HAMPTON, N.H. — As he fought to right his
presidential campaign during a weekend trip here, Texas Gov. Rick Perry
repeatedly brandished two talismans.
One was the
black Sharpie pen he said he would use to obliterate President Obama’s
healthcare reform law on his first day in the Oval Office. The second
was a copy of the U.S. Constitution, which Perry had tucked in the
breast pocket of his sports coat and frequently retrieved.
They
were intended to reinforce Perry’s theme: that he shares the
rock-ribbed conservative values of Republican primary voters, despite
continued criticism from within the party about his support in Texas for
taxpayer-subsidized college tuition for illegal immigrants.
Perry
entered the race as the front-runner seven weeks ago, then faltered
with a series of debate performances that ranged from lackluster to
disastrous. Most recently he has stumbled not only over his tuition
position but his Florida debate statement that those who disagreed with
it “don’t have a heart.”
Even as he confronted
that fallout, Perry was sidetracked again on Sunday by a Washington Post
report that a hunting camp he and his family leased in Texas carried a
racial epithet as its name. The name—“Niggerhead”—had been painted on a
three-by-five-foot rock near the camp’s entrance for years, including
during Perry’s tenure as governor, according to the Post.
Perry
spokesman Ray Sullivan disputed some details in the story, but not the
ranch’s name. Sullivan said Perry’s father painted over the rock soon
after leasing the 1,000-acre parcel in the early 1980s, but visitors
interviewed by the Post said the name had been visible much later.
Businessman
Herman Cain, the only African-American in the Republican race,
excoriated Perry. “There isn’t a more vile, negative word than the
N-word, and for him to leave it there as long as he did, until … they
finally painted it over, is just plain insensitive,” Cain said in a Fox
News interview.
Perry’s campaign later said Cain
was “wrong” about when the word was obscured, and lauded what it called
the governor’s “long and strong record of inclusiveness.”
Before
that issue drew attention, Perry’s weekend emphasis in New Hampshire
was on making up for lost ground. He concentrated on favorite Republican
themes: spending, taxation and regulation. He held his fire toward his
GOP rivals and instead concentrated his attacks on President Barack
Obama, uttering Reagan-esque bromides, such as “There’s nothing ailing
America that freedom cannot cure.”
Perry cast his immigration stance as one derived from the constitution’s support for states’ rights.
“I
want to be clear this is a Texas issue,” Perry told a group of about
100 in Hampton. “The other 49, I not only defend, but respect, their
right to make the decision on these issues as they see fit for their
citizens.”
Later, in Manchester, Perry expanded on his earlier statement and put the ultimate blame on the federal government.
“For
too long we’ve had a federal government that would not, and continues
to not, put the resources in place—the strategic fencing in place, the
boots on the ground, the aviation assets in the air to secure that
border,” Perry said.
Perry
opened another potential controversy at the same event, when he
suggested that the election may provide a new opportunity to build a
trusting relationship between the governments of the U.S. and Mexico,
particularly when it comes to fighting drug cartels.
He
envisioned American soldiers working in Mexico, as they have done in
Colombia, to help stop the drug cartels that contribute to the country’s
corruption and economic struggles.
“The way that
we were able to stop the drug cartels in Columbia was with a coordinated
effort,” Perry said. “It may require our military in Mexico working in
concert with them to kill these drug cartels and to keep them off of our
border and to destroy their networks.”
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%uFFFD2011 the Los Angeles Times
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