It’s pretty apparent to anyone paying attention that Governor Rick Perry is no longer the belle of the ball among anxious GOP voters in search of a candidate who can mount a worthy challenge to President Obama’s bid for re-election.
Governor Perry’s fall from grace began with his stumbling performance at the last GOP presidential debate, in which he dared to defend Texas’ right to implement its own version of the DREAM Act. As a result of his comment that those who oppose granting in state tuition to children of illegal immigrants “don’t have a heart,” his stature was sullied in the eyes of the conservative base that was supposed to champion him.
And now thanks to a Washington Post story claiming his family leased a hunting ranch called “Ni**erhead” since the 1980s, Perry is making himself look even worse to the public at large.
WATCH REV. AL SHARPTON’S COVERAGE OF THE PERRY CONTROVERSY:
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The expected responses to the report have already poured in. His main opponent for the Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts governor and frontrunner Mitt Romney told Sean Hannity during a radio interview, “I think it’s offensive. I think most people think it’s offensive.” The newly re-energized candidate Herman Cain initially dismissed the Perry family’s handling of the matter as “insensitive,” although he’s since backed away from criticism following a backlash from conservatives like Rush Limbaugh.
There’s also been a number of “Rick Perry is not racist” declarations from multiple Texas politicians of every political persuasion, including Wallace Jefferson, the Perry-appointed first black chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Perry himself has claimed there are inaccuracies in the report and claims that the offensive term was painted over decades ago, though the Post quotes multiple anonymous sources with different recollections.
The damage may have already been done, though, which would make the Texas governor another example of a problem plaguing many southern candidates with political ambitions that stretch beyond familiar terrain.
While Republicans don’t rely on minority voters to win national elections, GOP leaders know that changing demographics won’t be kind to any candidate that invites widespread talk about racism. It’s a lesson another fallen star of the 2012 fold, Governor Haley Barbour, quickly learned once he caught flack for describing life growing up during the civil rights movement. “I just don’t remember it as being that bad,” he asserted in his Weekly Standard profile while defending a historically racist group,