Rick Perry Wins GOP Primary, Calls It Loss for Obama [Politics]
Ed Note: For a look at what transpired at Bill White's victory party in Houston, our sister site, Houstonist, has a great recap.
In his primary election victory speech, incumbent Gov. Rick Perry didn't mention his opponent, former Houston Mayor Bill White. Not even once. Rick Perry isn't running against Bill White. He's running against the Obama administration and Washington, DC.
"It is clear that the Obama administration and its allies has Texas in its crosshairs," he told a crowd of supporters that returned shouts of, "Bring it on!"
He addressed his supporters in Driftwood as if he was speaking atop a smoldering pile of the final remains of socialism. That's kinda odd considering he had just defeated a U.S. Senator with one of the most conservative voting records and a Republican county chairwoman who offered voters an even more conservative alternative to Perry.
It's magnificent political theatre, but Perry also risks alienating supporters of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina. Hutchison says she will line up and support Perry. She called for unity in the Texas Republican Party during her concession speech. But will her supporters follow?
Perry's continued rant against Obama and Washington certainly reads like a page out of the Medina handbook, but he has yet to invite them to join his cause outside of a general call for support from Tea Party Patriots.
While Hutchison ran a horrible campaign, her supporters felt Austin needed to head in a new direction. That's a possible opening for White. But we don't need to guess how White will attack Perry. He laid that out in his primary victory speech in Houston.
White says Perry is only looking to take credit for the good things in Texas, but also needs to take responsibility for the problems including record unemployment in the state.
White took the opportunity to define himself as an anti-big government candidate. He charged that the Perry campaign will continue to "point fingers at Washington and talk about the growth of government so you wont notice the alarming growth in government in Austin. ... They will talk about the massive amounts of debt in Washington, which none of us agree with, in order to hide the fact that debt as doubled under Perry."
White included a series of specific charges against Perry directly on immigration, education and the importance of empowering local governments.
Perry's election night speech sounded like more of a pitch to be the next U.S. President than a request to ask Texas voters for an additional four year term. White took Perry on in a direct manner. Who do you think will win in November?
