August 15, 2011

Politico's Ben Smith has trouble getting his mind around Rick Perry's manliness.

This is a weird column — titled "Was Perry packing?"
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a leading advocate of gun rights who likes to boast of having dispatched a coyote on a recent jog, so I asked him during today's walking press conference at the Iowa State Fair whether he was armed.

"I never comment on whether I'm carrying a handgun or not," he said. "That's why it's called concealed."
Guns are, in fact, banned at the fair, so Smith adds a parenthetical about how Perry could get in trouble. I can just picture Smith scampering along after Perry, chattering about how Perry could get in big trouble.
Perry's appearance at the fair, where he challenged reporters on whether they were "tough" enough to walk with him, chomped on meat and a hard-boiled egg and struck rugged poses was a well-staged political triumph. (The word "manly" got thrown around a lot, with varying degrees of irony, in the press pack.) 
What the hell does that even refer to?  What kind of whammy did Perry throw on these press boys? He ate a hard-boiled egg and "meat" and somehow that gets macho points with these characters?

UPDATE: Ben Smith tries to get his mind around this mockery and I mock him again.

51 comments:

chickelit said...

Was Ben Smith intimidated? LOL!

DADvocate said...

Manliness is rather rare in liberal circles. Obama's a regular he-man to those guys.

chickelit said...

Sound like one quick visit to Wisconsin's State Fair next year will sew up the state for Perry.

MayBee said...

Was the sun glinting off Perry's pecs?

hoop said...

Well, at least they're not pretending to be neutral anymore.

On another note: I seriously doubt he was armed at the time. If he and his campaign had any brains, they would have checked out the relevant laws - especially being in a different state. That said, it's one of those fun dilemmas. Do you deny carrying when you're not carrying? Then, when you refuse to answer the question, does that become an implicit affirmation that you're carrying?

(He could have denied carrying at the time without creating the implicit problem. But at least it's consistent.)

But this is also like the rule about being pulled over. Never admit anything to the police officer, even if you did nothing wrong.

Automatic_Wing said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Automatic_Wing said...

Rick Perry wouldn't be afraid to show his feminine side, if he had one.

The Dude said...

Jesus wears a WWRPD bracelet.

Real American said...

having a penis gets macho points with most lefty beta males

Joe said...

He's not Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann or Ron Paul. So, the press will gush.

Joe said...

For now.

I'm Full of Soup said...

It would be impossible to make this shit up. The press once was comprised of a bunch of hard drinking, swearing middle class college dropouts. Now they are cookie cutter Ivy League librul pussyboys [jeez they probably bake their own cookies too.]

bagoh20 said...

To hell with that crap. What about his pants crease? How was it? How did it make them feel?

WV: "dongstek" Awesome algorithm

Unknown said...

" (The word "manly" got thrown around a lot, with varying degrees of irony, in the press pack.) "

That is the key to all the manly talk. The press will keep the "Perry is a secret homo" talk subliminal but just right below the line. There are many rumors about Perry being gay and even talk of a gay porno tape.

For the record, I don't believe it because if there was proof, it would have surfaced years ago. Just wishful thinking on the part of leftists. It has the added benefit of possibly damaging Perry with the religious right and/ or the uncommitted.

urpower said...

Sexuality forms all politics, don't you think? The Perry thing is going to look more & more Village People as it goes along. Tom of Texas. The media's latent homoeroticism- cf. the docu "Media Malpractice"- is drawn to it, despite themselves. As, in a related gesture of queen psychology, they'd tried to Norma Desmonify the Alaskan against whom the doors are being barricaded with all furniture in the house.

somefeller said...

Nice to see the internet tough guys have all shown up, to talk about the librul pussyboys, etc. Such badassery cannot be stopped, it can only be contained, I'm sure.

Anyway, it's not hard to see what Smith is doing here. He (and presumably the other reporters) are mocking Perry as being a caricature. It isn't a statement about how impressed they are with him or whether they are getting their minds around anything. That might say a little something about whether Perry will get a fair shake from these guys, but not a whole lot else.

hoop said...

I read this the same way somefeller did.

But since it's inevitably going to go that route, why not Yankee Doodle it and own it? I'm thinking a Rick Perry / Chuck Norris theme. Texas Governor and Texas Ranger.

At least that'd be entertaining instead of months of the predictable.

Automatic_Wing said...

Rick Perry's tears cure cancer. Too bad he's never cried.

Jim said...

Like a little puppy nipping at the heels of a great, manly man.

hoop said...

Rick Perry didn't shoot the coyote. The coyote saw Perry, gently borrowed Perry's gun, and shot itself to save Perry the trouble.

edutcher said...

They had the same problem with Dubya.

And he went 2 terms, too.

somefeller said...

Nice to see the internet tough guys have all shown up, to talk about the librul pussyboys, etc. Such badassery cannot be stopped, it can only be contained, I'm sure.

Such garbage cuts both ways.

The supercilious pseudo-intellectuals come out to bellyache about how much smarter they are.

Anonymous said...

Rick Perry sends a tingle up my horse's leg.

Wince said...

"Politico's Ben Smith has trouble getting his mouth around Rick Perry's manliness."

Peter V. Bella said...

Ben Smith is an idiot.

garage mahal said...

Rick Perry wouldn't be afraid to show his feminine side, if he had one.

He'll have to contend with the rumors that he does have a feminine side. One of the bi drawbacks of being presidential candidate.

Chip S. said...

Ben Smith was hoping to watch Perry eat a corn dog.

William said...

I think Perry goes further up the average liberal nose than Michele Bachmann. However, I would caution all here that the wish to see Keith Olbermann's head explode is not a valid reason to choose one candidate over another.

Curious George said...

He wouldn't be saying this to
Mrs. Rick Perry!

Phil 314 said...

Those Republicans are

CRAAAAAAZY!

Kirk Parker said...

"One of the bi drawbacks"

Whoa, garage--awesome typo!!!

Unknown said...

Speaking of Perry packing, this is pretty funny.

http://minx.cc/?post=320083

Saint Croix said...

Palin has been mocking our feminized culture for a while ("learn to fight like a girl!").

A physical style is a primal way to lead people. If Sarah Palin is using her qualities as a woman in a new kind of feminine leadership style, Rick Perry is showing off the far more traditional alpha male route to power.

Perry's cowboy style harks back to W, to Reagan, to Teddy Roosevelt, to Jackson.

Sarah Palin is a new model on our political landscape. I watch her and she seems totally familiar to me. She seems like women I've known all my life.

The people who attack her, call her Barbie. Calling a woman "Barbie" is a very primal and basic attack on femininity.

You are saying she's too feminine for the office.

Comparing Sarah Palin to Golda Meir is kinda retarded. Yeah, Golda Meir, she was working it.

Of course, Sarah Palin's femininity no more disqualifies her for the Presidency than Rick Perry's masculinity does.

It's interesting, though, that the attacks on these two sounds an awful lot like the petulant resentment one might hear in high school about the popular kids.

Sarah Palin ("Malibu Barbie!")
Rick Perry ("Fag!")

JorgXMcKie said...

Liberal press types think macho is really defined by wearing an Ezra Klein douchebeard.

Oh. And Rick Perry played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded revolver and won. Twice.

Bruce Hayden said...

A physical style is a primal way to lead people.

I think that this is maybe what is needed this time to win the Presidency. We shall see.

One of Obama's problems is that he doesn't lead, and isn't a leader. He isn't an alpha male, but is more metrosexual. That is just fine in certain liberated parts of the country, but not in much of the rest. So, the guy who can come across as much more macho than Obama is going to look more like a leader.

And, this has always been somewhat of a problem with Romney. Nice guy, well educated, but with that comes a certain sort of polish, which can come across as almost effeminate. Indeed, both Bachmann and Palin come across as almost more masculine than Obama, and maybe even Romney, which is a sad state of affairs for both of those men.

A couple of more things here. First, Obama has embarrassed this country by cowtowing to tyrants, while dissing our friends and allies. That is not what most of us want in a President. Rather, it is they who should be showing respect for our President, not the other way around. We are still the most powerful country in the world, and it is just embarrassing for him to show subservience to our enemies and small tin-pot dictators.

Secondly, the Republican nominee has to be willing to take the fight to the enemy (i.e. Obama and the rest of the Democratic politicians). Pawlenty has already been flushed from the race because he was too nice (and weak?) to do this to anyone except for the one woman offically in the race. Part of this is not showing fear - of the President, Democrats, or the MSM. Palin is a master at that, Bachman is good, and Perry seemed to come out swinging.

Third, we are going to have to tighten our belts to get through these financial problems. It is easier to believe in an alpha type male leader than anyone else, when in this sort of situation.

Methadras said...

Running around waving his arms, squealing that a gun might be near his non-manliness. Oh woe is you, you pussy.

MaggotAtBroad&Wall said...

I heard Sarah Palin eats raw eggs. Man up, Rick Perry.

Anonymous said...

The media pick, pick, picking around the edges, trying to get a foothold in order to smear and ruin another GOP candidate.

There will be no GOP candidate that will ever be acceptable to the MSM, all will be flawed....always.

Meanwhile, the medias guy, the most flawed of all, struts to the microphone daily, almost hourly, totally untouched, never vetted and unquestioned.

Curious George said...

Bruce Hayden said...
A physical style is a primal way to lead people.

One of Obama's problems is that he doesn't lead, and isn't a leader. He isn't an alpha male, but is more metrosexual."

Metrosexual? he is not! All man!

viator said...

Maybe male politicians should also stay away from corndogs.

ZeroHedge

Curious George said...

"Saint Croix said...
Sarah Palin ("Malibu Barbie!")"

Actually "Caribou Barbie". You know, because of Alaska.

lonetown said...

It's too easy. Of course eating an egg and meat is macho.

The egg is symbolic of all womenhood, and the meat is symbolic of the Donner party. They were Texans. Weren't they? close enough.

TosaGuy said...

"having a penis gets macho points with most lefty beta males"

Then those lefty beta males feel guilty and apologize for having one.

Drew said...

The word "manly" got thrown around a lot, with varying degrees of irony, in the press pack.

Well of course they talked about manliness with irony. They cannot discuss it genuinely. They can barely acknowledge it because they find it threatening. Manliness must be mocked . . . in varying degrees.

Drew said...

The lefty form of manliness is Spencer Ackerman fantasizing about putting someone through a window. Fantasy is all that will ever be.

Original Mike said...

"He ate a hard-boiled egg and "meat" and somehow that gets macho points with these characters?"

Well, the "meat" was still alive.

veni vidi vici said...

Ben Smith is the Capo de Tutti Eunuchs of the Politico-Journolist-reedywhiteboy chattering class. His Politico caricature-drawing with the huge head and tiny, wispy body really rings true through his written words.

No wonder that wuss got the vapors; wotta candy-ass.


wv: "crosci" -- a genre best known by its premiere work, "The Birds", a sci-fi noir by A. Hitchcock.

MarkD said...

When your diet is tofu and soy milk, yes.

Laika's Last Woof said...

And we thought Sarah Palin was good at getting inside these peoples' heads.
"Sleep with one eye open ... gripping your pillow tight ..."
-Metallica

Saint Croix said...

Actually "Caribou Barbie".

Damn it, I knew that one!

The funny thing is that if Mattel actually came out with a Caribou Barbie, feminists would approve.

Scott M said...

One of the bi drawbacks of being presidential candidate.

Was that a pun?

La Pasionaria said...

I think its a positive sign that the postures and ritual dances of the patriarchy leaves some people quite befuddled.