Perry emphasizes upbringing, values
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) delivered a folksy stump speech to a conservative crowd in South Carolina curious whether the 2012 presidential candidate will run again in 2016.
Breaking a pattern, Perry spoke in a crafted address from behind a podium, where he emphasized his rural upbringing and staunch opposition to illegal immigration.
“I told President Obama last summer: If you won’t secure the border, Texas will!” Perry said in one of the speech’s biggest applause lines.
{mosads}The optics and tone of the address highlighted what might be a struggle for a Perry candidacy this election cycle.
If he declared for the White House, the 65-year-old would be running against a slew of younger and looser candidates who can deliver folksy narratives that rival Perry’s.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R), who spoke prior to Perry, were freer in their delivery and less conventional in their choice of words.
That doesn’t mean the Freedom Summit crowd did not respond to Perry, however.
In a nod to criticism that he is not the brightest prospective GOP candidate, Perry joked that he graduated in the “top 10 of my high school class” — a “class of 13.” The crowd responded with laughter.
Each of Perry’s applause lines elicited a healthy response, and he received a standing ovation at the end of his remarks.
“There is nothing wrong with America today that cannot be fixed with new leadership,” he said. “I happen to believe that America’s best days are in front of us.”
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