Orlando (CNN) - After emerging bruised from Thursday night's Republican presidential debate in Orlando, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is stepping up his attacks against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, casting his chief GOP rival as "slick" and inauthentic.
"What Americans are looking for isn't the slickest candidate," Perry told Republican activists Saturday. "They are looking for an authentic principled leader. You've seen what happens when our country chooses leaders who emphasize words over deeds."
Perry was speaking at a breakfast, organized by his campaign, for delegates to the Presidency 5 Forum in Orlando, a convention of Florida Republicans that culminates with a presidential straw poll Saturday afternoon.
Although he did not mention his opponent by name, Romney was unmistakably in his sights.
"America doesn't need more slick promises," Perry said to applause. "We need a principled leader who will stand on his conservative values."
The Texan is the only major candidate actively courting the roughly 3,500 activists participating in the Presidency 5 straw poll.
Perry called Florida "the state that picks presidents," a remark that might irk Republican activists in Iowa and New Hampshire who firmly guard their leadoff positions in the presidential nominating process.
Perry recalled how he watched the 2000 Florida recount with anxiety when he was lieutenant governor of Texas, wondering if then-Gov. George W. Bush would pull out a victory and head to the White House.
Bush's win thrust Perry into the governor's mansion.
"And here we are, 11 years later, and I got all my hopes on Florida again," he said.
He implicitly chided Romney and other candidates who "spurned" the straw poll, calling their move "a big mistake."
Straw poll results are expected around 6 p.m., at which point Perry will be long gone.
Both he and Romney are slated to address the Mackinac Island GOP conference in Michigan in the evening.
From CNN Politics
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Perry is sly like a fox. Counting on Florida so he can steal an election. Guess if his cronies can't by him in the votes he will know in his heart that his conservative compadres on the Supreme Court will give him the election. Perry a man who makes his values clear education is nothing and money is everything in America.
What this country DOES NOT need is Conservatives or conservatism. They and their backward "principles" are a cancer to society and progress.
And by the way CNN, your attempts at trying to woo the right-wingers is sooo transparent.
Perry is also trying to be slick. Stupid slick. He has not got enough brains to paint a garage door.
This party will self destruct in ...........2...........1
For as much as I dislike Perry, I also dislike Romney. Best to stay out of the fray and let Mittens do his own dirty work.
If it were me, I'd reather be called "slick" than be known as a "thug". At least "slick" shows a degree of at least knowing something about class and intelligence. Perry is just a plain 'ol thug.
sounds like a case of "pot meet kettle" to me.
Is there no end to this cretan's big brass chutzpah? Is this bunch of clowns really the best and brightest that the GOP has to offer? It might be almost funny if it weren't so scary.
"AUTHENTIC PRINCIPLED" Who doesn't care about the common folks.
You've seen what happens when our country chooses leaders who emphasize words over deeds."........so, slick parry, for that reason alone pack your bags and go back to your federal government renovated mansion, we do not need your ignorance on the national satge, get lost UGH, PHEW
How Perry managed to call anyone else slick is beyond comprehension. What next?
If Republicans don't want the "Slickest" Republican politician out there, they can always vote for the "Slickest" Democratic politician out there.
All of those Obama-haters out there, let's just cut to the chase. You don't care who is elected President, what they believe, where they take the country. You just want a black man out of the Oval Office. But the rest of America isn't going to sit by why you push your racist ignorance.
Perry's only attribute is his ability to shout loudly and spout unfounded rhetoric. His biggest weakness is his own mouth. He will get louder as the press shows him falling behind. It's his style of the bully pulpit that has worked for him in Tx. It's unfortunate for him that most of America doesn't live under his bully regime, and can see thru him like a pane of glass.
Compared to stumbling, shallow, anti-intellectual, and inarticulate, I guess Larry and the two Brothers Darryl look slick. Why would Perry even offer up these comments because it will inevitably lead to someone calling him stupid......oh wait I think Romney did mention that fact the other day when referring to anyone who was in favour of giveaways to illegals.
"You've seen what happens when our country chooses leaders who emphasize words over deeds."
Yep. It's called The Bush Administration.
Mr. Perry may be authentic but "principled" may be stretching it a bit.
I told you. After the first debate, I have inferred that Perry is not an alternative to Obama. And, if you may want to believe, Republicans are yet to have a credible aspirant. Bunch of losers, I know them for.
There was not even one of those Republican "Candidates" that had the guts to stand up for that gay soldier when he was booed by some in that audience in an earlier debate. Had even one of those clowns had the guts to have said "Hey wait a minute here people, I want whoever had just booed an American Soldier to be evicted from this debate, or I am walking off this stage NOW!! You know, I might have actually considered voting for such a truly principled Republican candidate, but there were NONE, including Perry!!!!
At I saw the debate on Thursday I am totally convinced that Rick Perry is a "Car Salesman". He got a taste of dirty trick politics. He may be the longest sitting Governor in Texas but he got his clock cleaned on Thursday. As the campaign moves on Rick Perry will be shown as a "I'm in Charged President" and were going to run the country like "Texas". The more debates he gets into the more he's going to get his clock cleaned. Rick Perry is learning the hard way.
"There was not even one of those Republican "Candidates" that had the guts to stand up for that gay soldier when he was booed by some in that audience in an earlier debate. Had even one of those clowns had the guts to have said "Hey wait a minute here people, I want whoever had just booed an American Soldier to be evicted from this debate, or I am walking off this stage NOW!! You know, I might have actually considered voting for such a truly principled Republican candidate, but there were NONE, including Perry!!!!"
Wow, just wow. All this from a Democrat, A Democrat like the Democrats who spit on our soldiers and curse at them when they return home. A Democrat like the Democrats who called a great American General Betray-us, a Democrat like the Democrats who tried to throw out the oversea military votes in Florida 2000, and do it every election every chance they get.
I think it is time for gay Americans to be able to get married in America. However I'm not a Democrat so I'm against forcing churches to marry them, it is all about freedom for me so the last thing I would ever do is defy my morals and vote Democrat, the party that started the klan, calls great American tea party members terrorists including their Vice President, and over 80% of these Democrats who wish at the very least harm on everyone of their Conservative neighbors.
Of course Perry is slick.
He comes from one of Texas, where politics is a blood sport. If you want to be a political activist, candidate or office holder in Texas, you must be ready to have your life examined under a microscope. In Perry's case, his college grades are now online. It appears that he was a mediocre student at best. He averaged C and D grades. There is even an F or two on his sterling list of academic acheivments. The one place where he shined was in political courses. His grades are by no means his low point, but they do show why he has consistently lowered the standards of education in the state while holding the office of Governor.
My Great-Grandfather told me about Texas politics: "Politics are like cesspools, the really big chunks always seem to float to the top."
The best thing that could happen for President Obama's re-election chances would be for the economy to recover (not gonna happen); or for the Republicans to nominate Perry, Bachman or Santorum (see GOOGLE).
Here are some examples of "slickness," courtesy of Parry:
Speak out long and loud about the Stimulus Bill as un-American and that it "puts an unfair burden on employers," then quietly take $11 million to pay for the restoration of the Governor's mansion.
Threaten secession, whining and complaining about the federal government, then, when hit with the longest 11-month drought since 1895 and a horrific fire season, whine and complain that the feds aren't doing enough to help.
(For the record, Parry's got his history wrong – typical of a D student: Texas came into the Union with the ability to divide into five states. Texas did secede during the Civil War – siding with the South in their support of slavery – and could only reenter it after the South was defeated and it ratified the 13th Amendment, which banned slavery.)