Thread: Infighting and blame in Perry campaign

dallasnews.com
By
Christy Hoppe/Reporter
10:25 AM on Sat., Dec. 31, 2011

A few of the new team that arrived to salvage the Rick Perry presidential campaign are now blaming the governor's cadre of longtime political aides for how he lost the lead and now is struggling to stay in the race.

Politico.com reports that the new team arrived in October to find that opposition research hadn't been done on Perry himself, so that is why he was caught flat-footed with the attacks about his in-state tuition program for illegal immigrants. The blame also is cast on his close-knit advisers for failing to properly prepare him for the debates.

My own reporting shows that there was consternation that Perry's long-time guru, Dave Carney of New Hampshire, spent too much candidate time and resources in the Granite State, where Perry had little chance of placing in the top three. And the campaign was disorganized and overwhelmed. Fair enough.

But on the oppo research, the old guard team already knew where Perry's vulnerabilities were. There are plenty of tough conservatives in Texas to point those out. GOP and tea party legislators have hammered him on immigration and the HPV vaccine. The Perry folks didn't need to spend a lot of money for some consultant to tell them what they already knew.

And while Perry was ill-prepared for debates and the message discipline required in a presidential campaign, the candidate must shoulder some of this blame. He jumped in on a very short window, in back pain and with only a few months preparation. He strayed from the script. A reliable source told me that during one of the first debates where the new team came on board, a top new team member blew up while watching the debate and seeing Perry spin away from what had been prepared. "Why did he do that?" the exasperated newbie asked Perry confidant Dierdre Delisi. "If I knew that," a very sharp Delisi replied, "you wouldn't be here."

One last note: it's probably not surprising that the leaders -- Mitt Romeny and Ron Paul -- have done this before. The best preparation for running for president, apparently, is to have done it before.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.c...-in-perry.html

blogs.dallasobserver.com
By Robert Wilonsky
Sat., Dec. 31 2011 at 11:44 AM

Schutze said it the other day: Gov. Rick Perry's probably just a few days away from crawling back to Austin with his tail tucked between Anita's legs. We'll know more tonight at 7, when the Des Moines Register releases its all-important Iowa Poll, and Happy New Year to you too. But this morning, several Friends of Unfair Park send word: Already some of Perry's own people are prepping the parachutes just in case this thing goes further south and God decides He really tapped the wrong haircut on the shoulder.

Politico chatted up Perry staffers, and they've got all their reasons at the ready: It's Dave Carney's fault for running a presidential campaign like a governor's race. Or: His positions did him in, like that whole thing about offering in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. Or: Maybe he just opened his mouth. Maybe that was all it took. Or: All of the above.

"There has never been a more ineptly orchestrated, just unbelievably subpar campaign for president of the United States than this one," said a senior Perry adviser.

Rick Perry, Herman Cain thanks you. Free pizza for life.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...n_has_been.php