Perry to court evangelicals at Falwell's Liberty University

[w8liftinglady]

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/09/perry-to-court-evangelicals-at.html

Gov. Rick Perry makes a pilgrimage this morning to Liberty University that could prove a turning point in his outreach to evangelical voters.

Conventional wisdom was that Perry would have no trouble grabbing a big chunk of the religious conservative vote from Rep. Michele Bachmann and others presidential contenders. It's a crucial segment of the GOP electorate, especially in early contests of 2012, Iowa and South Carolina . But Bachmann, Rick Santorum and others have made sure that voters don't forget that in 2007, Perry signed an executive order requiring HPV vaccinations for teenage Texas girls. And experts on the religious right say Perry has explaining to do, on that and other issues.

The Legislature overruled him on the Gardasil shots. Once Perry became a presidential candidate last month, he began expressing regret that he hadn't consulted state lawmakers ahead of time.

"If I had it to do over again, I would have done it differently," he said in Monday night's GOP debate in Tampa, continuing to defend his motive of protecting girls from a virus linked to cervical cancer.

Not good enough for Bachmann. In Monday's debate, she questioned his ties with vaccine-maker Merck , which employed Perry's former chief of staff as a lobbyist, and donated to his campaigns. That, she said, made his actions "flat-out wrong." On Tuesday, she amped up the attack, accusing Perry of "crony capitalism" -- a direct echo of Sarah Palin's veiled swipe at Perry over Labor Day using the same phrase.

[Fumesucker]

1. Oh Jeebus.. That should prove to be a concerto for kazoo and dog whistle..

[w8liftinglady]

2. I'm curious as to what the reaction will be by fundamentalists.