Smarter Politicking

I see that Drudge is headlining with Rick Perry shooting news:

Ready, aim fire. That’s apparently Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s idea of relaxation before returning to the campaign trail this weekend.

Ahead of Saturday night’s ABC News-Yahoo-WMUR debate in New Hampshire Perry took a few moments to himself at an Austin-area shooting range.

I would suggest that smarter politicking would be to hit up a range in New Hampshire or South Carolina. Just sayin’. Maybe some Rick Perry supporters in those states would like to offer his campaign some local range recommendations. I wonder if the Brady Campaign will issue an update to their “We hate Rick” report with this news.

19 thoughts on “Smarter Politicking”

  1. That would be exactly the kind of meaningless crapola that everyone would fall for, reinforcing that gun owners are just as stupid as they take us to be.

  2. Andy, I’ll concede that there’s meaningless crapola to go around all of the candidates, but consider this. In the course of visiting 50 or more shooting ranges, do you think that no one would ask the candidate about:

    -Assault weapons bans
    -Shall-issue or constitutional carry
    -NFA reform (to include repeal of 922(o))
    -GCA reform

    or any other of a multitude of pet peeves of firearms owners? At least firearm owners would have a much clearer understanding of a candidates’ positions.

    As Bitter notes, it would be awesome, but I’m afraid that with few exceptions, most of the current GOP candidates would get the vapors after about 10 visits.

  3. Time at the shooting range is never wasted, no matter who you are. Went yesterday and expended an extravagant amount of old ammunition. Both EOTech sights are now zeroed and it was a beautiful South Texas day.

    Not a fan of Rick. Fortunately the office of Governor here in Texas is a very weak one. The real political power is with the Lieutenant Governor. All the positive things Rick takes credit for, most likely would’ve occured anyway. He’s not ready for prime time.

  4. I would suggest that smarter politicking would be for him to ensure his name is actually on the ballot so that people can vote for him.

    1. If you’re referring to Virginia, where new (I read last November) rules/law made is the toughest state in the nation to get on the ballot, i.e. they’re playing the classic NY state game, then that’s a pretty high bar you’re suggesting. Yep, it does say something about his not entirely adequate ground game; the general impression I’ve got is that he and his people really did decide at the last minute to join the race. What this says about his fitness for the office is however entirely unclear to me.

      1. He only needed 10,000 signatures. NY requires 50,000 to get on the ballot for Governor and 3rd parties have no problem running candidates.

        1. Including 400 in every Congressional District, which could actually be hard in 2 of the very blue ones, e.g. 8th with the idiots reelecting Moran the thug (i.e. my old Congressional District :-). The 3rd looks even harder, many fewer Republicans and presumably less political ones (the 8th is Arlington etc. where a lot of staffers and the like live and commute into D.C).

          Your comparison to NY falls flat since a number of purely state 3rd parties are very strong. Hmmm, I wonder how ACORN’s 3rd party is doing, they tipped the statehouse balance over to liberal Democrats the last time I checked.

  5. NYs signatures must be collected across the state as well. Voter registration lists are public information so it’s not like it’s difficult to find registered Republicans anywhere in the country.

    Bottom line: Rick isn’t ready for prime time. This demonstrates a serious lack of planning and grassroots support on his part.

  6. Packetman:

    I take your point about why it would be good thing if a candidate showed up at lots of ranges, as long as it wasn’t just analogous to baby-kissing. (Or, gun owner ass-kissing, without any substance behind it — as in more smoke-blowing than kissing.)

    A good friend of mine just pointed out how our issue has been totally missing from all of the Republican campaigns, unless you count Perry’s alleged coyote-shooting and the bird hunting photo-ops. (If I missed something, let me know.) Why haven’t our guys been challenging the candidates more?

    1. Why haven’t our guys been challenging the candidates more?

      Because things have been going so well for us? Because we don’t believe a word coming out of Romny’s mouth including ‘and’ and ‘the’?

      Since Gore’s loss in 2000 gun control has become something of a third rail of American politics at the national level, we’ve got to this point described by Milton Freedman:

      I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.

      With Obama being front and center as one of those “wrong people” on the issue of gun control.

      Getting back to your question, with gun control off the table other things are more important to most of us. At the moment I personally am a lot more concerned that I might have to use my guns in the near to middle future (due to the consequences of economic and/or fiscal breakdown) than that the government might try to go after them.

  7. The shooting range that Perry was attending is near the state capitol (other side of the river)in Austin. With Perry I do not think it was a political event.

  8. “Because things have been going so well for us?”

    I’m thinking of many metaphors, including the fable of the tortoise and the hare. We should not be contemplating victory celebrations just because a few battles of arguable significance have been won.

    If it is true we have made gun rights a “third rail” of politics then we should be doubling its voltage and forcing every candidate in the country to pee next to it.

    It seems to me what is happening with the Republican presidential campaign is we ASS U ME that because most of the candidates have generalized “conservative” bona fides as social conservatives, it goes without saying that they are authentic supporters of gun rights. I’d submit that what many candidates have learned is how to make the necessary petty gestures in our direction to keep us as reliable supporters for their other, unrelated issues, without ever delivering substance in proportion to their well-rehearsed rhetoric.

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