POLITICO picks up on Rick's criticisms of Obama...

Some of Rick's peeps told me this afternoon that he went a little bit "off script" in Midland. Rick's off script messaging about Obama being hell bent on socialism. I blogged the video earlier... or a portion of it at least (link). Rick is in one of those dangerous "on a roll" moments where he sort of goes off the cuff and the crowd gets fired up in the process but outside of the room in Midland it probably sounds really wild eyed...

It is interesting that Rick is picking a fight with Obama right now. He rarely mentions Kay by name and his campaign has not really attacked her over the past 3 weeks other than pointing out her missed votes which they would have been negligent not to point out.

POLITICO picked up on this speech for its fiery rhetoric about Obama (link)...

Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry accused President Barack Obama on Wednesday of “punishing” Texas and being “hell-bent” on turning the United States into a socialist country.

Speaking at a luncheon for a Midland County Republican Women’s group, Perry said that “this is an administration hell-bent toward taking American towards a socialist country. And we all don’t need to be afraid to say that because that’s what it is.”

Perry praised the tea party movement to the Republican activists in attendance, crediting the grassroots groups with discouraging some Democrats in Washington from pushing for a public option in the health care bill.

“If you all think those tea parties didn’t work, then let me tell you something,” Perry said. “When they all came home in August for those town hall meetings, they got an earful. Then they went back to Washington, D.C. and the Senate voted that public option down in committee with a majority of Democrats in the Senate.”

Perry also accused the Obama administration of intentionally dumping illegal immigrants from other western states in Texas, recalling a conversation he had with local officials notifying him that illegal aliens that were caught in Nogales, Arizona were being dropped off by federal authorities in Presidio, Texas.

“Friday a week ago, I got not a phone call from Washington, not a letter from Washington and as a matter of fact, I don’t think any member of our congressional delegation was even notified. The first time we were contacted was by the superintendent of the school and the county judge of Presidio County,” Perry said.

“They said, ‘do you all know what’s fixin’ to happen?’ I said, ‘well, no. What’s going on?’ They said ‘the government has just called us and said for us to get ready for an influx of illegal aliens who were captured illegally crossing the border.’”

“It’s called the alien transfer-and-exit program,” Perry told the crowd, “trucking them from Nogales, past El Paso down to our western border in Presidio.”

The Texas governor said he sees the action as “punishing this state” and urged the assembled Republicans to “stand up” to Washington.

“I say it’s time to make tea parties twice as big as what they were,” Perry declared. “I think it’s time for us to stand up and say to Washington, D.C. that we are no longer going to accept that kind of stuff sitting down and being quiet.”

Kay just in the past week called Obamacare "socialism" but did not get nearly the same kind of press out of it. Rick's comment about Obama punishing Texas was probably what gave this article that little bit of extra oomph to push it over the top... I think Rick is seen as a more diametrically opposite figure to Obama than Kay is as one of 100 senators...