But he is failing at both tasks. His performance in last night’s debate and the scathing response it has stirred from conservative opinion-shapers offers a vivid illustration of what’s going wrong for Perry.
First, there’s the matter of ideology. Part of the promise of Perry’s candidacy was that he would be a natural match for the Obama era Republican Party base, which is no longer satisfied just hearing the right rhetoric from its leaders -- it wants to believe that they mean it. This is why Romney was -- and still is -- so vulnerable. The words are there, but so are memories of his Massachusetts healthcare law and the array of moderate positions he took during the first decade of his political career.
It turns out, though, that Perry has his share of potentially disqualifying ideological baggage too. In a previous debate, his decision as governor to mandate an HPV vaccine for teenage girls led several of the no-shot conservative candidates (led by Michele Bachmann) to pile on, decrying this supposed violation of parental rights and endorsement of teenage sexual activity. The fringe candidates may not have helped themselves much, but they did succeed in seeding doubts about Perry among the religious conservatives who account for a big chunk of the GOP base.
In last night’s debate, a different Perry vulnerability attracted more attention: his support for allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at Texas colleges and universities. When the question came up, Perry was defiant: “[I]f you say that we should not educate children who come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart.” This led to another pile-on, with Rick Santorum calling Perry “soft” on immigration and Romney claiming that the tuition break was a magnet for illegal immigrants. Perry’s posture may be smart politics back in Texas, where Hispanic voters make up a considerable share of the electorate, but when it comes to the national GOP's Tea Party base, it’s a serious sin.
【Blind spot?】相关文章:
★ 小学英语教学反思
★ 拒绝空白
★ 四年级英语Unit3 My friends第四课时教学案例
最新
2020-09-15
2020-08-28
2020-08-21
2020-08-19
2020-08-14
2020-08-12