zeidman, who for eight years served as chairman of the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, supports Mitt Romney. but Zeidman told JTA that before endorsing Romney that he checked with Perry last December to ask whether he would be running. At the time, Perry said no.


On Saturday, Perry threw his hat into the ring.


"A great country requires a better direction," he said, declaring his candidacy. "A renewed nation needs a new president."


Perry has been a conservative since before he switched parties in 1989 to became a Republican. A cotton farmer and former air force pilot, he led efforts in his first five years as a Democrat in the legislature to pare the budget.


Perry, a devout Methodist, was attracted to Israel from the launch of his career. One of his first acts after being elected agriculture commissioner in 1991 was to create the Texas-Israel Exchange, which promoted information and research sharing. In a 2009 interview with The Jerusalem Post, when he led a delegation to Israel, Perry – who around the same time flirted with Texas secessionist rhetoric – said the alliance was a natural one.


“When I was here for the first time some 18 years ago and I was touring the country, the comparison between Masada and the Alamo was not lost on me,” he told the Post. “I mean, we're talking about two groups of people who were willing to give up their lives for freedom and liberty."


As much as Perry’s heartfelt love for Israel makes him attractive to Republican Jews, it is was the other reason he was in Israel at the time – seeking out job creation initiatives, as he has across the globe – that has been the basis of his Jewish support.


“I became intrigued by Rick Perry when I read his book ‘Fed Up!’ because it was exactly what I was feeling,” Robin Bernstein, who heads Perry’s fundraising in Florida, said in an interview. “His economic success in Texas is a model for the entire country.”


Texas has managed to weather the recession comparatively well, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has reported that half of all U.S. jobs created from June 2009 to April 2011 were in Texas.


Published last year, “Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington” blames America’s woes on an arrogant power elite in Washington – Perry, in his first chapter, accuses it of “chutzpah” – and is music to conservative ears seeking relief from what they see as government unbound.


“We are fed up with being overtaxed and overregulated,” Perry writes. “We are tired of being told how much salt we can put on our food, what windows we can buy for our house, what kind of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kind of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say them, what political speech we are allowed to use to elect candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what kind of food we can grow, what doctor we can see, and countless other restrictions on our right to live as we see fit.”


It’s a message that resounds with Jewish conservatives – save, perhaps, for its defense of public prayer.


By the same token, Perry’s declaration last month that the presidency is “what I’ve been called to” sent a shudder through some among the conservative Jewish establishment. This month, it was Perry’s leadership in organizing the massive Houston prayer rally, dubbed The Response, and his insistence that “we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles," that led some Jewish conservatives to go on the record with their discomfiture.


"My response to The Response: No, thanks," wrote Jacob Sullum in The New York Post. "My people have managed without Jesus for thousands of years. Why start now?" Sullum also criticized Perry for seeming to abandon his previous let-the-states-decide view on social issues in favor of amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would outlaw abortion and same-sex marriage everywhere in the country.


Sixteen rabbis were among 50 Houston clergy members who urged Perry not to host the rally. National groups like the Anti-Defamation League also opposed it.


“He called this rally as a governor,” Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director, said in an interview before Perry’s formal declaration of his candidacy for president. “He didn’t try to camouflage anything. He's pleasant and he's smart, he has good relations with the Jewish community, but this is a conscious disregard of law and authority. What troubles me most is, this is his perception of where America is at.”


Bernstein, Perry’s Florida backer, said such concerns are overstated. “Nobody criticized Moses for being ‘called,'” she said. “The fact that he upholds the Ten Commandments is very important. I like to believe a man of faith has a moral compass.”


Jewish Democrats are eating up the controversy. In a statement, the National Jewish Democratic Council said it was “encouraging” Perry to run, “given that his record will help repel American Jews and remind them why they support Democrats in historic numbers.

Rick Perry and Barack Obama education fight

Dallas - It's official: Texas Governor Rick Perry has announced his candidacy for president of the United States, officially entering the race for the 2012 Republican nomination. The governor made his announcement Saturday at a conservative gathering in Charleston, S.C.

In his speech, Perry advocated for greater security along the U.S.-Mexico border and attacked the Obama Administration for failing to deliver promised jobs and economic growth. "That is not a recovery -- that is an economic disaster," Perry said, referencing recent data that indicate 1 in 6 working-age citizens is unable to find full-time employment.

Perry said the most urgent priority for the country is to revitalize the economy, emphasizing, "It's time to get America working again." He criticized President Obama directly, saying the president has been responsible "for downgrading American jobs, downgrading our standing in the world, downgrading our financial stability, downgrading confidence and downgrading the hope of a better future for our children."

In the speech, Perry -- who has held his post for 11 years, the most served by any sitting governor and the most by any governor of Texas -- spoke of his childhood as the son of cotton sharecroppers in the small town of Paint Creek, Texas, and invoked his religious faith as a grounding and guiding force in his life.

Chanting, "Perry, Perry, Perry," the audience of conservatives cheered as the Texas governor assured them that as president, he would continue opposing the Affordable Care Act passed under President Obama. He said he would provide the country with better leadership and a renewed presidency that would not accept the current direction in which the country is headed.

For Hispanic voters, however, there is some concern as to what exactly Perry's new direction would be.

Even as other Republicans around the country gave bipartisan approval to Obama’s education agenda, Perry has repeatedly fought with the Education Department, even accusing it of attempting a “federal takeover of public schools” with the Race to the Top competition.

Perry, who won election to his third term as Texas governor last year, trashed the administration’s signature education initiative, Race to the Top, and rejected the administration-backed Common Core State Standards effort (which all but six states, including Texas, have agreed to adopt). Perry also fought with the Obama administration over more than $800 million in federal funds that U.S. officials said could go to Texas if the money was spent on education; the Texas governor said he couldn't accept any conditions on use of the money.

In a Jan. 13, 2010 letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Perry wrote, “I will not commit Texas taxpayers to unfunded federal obligations or to the adoption of unproven, cost-prohibitive national curriculum standards and tests.... We believe that education policy, curriculum and standards should be determined in Texas, not in Washington D.C.”

Standing with Perry during a press conference on that same day was Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, and Jeri Stone , executive director of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, both union leaders who backed Perry’s decision on Race to the Top.

A few days later, Obama personally chastised Perry for opting out of Race to the Top.

Perry’s rejection of deepening federal involvement in education policy is, of course, also a slap at No Child Left Behind, the chief education initiative of Perry’s predecessor as Texas governor, former president George W. Bush. NCLB greatly increased federal say over K-12 education, and the Obama administration has further increased that involvement through Race to the Top.

The latest example is Duncan’s decision to unilaterally grant waivers that would exempt states from key provisions of No Child Left Behind. There is a catch, though: Duncan has made clear that only states pursuing education reform — meaning the kind approved by the administration — will be granted a waiver.

Details of the waivers will be released soon, but an Education Department source said it s possible that there will be different levels of waivers offered to states depending on the state and intentions of their reform programs.

Given that Texas doesn’t do a whole that the administration supports, it isn’t hard to envision a clash over the granting of a waiver for NCLB. As the campaign battle between Obama and Perry heats us, expect education to be part of the fight.

Bachmann, Rick Perry Crossing Paths In Iowa Ahead Of 2012

Considering the pointed exchange between Michele Bachmann and her since-vanquished GOP presidential rival Tim Pawlenty, we already know that the Minnesota congressman knows how to go for the political jugular.

But on the day after the biggest day of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign — her convincing yet narrow straw poll win in Ames, Rick Perry‘s dramatic entry into the race in South Carolina — Bachmann decided to draw subtle distinctions with her newest rival.

“I think it’ll be good competition for everyone,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Appearing on Sunday talk show appearances on every news network, Bachmann portrayed herself as a leader in the midst of the most important political battles of our age. (The unstated contrast: Perry has been enjoying the sun and fun in Austin rather than risking the wrath of the national Democratic attack machine.)

“”I’ve been on the front lines and I’ve been fighting,” Bachmann told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “Issue after issue, I’ve been at the tip of the spear.”

In interview after interview, Bachmann touted her “demonstrated leadership” on hot-button issues. And she sought to portray herself as a proven commodity — again, an unstated contrast to the lesser-known Texas governor.

Republicans voters “want to know that the can trust the person that they are sending” to the White House, she told Fox News host Chris Wallace. “I’m a proven fighter in Washington.

The chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he's an establishment candidate who could be an attractive candidate for economic conservatives in this lead-off caucus state who are looking for a candidate to rally around. Enthusiasm for the GOP national front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and his strong economic message has been muted.

Bachmann, who has risen in Iowa polls since entering the race this summer, was reveling in her first-place finish in the test vote Saturday that proved her campaign has the organizational skills and volunteer network needed to compete strongly in the state's caucuses next winter.

"We see this as just the very first step in a very long race," Bachmann said on NBC's "Meet the Press. "There's a lot of work to be done."

A candidate backed largely by the grass-roots, she appeared on all the Sunday morning news programs as she worked to broaden her appeal and challenge rivals more linked to the establishment.

In the straw poll, Bachmann edged past Texas Rep. Ron Paul to win the vote – getting 4,823 votes, or 29 percent, to 4,671, or 28 percent, for Paul out of nearly 17,000 cast. But she trounced home-state rival Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor who had cast himself as an electable establishment choice but ended up drawing 2,293 votes, or 14 percent.

His exit means there's now an available contingent of top GOP staff and consultants, including former state party chairman, former advisers to President George W. Bush and senior advisers to Mike Huckabee's winning 2008 caucus campaign, including Sarah Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor's daughter. Top legislators who had signed on to Pawlenty's camp also now are free to rally behind other candidates.

It's not yet clear the size of the electorate Pawlenty frees up. But it's certain both Bachmann and Perry will try to go after his voters.

"I wish him well," Bachmann said, quick to praise Pawlenty, perhaps mindful of the need to broaden her appeal and reach his backers. "He brought a really important voice into the race and I am grateful that he was in. He was really a very good competitor."

Both Bachmann and Perry were scheduled to speak in a late-afternoon GOP fundraiser, the Black Hawk County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner in Waterloo.

It's Bachmann's birthplace, a point she has stressed everywhere while campaigning for the leadoff caucuses, and she wasn't willing to cede the spotlight to Perry. She changed her plans and decided to attend after Perry announced that he would make his Iowa debut at the event.

"I welcome anyone who's coming into the race, and I think it will be good competition for everyone," Bachmann said. "He'll run his campaign, we'll run ours, but we really look forward to that."

She said she was confident that voters would choose her over him "because I have a demonstrated, proven record that I will fight for what people care about."

Her straw poll victory is expected to give her a boost nationally, especially with fundraising. But it also makes her a target and comes with warnings. Only twice in the five straw polls since they were first held in 1980 has the winner gone on to capture the caucuses.