Politico has a story out there today with the title, "Is Rick Perry Dumb?" You can read a portion below. The full article is here.
The Brody File take: Anyone who is undefeated as a politician can’t be that dumb. Plus, at the time Ronald Reagan wasn’t considered the brightest guy in the world and look how that turned out.
It seems like Perry is resonating because he’s a regular guy who knows who he is, knows what he stands for, and is comfortable in his own skin. Sounds a little like Reagan doesn’t it?
Do we want our presidents to be smart? Sure but voters don't cast ballots for the smartest guy in the room. They vote for someone based on forging a connection with a candidate. Rick Perry seems to always have the last laugh doesn't he?
Politico story excerpt below:
Another Texas governor who drops his “g’s” and scorns elites is running for president and the whispers are the same: Lightweight, incurious, instinctual.
Strip away the euphemisms, and Rick Perry is confronting an unavoidable question: is he dumb - or just misunderestimated?
Doubts about Perry’s intellect have hounded him since he was first elected as a state legislator nearly three decades ago. In Austin, he’s been derided as a right-place, right-time pol who looks the part but isn’t so deep – “Gov. Goodhair.” Now, with the chatter picking back up among his enemies and taking flight in elite Republican circles, the rap threatens to follow him to the national stage.
“He’s like Bush only without the brains,” cracked one former Republican governor who knows Perry, repeating a joke that has made the rounds.
The Texan’s loyalists reject the suggestion, asserting that it owes to political bias and sour grapes, but Perry himself seems to welcome the low bar. He cracked on the campaign trail earlier this month that the difference between he and Bush was that he went to Texas A&M and the former president attended Yale.
But conversations with both Perry admirers and critics reveal a more complicated assessment about the mind of a politician who has never lost an election—and ranks as the longest-serving governor in Texas history.
Full story here.