White House pounces on Rick Perry crack

[ProSense]

White House pounces on Rick Perry crack

By Greg Sargent

Here’s another reason Republican establishment figures have to be unhappy about Rick Perry’s implied threat towards Ben Bernanke: It plays into the Obama strategy of presenting himself as the “adult in the room” while elevating more prominent expressions of Republican excess or outright whackjobbery and using them as a convenient foil.

The White House was quick to pounce on Perry’s claim today, with spokesman Jay Carney casting it as a sign that Perry doesn’t grasp the seriousness of the presidency:

“When you’re president or you’re running for president you have to think about what you’re saying, because your words have greater impact.”

He continued, “We take the independence of the Federal Reserve quite seriously and certainly think threatening the Fed chairman is probably not a good idea.”

As I said below, I don’t believe that Perry was actually threatening the Fed chairman. The reason Perry’s implied threat matters, in addition to being hilariously wrong on economic substance, is that it revealed a shoot-from-the-hip carelessness that raises questions about his fitness as a presidential candidate, as well as for the presidency itself. As conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin put it, the statement calls into question Perry's “gravitas factor.”

What’s more, the campaign’s subsequent refusal to retract the claim that Ben Bernanke might be engaged in “treasonous” behavior, and the refusal to disavow the threat implied in Perry’s remarks, raises the ugly possibility that Perry and his advisers think this sort of stuff could actually be helpful in a GOP primary. This has to be disconcerting to GOP establishment types who are wary of seeing more of it. Jonathan Martin reports that Perry’s gaffe will reinforce a sense among top GOP donors who want to beat Obama above all else that Perry has a “cowboy problem,” perhaps making them worry about his prospects in a general election.

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[louis-t]

1. Not even going to touch that one....

:blush:

[Kennah]

3. Might be a line, given the lack of closet space over at the GOP.

[JBoy]

2. If you translate Perry's words into Persian, you get Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

[flamingdem]

7. I believe you nt

[lunatica]

12. Farsi is the language. Persian is the culture and history

[JBoy]

13. Actually "Persian" is the correct English term for the language

http://www.payvand.com/news/05/dec/1063.html

Persian (Iranian) people in the English-speaking countries are the only community who use two different terms to refer to their language, "Farsi" and "Persian." This behavior has caused some confusion among the Westerners as to the appropriateness of these terms.

"Farsi" (an Arabic adaptation of the word "Parsi"), is the indigenous name of the Persian language. Just as the German speaking people refer to their language as 'Deutsch', the Greek 'Ellinika' and the Spanish 'Espanol', the Persians use 'Farsi' or 'Parsi' to identify their native form of verbal communication.

In English, however, this language has always been known as "Persian" ('Persane' in French and 'Persisch' in German'). But many Persians migrating to the West (particularly to the USA) after the 1979 revolution continued to use 'Farsi' to identify their language in English and the word became commonplace in English-speaking countries.

The Academy of the Persian Language and Literature (Farhangestan) in Tehran has also delivered a pronouncement on this matter and rejected any usage of the word "Farsi" instead of Persian/Persa/Persane/Persisch in the Western languages.

[lunatica]

14. Thanks. The correction is appreciated

:hi:

[Scurrilous]

4. K & R

:thumbsup:

[JaneQPublic]

5. Better use both feet.... everything's bigger in Texas. (nt)

[sundancekid]

15. to quote ambinder analogously but accurately in this case:

Perry is such a d*ck. Here's quoting Molly Ivins (RIP): “Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president… please pay attention.”

[Sheepshank]

6. The problem with Perry verbalizing ANY threat to another public person

is several fold. It hardly matters if the threat was implied, rhetoric or otherwise:
1. It perpetuates the cowboy meme...shoot 'em up, take 'em down to take care of the problem
2. It perpetuates the ideology that there is a lethal way to take care of persons with whom one disagrees.
3. It perpetuates the ideology that Perry has balls and this is the preferred and accepted political discourse. Just waiting for Perry the throw out the Palin "Man Up" theme.
4. I confirms that Perry is so cock sure that the nation aggrandizes Texas' death penalty history.
5. Whether this is a threat or not the Bernanke, he's attempting to manipulate this department's operation with implied threats.

[kestrel91316]

8. Bernanke and Obama to apologize for upsetting Perry in 3...2...1...

[emulatorloo]

9. Bullshit n/t

[Inuca]

11. Utter BS n/t

[scheming daemons]

10. get used to that subject title being used over and over for next 15 months.