Did you know Rick Perry wrote a book last year? He even managed to drag Newt Gingrich away from Tiffany's long enough to write the foreword. Score! According to Perry's author's note:
I want this book to help foster a nationwide conversation about the proper role of government in our lives.
And if you want to know what Perry thinks about, say, Social Security, according to Perry, "Get a copy and read it."
But according to Perry's communication director, don't believe what you read.
[Perry's] communications director, Ray Sullivan, said Thursday that he had “never heard” the governor suggest [Social Security] was unconstitutional. Not only that, Mr. Sullivan said, but “Fed Up!” is not meant to reflect the governor’s current views on how to fix the program. [...]
In an interview, Mr. Sullivan acknowledged that many passages in Mr. Perry’s “Fed Up!” could dog his presidential campaign. The book, Mr. Sullivan said, “is a look back, not a path forward.” It was written “as a review and critique of 50 years of federal excesses, not in any way as a 2012 campaign blueprint or manifesto,” Mr. Sullivan said.
So … people who have questions for Perry should go buy his book and read it, but they shouldn't be dumb enough to think that what Perry said in his book nine months ago reflects Perry's "current views." After all, he's had a lot of time to think and reflect and grow since November. Just because he wrote then that Social Security is unconstitutional doesn't mean he thinks that now. Duh.
So what does he think about Social Security now? Well, he'd no doubt love to tell us ... if he ever stops shoving food in his mouth to avoid answering the question.