As a child in Paint Creek, Texas, Rick Perry was not great at clod fights, the rural Texas version of snowball fights that involve throwing clumps of dirt at one another. “He couldn’t hit the side of a barn,” his fellow Boy Scout Riley Couch told the San Antonio Express-News in 2001. But, “Tricky Ricky,” as he was often called in …
Rick Perry
Three Things Rick Perry Can Learn From Sarah Palin
Rick Perry’s awkward courtship of the Republican party reminds me a lot of the jig Sarah Palin performed right after the 2008 campaign. Unsure of whether to go the establishment route, Palin made overtures inside the Beltway …
Even the Aggie Faithful Buck Perry on Immigration
Texas Aggies are famous for their loyalty and their adherence to tradition. The sight of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band marching to martial airs swells the chest of any A&M alumnus, but that does’t mean they all walk in lockstep …
Silence and Shrugs Follow the Perry Hunting Camp Story
On Monday I had a meeting on Capitol Hill with the chief of staff of a black representative in Congress. The subject: race and the 2012 election.
Surprisingly, one topic that did not come up in the hour-long chat was the Washington Post front-page story on Sunday that seemed to portray Texas Gov. Rick Perry as a racist because a large …
Understanding Perry’s Hunting Camp Controversy
The report that Rick Perry’s family leased a hunting property named “Niggerhead” illustrates two noteworthy dynamics of the Texan’s candidacy. One is simply that entering a presidential race as late as Perry did causes every pockmark to be magnified by an eager press corps and judged harshly by an impressionable public just getting to …
The Controversial Willingham Case: What Rick Perry Knew and When
Correction appended
On the day in 2004 that her first cousin Cameron Todd Willingham was scheduled to be executed in Texas, Patricia Cox had good reason to believe he was innocent.
Willingham was convicted of murder for …
Three Myths About Rick Perry
Rick Perry’s whirlwind arrival on the presidential stage has made him a Texas-sized character in Americans’ political imaginations. But some early black-and-white images of Perry’s life and politics don’t quite square with the …
Perry Embraces Israel, Bashes Obama on the Middle East
Rick Perry’s foreign policy remains, in important ways, a work in progress, and a source of some anxiety for Republican foreign policy neocons. But speaking in New York on Tuesday morning, Perry made two things crystal clear: his more-or-less unconditional support for Israel, and his opposition to the Obama administration’s controversial …
Friends With Benefits: Rick Perry’s Biggest Donors
The most important insight into the state of the Republican presidential race won’t come from the continuing series of GOP debates, but from fund raising figures that will be released at the end of September. All the candidates want to show they can build up cash by the Sept. 30 third-quarter disclosure deadline, especially the …
Rick Perry Exclusive: The GOP’s Fiery Front-Runner
The hard-charging governor commands a Texas-sized lead in the polls. In an interview with TIME’s Richard Stengel and Mark Halperin, Perry defends his controversial résumé and explains why Americans aren't looking for …
Lucky and Good: Rick Perry’s Lone Star Rise to Power
At some point in every major national politician’s life, their history becomes mythology and their persona becomes fixed in the public imagination. Rick Perry, his opponents and many pundits like to say, is a fortunate fellow, a …
Rick Perry’s Social Security Position Evolves
With Social Security sure to come up again at Monday night’s Republican presidential debate, Rick Perry set the stage with an op-ed in USA Today that, er, contextualizes his recent descriptions of Social Security as “a Ponzi …
On Social Security, Perry’s Not Suicidal
Plenty of people, not least the ones affiliated with the Romney campaign, are insisting that Rick Perry rendered himself all but unelectable last night by repeating his harsh view of Social Security, which he called a “Ponzi scheme” and “a monstrous lie” to young Americans. I’m not so sure.