Rick Perry: Texas Gaullist

I’m sure Karl Rove is, on this at least, correct: Rick Perry’s book will cause him problems for as long as he remains in the race for the Republican nomination. To put it gently, few Americans believe that Social Security and many other federal programmes are unconstitutional; even fewer are likely to vote for a candidate who was on record, as recently as last year, suspecting that they might be and that these matters were properly the purview of the 50 states, not Washington.

So it will be interesting to see how, if at all, Perry is attacked in tonight’s debate*. There is no shortage of large-bore ammunition. Against that, a book titled Fed Up! pretty accurately captures the mood in the United States even if disgruntled voters might differ from Perry on any number of specific issues. On the larger question of Happy vs Mad As Hell he may be closer than the President to the people.