February 9, 2012 5:06 pm by: Nathan Bernier

Gov. Rick Perry hasn't completely left the national spotlight. Photo by KUT News
Gov. Rick Perry may have abandoned his bid for the presidency, but today he stepped back into the national spotlight.
Perry spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, touching on many of the themes of his failed presidential bid -- including a populist attack on Wall Street’s role in the housing crisis.
“Those paying the price are not the large banks who were overleveraged, not the insurance companies who took on too much risk, not even the executives who continued to reap these large bonuses even after the walls came tumbling down,” Perry said. “Nope. It was people like you and me. It was those of you in this audience and all across this country that are paying the price: average Americans.”
But the line that got the most applause was a reference to something Clint Eastwood said in a commercial that aired during last Sunday’s Super Bowl.
“If it’s halftime in America, I’m fearful of what the final score’s going to be if...
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It’s been about 2 and a half weeks since Governor Rick Perry dropped his bid for the GOP Presidential nomination. Last night, he made his first public appearance since the end of his campaign to a packed house at an annual Williamson County GOP event. It was his first speech to follow his first political defeat.
To say it was a friendly crowd would be an understatement. Governor Perry received a standing ovation just for entering the room. He got a second one when the event’s moderator mentioned his name. The crowd was exuberantly welcoming home a favored son from the battlefield. When Lt. Governor David Dewhurst introduced Perry, he used a famous quote by Theodor Roosevelt who famously said, it is not the critic who counts.
“The credit belongs to the man who’s actually in... » read more
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It was a night of faith and tears for the GOP candidates in Iowa. 6 of the 8 top tier candidates were at a forum hosted by the conservative Christian group The Family Leader in Des Moines.
The evening promised to be different from the multiple debates the candidates have attended. With moderators...
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A three-judge federal panel in San Antonio issued a set of proposed redistricting maps for the 2012 elections on Wednesday. Several groups, including the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, argued the maps drawn by the Texas legislature earlier this year took voting power away from...
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Newly — and fiercely — critical of using public office for personal financial gain, Gov. Rick Perry this week unveiled a campaign ad demanding that lawmakers who use “insider knowledge to profit in the stock market” be jailed, and he rolled out an overhaul plan of the federal government...
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The presidential election of 2012 promises to be one of the most contentious in decades, and will sharply redraw the norms of political campaigning. KUT News has Senior Reporter B…...
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One thing lost in much of the clamor around Gov. Rick Perry's debate stumble last week is that he's calling for the elimination of three federal agencies. The fate of similar attempts in the past indicates a small likelihood of changes now.
When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, he...
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Texas Governor Rick Perry climbed back into the debate saddle last night. It was his first time on stage after flubbing a campaign line. And, in another first, it was a good night for Perry.
He started the night clearly outside of the spotlight. The Governor ranked 5th in one South Carolina...
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Before the “um” heard round the world Wednesday night, political pundits were saying that Texas Governor Rick Perry had to win South Carolina in order to remain a viable candidate in the GOP presidential primary. Now the question is whether that’s changed from "Must Win" to "Can’t...
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Federal judges proposed new political maps for the state late Thursday and hope to have new congressional and legislative maps in place for Texas on the Monday after Thanksgiving.
That’s the court-set date when candidates for the Texas House and Senate and for the state’s 36 congressional...
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Texas Governor Rick Perry spent the last week trying to make people forget about his brain freeze when naming three federal agencies he would cut if elected President. That effort included delivering a policy speech where he said he would take a wrecking ball to Washington D.C.'s bureaucracy.
On...
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Rick Perry never forgets he’s running for president based on his record as governor of Texas. Gardner Selby of PolitiFact Texas and the Austin American-Statesman talks with KUT’s Emily Donahue about a TV ad Perry is running in the key primary states Iowa and New Hampshire.
In the ad, Perry...
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Gov. Rick Perry is proposing to bring a little Texas to Washington — with a “part-time citizen Congress” that doesn’t meet so often, and whose members earn only half of what they make now.
The Republican presidential hopeful will also call for an end to lifetime appointments for federal...
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The Perry campaign has a good night in South Carolina...The Longhorns have a bad day in Missouri...Formula One's boss wonders aloud whether there will ever be a race day in Austin....
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Politics is hard, and it gets harder as you move up the food chain.
Look at Rick Perry, whose 27-year political career has taken him to the top of state government in a state known for tough politics. His status has gone from hero to hospice faster than Vince Young’s.
His “oops” — in...
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Gov.
Rick Perry is in damage control mode this morning, reminding supporters of gaffes by other candidates who became presidents after a painful stumble in last night's Republican primary debate in which he could not name one of three...
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