Oh, Kay, I kept waiting for you to really call out your incumbent opponent for Texas governor - Rick Perry. Sure, you poo-poo'd his Trans Texas Corridor project, but you did it with all the useless venom of a lady whispering behind her hand about a companion's scuffed Manolo's.
Politics, as you should know, is a blood sport. It's more Mel Gibson in Braveheart than Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma. Yet, it feels as if your campaign is disjointed and malaise-ridden. And to top it off, Rick Perry has clay feet. You could easily topple him, yet you won't. He's the worst kind of politician, which, as I told someone else today, is like saying he's the worst kind of ass pimple.
But for giggles, lemme tell you how to beat (or at least come a lot closer to it) Rick Perry:
1. You went to the right of Perry. When you did, you found Debra Medina already comfy there. You don't have the record to be right of Perry. Your core demographic should've been centerist to mid-Perry. There are a ton of voters out there looking for a conservative with common sense that isn't afraid to sometimes wiggle to the left a little.
2. Perry has a literal metric crap ton of things to ding him on. The death penalty and his refusal to investigate the Willingham case. His inability to be proactive when it comes to a review of death penalty cases after Texas began leading the nation in exonerations. A governor interested in justice would've called a moratorium on executions until every case was reviewed. And we haven't even started on the TYC or all the issues with CPS. Or the fact that he's still refusing to pardon a man who died in prison and was posthumously exonerated.
3. Perry keeps talking about your use of earmarks. ANSWER HIM. Instead of that cockamamie dead issue of the Trans Texas Corridor you've beat like a dead horse already on the glue cart to get the ranchers all riled up, if you really want to connect with your potential rural constituents, tell them how you used earmarks to help communities like theirs to build this, fund that. Point out to Perry that these earmarks were on the behalf of Texas.
4. Call Perry on his hypocrisy. He claims he hasn't taken federal dollars, but no, what he's done is loudly proclaimed he wouldn't, squawked about secession, and then quietly applied for federal funds anyway. He is a lying liar who lies, and well, you probably are, too, but you could at least call him on his, because it's so very easy.
5. Grow a pair.
It is, honestly, probably too late for you to win, even if this thing goes to a runoff. So, Bill White, lemme say that nearly everything above also applies to you. The most recent Pew study about millennials pointed out that they self-identify overwhelmingly as Liberals, and as Democrats. Yet, they are probably unlikely to vote in a non-presidential election - unless you can fire them up. Perry's reckless disregard for justice and human life would do just that.
Getting their ire to simmer won't be enough. Go forth, and conflagrate.
