Perry's night of 'duck the question'

[Roland99]

http://us.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/09/08/graham.debate.gop/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Editor's note: Todd Graham is the director of debate at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He has coached his teams to national championships, and has been honored with the Ross K. Smith national debate coach of the year award. Graham has analyzed presidential debates for five elections.

He was asked why Texas was last in the country in the number of people with health insurance. He ducked the question and talked about Medicaid. Asked the question again in a follow-up, he blamed the federal government. He didn't explain how his state was different from any other states, which all must follow the federal government guidelines he was criticizing.

...

Then he was asked about the wealth disparity between white and black households. Perry answered that people need jobs, avoiding the premise of the question. Other questions he failed to answer directly included why he cut state education aid, and whether President George W. Bush had been a "military adventurist" who went to war too quickly.

Still other Perry answers were just plain bad. He repeatedly called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" without offering any ideas on how to fix it. The other candidates immediately capitalized on his choice of language by explaining how people need and depend on Social Security. Maybe in future debates Perry will be able to explain himself better, but he didn't Wednesday night.

He also contradicted himself when answering a question about his executive order requiring preteen girls in Texas to be vaccinated against human papilloma virus. "At the end of the day, I will always opt to save lives," Perry said. This is the same Republican who condemns the individual mandate to carry medical insurance, part of the health care overhaul signed by President Barack Obama, as an overbearing government intrusion on personal liberty. It seemed that Perry favored government regulation to save lives in some instances but not others.

Seems the whole night was a farce. Shame I missed it!

[Ineeda]

1. Gagging on the "government intrusion on personal liberty" crap.

Abortion, anyone? Gay rights, anyone? Freedom from religion, anyone?

[teddy51]

2. This should scare the crap out of all Americans to think this guy could

end up in the WH.

[emulatorloo]

3. if he gets the nom. Media will try their hardest to make him seem "Mainstream" and credible

Like they did for Sharon Angle. In her case the crazy came through anyway.

[Roland99]

4. I think the same would hold true for pRick.

This country is *seriously* on a path leading to a "Fahrenheit 451" world.