(Note: Thanks to a snafu, the timestamp on this post was accidentally updated. It was actually published on Thursday, October 13 at 3:25PM PT.)
After watching this speech, I think the Perry campaign must have hired Sarah Palin (or her ghostwriter) to pen these for Rick Perry's wife, Anita. Here's a sampling,
from NBC:
"It’s been a rough month. We have been brutalized and beaten up and chewed up in the press to where I need this today," she said. "We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party. So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith. He is the only true conservative – well, there are some true conservatives. And they’re there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose."
The sound you're hearing is the sound of me playing the world's smallest violin. Yes, Perry has been under attack by his own party's establishment. Yes, some of those attacks have been unfair—I'm thinking of the attacks on him for allowing children of immigrants to attend state schools, or accusing him of trying to poison Texas schoolgirls with HPV vaccine.
But when you're not just personally responsible for the execution of innocent man, but you're also proud of your record on capital punishment, then you don't get to complain. You don't get to run a woe-is-me campaign. And you don't get to say you are on a mission from God.
She likened Perry's decision to run to encountering a "burning bush," a reference to the Biblical story of Moses receiving a sign from God. And Anita Perry suggested that her husband's current difficulties were a "test."
"Last week, someone came up to Rick and gave him the scripture. He said Rick, I want to tell you God is testing you," she said.
No. This campaign isn't Rick Perry's test. The test of Rick Perry's moral courage came when he was confronted with the decision of whether to take Cameron Todd Willingham's life. And he failed that test, miserably.