1of32Texas Gov. Rick Perry held a press conference Thursday, Jan. 19, to announce he is suspending his campaign for president.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less2of32"With a good wife, with three loving children and a loving God in my life, things are going to be good no matter what I do," he said.AFP/Getty ImagesShow MoreShow Less3of32Campaign workers take down Perry's sign following the 11 a.m. news conference.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less4of32The announcement comes days before the Republican primary in South Carolina. He has endorsed Newt Gingrich.AFP/Getty ImagesShow MoreShow Less5of32Some supporters immediately pledge their support to Gingrich.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less6of32The day before Perry dropped out, conservative commentators said it was time for him to leave the race.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less7of32On Wednesday, Perry's spokesman said he had no intentions of leaving the race and any changes in his schedule were not indications of an ending campaign.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less8of32Perry had been polling behind Romney, Gingrich and Santorum in South Carolina.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less9of32Perry was expected to drop out after a poor performance in Iowa, but instead announced on Twitter, "Here we come South Carolina!"Show MoreShow Less10of32Perry, with wife Anita on the night of the Iowa caucus Jan. 3, placed fifth in the state and had decided to reassess his candidacy.Getty ImagesShow MoreShow Less11of32Texas Monthly awarded the governor the Bum Steer of the Year, as the person who “has been responsible for the biggest screw-up, gaffe, fumble, stumble, train wreck, or humiliation of the past twelve months.”Show MoreShow Less12of32In a controversial ad released in early December, Perry lamented how “gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.” It got 200,000 dislikes in less than a day and started a wave of YouTube parodies.Show MoreShow Less13of32Perry even appeared on Letterman to play up his political punchlines, including his inability to remember a list of three.Show MoreShow Less14of32Perry's most famous gaffe came during a Nov. 9 debate in Michigan, when he could not list the three government agencies he would eliminate as president.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less15of32Perry loosened things up at speech in New Hampshire in October, so much so that viewers speculated he was drunk or on drugs as he shouted "Live Free or Die!" at the crowd.Show MoreShow Less16of32Perry announced his flax-tax economic plan, “cut, balance, grow,” in October. He said Americans would be able to fill out their taxes on a postcard.Show MoreShow Less17of32During a particularly aggressive CNN debate performance in Las Vegas Oct. 18, Perry was the one to go after Mitt Romney about hiring illegal immigrants.GettyShow MoreShow Less18of32Anita Perry as well as Perry's spiritual friends and supporters said his campaign was part of a mission from God.McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceShow MoreShow Less19of32Anita Perry said her husband was "brutalized" by the press and his political opponents over his Christian faith. The Perrys are Methodists attending an evangelical church.SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSShow MoreShow Less20of32Perry supporter Rev. Robert Jeffress, who introduced the governor at the Value Voters Summitt, controversially proclaimed that Mormons like Mitt Romney were cultish and not real Christians.Show MoreShow Less21of32The governor was parodied on SNL nearly every week this fall, often by Bill Hader but also by guest host Alec Baldwin.Show MoreShow Less22of32Perry raised more than $17 million during the first six weeks of his campaign and consistently topped totals by Gingrich, Bachmann, Santorum and Huntsman.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less23of32A Washington Post article published in October tied Perry with a family hunting ranch that had the N word painted on a rock on its property, but Perry said the name had long been changed.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less24of32During the first few debates, opponents—Michele Bachmann in particular—attacked Perry’s mandate to have Texas girls vaccinated for HPV.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less25of32Perry led national polls in September with 28 percent of the vote, beating out Romney and Bachmann.
Republican candidates two days before the Florida straw poll. (Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack-Pool/Getty Images)GettyShow MoreShow Less26of32Perry initially pumped up Texas’ strong job record and promised to create jobs across America as president.GettyShow MoreShow Less27of32Days after starting his campaign, Perry was in Iowa for the state fair, which coincides with the straw poll.GettyShow MoreShow Less28of32Perry announced his run for president at a Red State gathering in South Carolina on August 13.SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSShow MoreShow Less29of32Conservative evangelicals looking for "their" candidate applauded his entry into the race.SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSShow MoreShow Less30of32Perry declared the U.S. a nation in crisis prior to starting his presidential campaign, drawing Christians to Texas for a huge prayer rally in August.Associated PressShow MoreShow Less31of32The governor drew 30,000 people to pray at Reliant Stadium in Houston, amid concern that the event mixed Perry's presidential ambitions and role as governor with his religious faith.Houston ChronicleShow MoreShow Less32of32Perry prayed about entering the Republican race, saying in July, "I’m getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do."Associated PressShow MoreShow Less
By Patricia Kilday Hart Houston Chronicle Columnist
Only three days ago, it was Moses, God’s chosen one. Before that, Rick Perry tried on and shed other alter-egos: Galileo. Tim Tebow. William Barret Travis. The combined Allied Expeditionary Forces.
When the autopsy of the mercifully expired Rick Perry presidential campaign is complete (and the scalpels went to work even as he spoke Thursday morning in South Carolina), no physical defect will be blamed for the protracted debacle.
No, the post-mortem will likely identify the campaign’s fatal flaw as a deep psychological disorder, one that revealed itself in the glare and stress of a national campaign. Since his first slip in the polls (and slip of the tongue on the debate stage), Perry has been in the throes of a very public identity crisis as painful as pre-pubescence. The more he compared himself to exalted heroes, the brighter the spotlight shone on his shortcomings.
The candidate who six months ago talked about job creation careened from theme to theme in recent weeks, as desperate to win approval as an insecure teenager. It backfired: Polls showed that voters wanted a grown-up in the White House instead.
Back on Aug. 13, his pitch-perfect announcement held promise: “Our country’s most urgent need is to revitalize our economy, stop the generational theft that is going on with this record debt. … It is time to get America working again.”
A week later, he led the Republican pack in a Gallup poll, with 29 percent of the voters preferring him to second-place Mitt Romney, who weighed in at 17 percent.
New Gingrich, with 4 percent, barely registered a pulse.
Unfamiliar territory
Then came the Orlando debate, when he had to defend his record in support of the Texas Dream Act, the state law that giving in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants who graduate from Texas high schools. He stood his ground, but it turned out to be unfamiliar territory: He’d lost his position on the far-right end of the Republican pack.
Rick Perry had never let that happen in any of his previous campaigns. Let’s face it. It didn’t really take political genius to hold onto his inherited job as governor in a state as red as Texas. To keep it, he’d needed only to convince some 750,000 (half the number of usual voters in the Republican Primary) that he was the most conservative candidate in the race. Remember 2010, when he easily dispatched political heavyweight Kay Bailey Hutchison by claiming the tea party movement as his own?
Post-Orlando, Perry grew increasingly desperate to re-assert his right-wing bonafides. But those darn debates kept coming! Soon he was in Michigan, experiencing a brain-freeze for the history books. It might have been forgiven, had he not been so flippant (oops?) about his mistake. He checked his last small and sad shred of dignity at the door of David Letterman’s green room.
By Iowa, his message about job creation had been shelved, replaced with ads about gays in the military and his Christian faith. The defender of our Founding Fathers seemed to have second thoughts about the legislative branch of government, suddenly suggesting Congress should only meet part-time. The man who once pledged allegiance to unfettered free markets began excoriating “vulture capitalism.” Was he advocating government regulation of Wall Street? Who was this guy?
Forget the Dream Act?
Actually, a guy not so different from the one who has served as Texas governor for the past decade. This is the man who de-regulated university tuition, but now complains it’s too high. And that Texas Dream Act he signed? This year, he advocated legislation permitting law enforcement officials — even school cops — to inquire about immigration status. The former Democratic state representative has always had an uncanny ability to shift with political winds.
Thursday, Perry expressed lovely sentiments when he suspended his campaign, but the contortions and expediency continued. The anti-Washington candidate who mentioned that he married his high school sweetheart in every speech embraced thrice-married Newt Gingrich, a guy who’s pulled down millions in Washington consulting contracts.
Perry’s campaign suspension was excellently timed to upstage the broadcast of an interview with Gingrich Wife Number Two, who revealed that Newt demanded an “open marriage.” To allay our confusion, our family values governor reminded us that redemption is a central tenet of Christianity.
Will his last act as a presidential candidate earn him something in the future? Will we be calling him Mr. Secretary, or at least, Mr. Ambassador? Stay tuned, to see what role Rick Perry will play next.
