Rick Perry: Americans Want More Than ‘Young, Attractive’ Obama

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry pumps his fist as he walks on stage during the Freedom Summit, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that voters have had enough of a “young, attractive” and inexperienced president and will be looking for a proven leader in 2016.

Perry, who is considering a second run for president, wrapped up a two-day trip to New Hampshire with a speech at the Strafford County Republican Committee’s Lincoln Day Dinner.

While he repeated his warning that GOP voters shouldn’t nominate a “critic in chief,” he had plenty of criticism for President Barack Obama, saying his lack of executive experience before becoming president has hurt him and that he hasn’t picked up many management skills on the job.

The nation is ready, he said, to move beyond “eight years of this years of this young, very attractive, amazing orator, junior U.S. senator.”

“I don’t think they’re going to go there,” Perry said. “They’re going to go to a tested, results-oriented executive who has a record of accomplishment.”

Perry, who dropped out of the 2012 race shortly after finishing sixth in New Hampshire’s Republican primary, says he won’t make a decision about a 2016 campaign until May or June. But he said he learned key lessons last time: get in early, and spend lots of time in the states that lead off the nominating process: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

As he did Wednesday, Perry focused his speech on arguing that the federal government has overstepped its authority on issues such as health care and education while shirking its responsibilities on national security.

“We need to have congressmen and senators and a president of the United States that say listen, we’re going to go back and do what the Constitution tells us to do,” he said.

He listed numerous examples of what he considers Obama’s “feckless foreign policy,” including not arming Syrian rebels earlier to stop Islamic State fighters. Closer to home, he said Obama’s tax and regulatory policies have stood in the way of states being able to compete for businesses and improve their economies.

After touting the 1.4 million jobs created in Texas while he was governor — more than the population of New Hampshire — he joked that he had expected Obama to thank him during his recent state of the union address.

Perry said allowing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, lowering the corporate tax rate and giving businesses incentives to invest in America instead of overseas would create a manufacturing revival unlike anything the nation has ever seen.

“The greatest years of America are in front of us,” he said, challenging the crowd to “stand up for freedom.”

“Are you ready to send that message across the country?” he said, referencing New Hampshire’s state motto. “Are you ready to make people know that New Hampshire is about living free or dying?”

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for easydm easydm says:

    “They’re going to go to a tested, results-oriented executive who has a record of accomplishment.”

    You mean like Hillary?

  2. “Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that voters have had enough
    of a “young, attractive” and inexperienced president and will be looking
    for a proven leader in 2016.”

    Get ready for old, past one’s prime, ham-fisted and agnosic

  3. What are these words that broke through the fence of your teeth?

  4. Rick Perry: Living, breathing proof that desperate people do desperate things.

  5. Right, Rick, hunka hunka burnin’ dumb. They want a stupid leatherface who can only remember 2 out of 3 things.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

69 more replies

Participants

Avatar for bdtex Avatar for valgalky23 Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for lonewolf_93 Avatar for leftflank Avatar for chammy Avatar for easydm Avatar for commiedearest Avatar for jtgeomom Avatar for trumpdog Avatar for honeyboywilson Avatar for randyabraham Avatar for cvilledem Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for gr Avatar for potomacker Avatar for astralfire Avatar for canadian Avatar for gibbous Avatar for clauscph Avatar for stevieD Avatar for briannaamore

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: