Presidential Candidate Rick Perry~In His Own Words

     Rick Perry would not be my first choice as a lifeline on "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?"  My impression of Perry was that of a cartoonish sort, good for a few laughs on a "Saturday Night Live" skit,  a caricature of a Texan running for president.  Friends disagree.  Roman Perez says "Absolutely, Rick Perry will be the next president of the United States."  Adela Garza adds:  "He surrounds himself with smart people and will make a great president."  Siria Garza agrees with many when she states:  "He is just so handsome."

     Providentially, much of this conversation initiated at  Pied Piper Pizza,  spilled over later at the Crescent Moon, then wrapped up in a wee hour phone call from a Republican candidate locator.  All of this Perrytosis in a 24 hour period was more than my curiousity could withstand, so I looked up some quotes.  Quotes only from the man with no more silly commentary by the Mean One:

On secession:

"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."

On border security:

"As a result, we continue to deal with violent Mexican drug cartels who work closely with transnational gangs on our side of the border operating with no regard for the law or respect for life.
The bad actors in Mexico are getting worse, an the risks to our citizens continue to rise along the border and in communities across this country where drugs continue to flow. We need 1,000 National Guard troops to support current law enforcement operations on our border until they can provide those 3,000 more border patrol agents. We also need Predator drones flying along the Texas-Mexico border providing real time intel to our state and local operation centers."

On immigration:

"After revelations that a Dallas man had set up a cottage industry procuring Texas driver licenses for illegal aliens hailing from countries around the world, I am an even stronger supporter of the DPS initiative to issue specialized, vertical driver licenses, to identify those who have overstayed their visa.

I also support an end to the notion of sanctuary cities. Local government sends the wrong message when they pick and choose what laws they want their peace officers to enforce.
We should also track the citizenship status of those receiving state-funded services so we can get our hands around the financial impact of Washington's failure to handle the immigration challenge. Some may oppose these efforts, but they are commonsense approaches to protecting our citizens' lives and resources."

On job creation:

"From November 2007 to November 2008, roughly 70% of the jobs created in the US were in Texas. Think about that for a moment. Our state is home to one out of ten Americans, but seven out of ten new American jobs were created here in the Lone Star State."

On gun control:

"The natural question arises, How, then, do the laws get enforced? The Supreme Court made crystal clear in the US v. Printz case, involving the enforcement of temporary provisions of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, that the federal government cannot commandeer state authorities to carry out federal law."
  

On private schools:

"Now I know most of you present here have already enrolled your children in some of our state's finest private schools. But I want to make private schools more accessible to Republican Christian families that cannot afford to pay high tuition and for those who cannot home school their children. In a city like Houston private school tuition can cost between $10,000 to $25,000 per year per child."