The bespectacled Perry looks like he's squinting at the
thermostat to see if he can get his IQ up to room temperature.
Rick “Oops” Perry is
back, pitching himself for another presidential run. This time, he’s sporting
eyeglasses.
What fun. Who can
forget the Texas governor’s nationally televised pratfall during a 2011
presidential debate, when he couldn’t remember the third federal agency he
intended to ax?
Well, he later
sniffed, “If anybody’s looking for…the smoothest debater, I readily admit I’m
not that person.” But Rick, you weren’t “debating.” You were simply trying to
recite your own three talking points. One, two…oops!
And the issue isn’t
whether you’re smooth, but whether you’re stupid — way too stupid to be
president of the United States of America.
But wait — there’s a
new Rick.
This go-round he’s
sporting black-framed, designer eyeglasses, which his makeover consultants
insist make him look
smarter. Actually, the bespectacled Perry looks like a guy squinting
at the thermostat to see if he can get his IQ up to room temperature.
This is the governor
who’s been hunkered down for 14 years as the chief executive of the state with
the highest percentage of people with no health coverage, the second-highest
percentage of children with no health insurance, and numero uno in
the nation for women without coverage. Then, when the Affordable Care Act
presented the opportunity to provide insurance for millions of Texans, the man
in the Mensa eyewear said heck no, we don’t want no government-provided health
benefits.
“We?” For his entire
30-year career in political office, Perry and his family have gladly accepted
platinum-level health benefits from the government for themselves. I’m guessing
that even those $500 glasses he’s wearing were put on the taxpayers’ tab.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the
populist newsletter, The Hightower
Lowdown. OtherWords.org