When they wanted to show Ronald Reagan as a working man, a man of the people, they went and got pictures of the man working, the way he always worked...
When they wanted to show us George W. Bush as a working man, a man of the people, they went and shot pictures of him working, the way he always worked....
When they wanted to show us Rick Perry as a working man, a man of the people, they fired up the backlights and the smoke machine and the movie set and the props and the pristine chaps that frankly looked to me like they'd never spent a day in the chaparral...
Look, maybe Rick Perry is a rough tough working buckaroo. I certainly respect his military service. But back when he was running against Perry for the Governorship, Kinky Friedman laid a serious rap on Perry as an empty suit, a tailor's dummy for the Machine to manipulate.
Handing us a glorified Marlboro Man ad is no way to lay that concern to rest. And to a lesser extent that's a problem with the rest of his ads, as well. His denim shirts are always crisp and brand-new, his "work" jackets uncreased and unscarred. Working folks get dirty, they get wrinkled, and they won't hold against a man who shows up to talk about jobs in a jacket that looks like it's been worked in.
Now I know Kinky has at least come around to the extent of acknowledging that Perry has presided over some outstanding economic performance by the state of Texas. But presiding over other people's hard work by itself is not a sign that you can do the work yourself.
And yes, Perry had some brain freezes in those jumped-up reality shows we called debates. But the thing is, it seems to me, a man with deeply held convictions and intentions could expand on those even if he blocked on a certain specific buzzword or platform point. Perry needs to show me he can do that yet.
Understand, I could bring myself to vote for Perry regardless, where I don't think I could for Romney or Gingrich. But I'd be a lot happier if he showed me there was some 'there' there.
