Bobby Jindal Joins Perry’s Iowa Bus Tour
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (left) joined Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign bus tour in Iowa Tuesday. Photo by Ben Philpott/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.
With two weeks to the first vote of the 2012 presidential race, Texas Governor Rick Perry revved up his bus tour of Iowa Tuesday by bringing a long-time supporter along for the ride.
Rick Perry hopped off the bus in Maquoketa, Iowa with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal close behind. The two have been policy allies for years as Republican governors of neighboring states. Jindal endorsed Perry earlier this year, and his presence in Iowa seemed to add pep to Perry’s step.
“He understands what it’s going to take to cut taxes, cut spending, to balance our budget, to get rid of those excessive regulations, produce more energy at home but most importantly, he is a governor that has lead,” Jindal said, “he will not need on the job training.”
Jindal had an immediate affect, when he corrected Gov. Perry at his first event of the day. A woman asked about Perry’s flat tax proposal. And when the candidate had trouble recalling whether people would still be able to take their standard personal deduction, Jindal jumped in.
“The standard deduction stays in…oh that’s right,” Perry said, as Jindal interrupted to help him out, “as a matter of fact we raised it to 12,500 per family I think. Thank you for correcting me on that, Governor, not that I ever make a mistake.”
The Perry campaign is pulling out all the stops in advance of the first GOP test: the second new ad in a week. This one paints fellow GOP presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney as political and business insiders. On tour, Perry told reporters he didn’t think the ad had turned his campaign “negative.”
The bus tour does appear to be reinvigorating Perry. More reporters and larger crowds showed up at Tuesday’s stops than those earlier in this bus tour. But not everyone was swayed. Dale Peters was happy that Perry had stopped and spent close to an hour walking the town square in his town of DeWitt. But Peters had hoped to hear the candidate speak.
“No that’s why I’m here. And I didn’t find out anything today. Just that he was here,” Peters said.
Perry and Jindal will hit the trail again today. It’s less than two weeks to the Iowa Caucuses.
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