Not all Texans enamoured of Rick Perry

Photo: Reinhard Heinen, Flickr

A friend of AKSARBENT's, wincing at Rick Perry's rise in national polls, (this was before his idiotic debate performances) all but prayed for the resurrection of Molly Ivins. ("I'm not antigun. I'm pro-knife.")

Fortunately, we may not need a second coming of Miss Ivins. In the deathless prose of George W. Bush himself: "Can't get fooled again."

The New York Times sums it up:

Unwilling to be taken for saps this time around — the local press pretty much gave G. W. B. a pass leading up to the 2000 election — many of the major publications have sharpened their coverage, especially since Perry announced. Cronyism? The Houston Chronicle has been relentless in tracking Perry’s pay-to-play tendencies. Opposition to progressive health care? The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit Web site (which is affiliated with The New York Times), revealed that Perry had an experimental adult stem-cell procedure for his back pain. And my Texas Monthly colleague Paul Burka has been moonlighting as Cassandra, deploring the collapse of state institutions during Perry’s term.
...This isn’t just about snobbery but about something far more important here: money. Texans who have spent zillions to brag about the state’s opera and ballet companies, and who have paid the likes of Santiago Calatrava for architectural gewgaws, also know that multinational corporations aren’t willing to locate in a place that has awful schools and toxic air and that wears its provincialism proudly.