Visual Source: Newseum
EJ Dionne:
You call tell how unhappy Republicans are by reading the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the one-stop shop for conservative orthodoxy. It fretted on Monday that Republicans and independents are “desperate” for a unifying candidate, and that if “the current field isn’t up to that, perhaps someone still off the field will step in and run.”
To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, having the Journal’s editorial page criticize the Republican presidential crop is like having L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, fret over the quality of the cardinals who want to be the next pope.
There was also the conservative Weekly Standard, another GOP bellwether, floating one more time the idea that Rep. Paul Ryan really and truly is thinking of running for president, the wish clearly being the father to this thought.
jason Linkins:
Most of the media presented the aftermath of the Ames Straw Poll as a newly clarified field of candidates. The 2012 ranks were rid of Tim Palwenty, the bland guy nobody liked who couldn't stand up to Mitt Romney. The field gained a new cartoon political superstar in the form of Rick Perry. Michele Bachmann was anointed anew with frontrunner juice (with a hint of "diva" backlash brewing in the background). And Ron Paul's second place finish was dismissed, despite the obvious influence his long-held politics were having over the race.
And all of that "clarity" lasted ... oh, you know ... a few hours. And then, suddenly, things weren't clear anymore.
Gene Lyons:
Perry may be exactly the bully they seek. Even executing a seemingly innocent man -- almost everybody who’s looked into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham thinks so -- and then openly tampering with a commission charged with investigating the case, makes him a hero to some.
"It takes balls to execute an innocent man," one hairy-chested patriot famously told a focus group. I think that guy sends me weekly emails.
Stephen Stromberg:
Don’t disagree with Rick Perry. Because if you do, he’s liable to treat you pretty ugly .
Of the better-known politicians on the Tea Party right, Perry is perhaps among the most willing to exploit a nasty politics of suspicion and accusation. He hasn’t been running for president a week, and the strategy is already as familiar as it is shallow.
NY Times:
The Environmental Protection Agency is emerging as a favorite target of the Republican presidential candidates, who portray it as the very symbol of a heavy-handed regulatory agenda imposed by the Obama administration that they say is strangling the economy.
Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota wants to padlock the E.P.A.’s doors, as does former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas wants to impose an immediate moratorium on environmental regulation.
Representative Ron Paul of Texas wants environmental disputes settled by the states or the courts. Herman Cain, a businessman, wants to put many environmental regulations in the hands of an independent commission that includes oil and gas executives. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor, thinks most new environmental regulations should be shelved until the economy improves.
Only Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has a kind word for the E.P.A., and that is qualified by his opposition to proposed regulation of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming.
CSM:
A poll released Wednesday of likely voters in the New Hampshire GOP primary shows Mr. Romney retaining his lead: 36 percent, followed by Perry at 18 percent, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas at 14 percent, and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota at 10 percent. The poll, taken for NH Journal by the Republican firm Magellan Strategies, is the first out of New Hampshire since Perry entered the race on Aug. 13.
NY Times:
New Hampshire in recent primaries has not necessarily been kind to Southern Republicans, with former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, the winner of the Iowa caucuses, losing here to Senator John McCain of Arizona in 2008, and Mr. McCain beating George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas, in 2000.
Perhaps with that in mind, and with the furor over his Federal Reserve remarks still making headlines, Mr. Perry was less strident here on Wednesday than he had been since joining the campaign over the weekend.
Alan Boyle:
The comments are pretty much in line with what Perry has said in the past. He's playing off the suspicions raised by the "Climategate" e-mail controversy that broke in 2009. That flap revealed that the most outspoken climate researchers are all too human when it comes to talking about their intellectual adversaries in private — but in the end, they were mostly cleared of scientific malfeasance (although one published graph was judged to be "misleading").
The criticisms of Perry's view follow well-worn tracks as well: On the left-leaning Think Progress blog, Texas A&M climate researcher Andrew Dessler is quoted as saying that none of the credible atmospheric scientists in Texas agree with the governor. "This is a particularly unfortunate situation, given the hellish drought that Texas is now experiencing, and which climate change is almost certainly making worse," he said.
Think Progress goes so far as to list more than three dozen scientists who disagree with Perry.