No Details Yet From Perry on Jobs
Gov. Rick Perry has been making the campaign rounds in New Hampshire. Photo by Ben Philpott for KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The next big moment in the Republican presidential campaign is Tuesday’s debate at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, focusing on the U.S. economy. Gov. Rick Perry touts his economic record in Texas, but his focus on job creation has yet to yield any specifics in his campaign.
Perry’s policy plans, or lack thereof, were front and center at the last GOP debate in Orlando, Fla., especially when Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Perry just how he would create jobs in the country.
“Well, you’ll see a more extensive jobs plan, but the fact of the matter is you look at the state of Texas and see what we’ve done there,” Perry responded.
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has a 59-point jobs plan. Newly energized candidate Herman Cain has released details on how he’d overhaul the nation’s tax system. But so far, Perry has given few specifics on any national policies.
Southern Methodist University political science professor Cal Jillson says the longer Perry waits, the more opportunity he loses.
“At some point he’s got to move from the sort of bumper-sticker ideological generalities that have worked in Texas to the kinds of in-depth, paragraph-length explanations of complicated issues that people expect of a presidential candidate,” Jillson told KUT News.
Perry isn’t the only one who hasn’t presented details on jobs or any other policy plans. Most of the candidates just have three or four paragraphs up on a web page explaining their ideas on any given topic.
But considering Perry’s most recent debate performances, more details to reference in appearances such as next week’s economic debate might help silence some critics.
Even so, Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak says, it’s not smart to rush to release an unfinished plan. And now that the campaign’s first major fundraising reporting deadline has come and gone, Perry has more time to work on the details.
“They can now turn to really spending time doing debate preparation, really spending time in the early states campaigning, really spending time unveiling policy proposals,” Mackowiak told KUT News.
The Perry campaign says it has a timeline for releasing detailed policy papers and won’t deviate from it, though it won’t reveal specifics.
“More detailed policy proposals are going to be made at the appropriate time,” campaign spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told KUT News. “As far as the upcoming debate is concerned, the governor is looking forward to it. He’s going to be talking about his record in Texas, his successful record of creating jobs.”
Jillson says the Lusitania had a timeline too, and adds that when the ship starts to sink, you might want to consider changing plans instead of plowing ahead and expecting to get to port on time.
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