A new opinion poll found Texas business leaders believe the state's economy is moving in the right direction, the national economy is on the wrong track and government regulations and rising health care costs are the top two issues facing the business community.
R.G. Ratcliffe blogged about it and got completely confused by the difference between believing the national economy and the state economy are in trouble. If Texans view the national economy very dimly, but view the Texas economy less dimly or even somewhat positively (as they do), then that helps not hurts Rick, and hurts not helps Bill White.
I think what is happening here is that Rasmussen showed the race within 4 points, so the press are hoping for an interesting race after the promised clash of the titans in the Republican primary turned out to be an epic slaughter. This may explain why so many news outlets picked up the extremely liberal George Soros-backed "watch dog" group's list of the worst governors showing Rick on the list despite some seriously flawed reasoning (including rejecting UI stimulus, a decision supported by large majorities of Texans). Most failed to mention it was a group with a clear liberal agenda or that 80% of the honorees were Republicans, and the only two Democrats are "on the outs" with the Soros-based Democratic establishment.
But I digress.
Here is my blog yesterday about R.G. Ratcliffe's poorly informed blog (link). Okay, this was blogged early enough in the afternoon that R.G. should have had a google alert set up with his name warning him that his story was based on a false premise. Yet somehow the story with the false premise still ended up in the actual newspaper in San Antonio (link) and Houston (link)...
The respective headlines...
San Antonio
Houston
Ailing economy worries Texans, could hurt Perry
The story is basically the same in each city, and it is just a bunch of pinheads bloviating, to use a Fox News turn of phrase... only at the end does it mention the fact that the poll is on the overall economy, not the Texas economy. Even then, it seems like just an interpretation from Rick's spokesman as opposed to just a solid fact.
This can only "hurt" Rick... as the headline editorializes... if daft journalists decide to make it a self fulfilling prophesy and make it their mission to confuse the state of the economy in Texas versus the economy nationally.
In reality, if more Texans view the national economy as a crisis but believe that the Texas economy is relatively resilient, it will create more of a rally around our guy effect... it will make Bill White's Obamaesque policies even more unattractive than they already are. It will play right into Rick's crusade against Washington.
Why wasn't that the headline?
I think we all know why.
What is confusing about the Texas economy? That state debt has doubled -- and perhaps tripled -- under Perry? That nearly a million Texans are unemployed, a state record? That sales tax collections continue to underperform? That Perry created a structural deficit with the property tax plans he pushed and passed in 2006?
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Rick's recent interview with Evan Smith, only a rank political hack with a clear agenda could look at the Texas economy and not see that it is leaps and bounds better than the national economy. Most Texans see that. Most Americans see that. Only hardcore Democratic activists don't see that.
ReplyDeleteRick Perry is a rank political hack with a clear agenda. So...
ReplyDeleteDon't feed the Troll! Heck, even slate.com had some nice words for Texas' economy recently. (I won't hold it against Slate that they got Dell's city HQ wrong!)
ReplyDelete.
We know exactly why. The liberal media strikes again.
ReplyDeletehahahaha. Phillip Martin and the kiddies of BOR calling anybody else a "rank political hack" is just so...well...precious.
ReplyDeleteIf you look up "rank political hack" in the Texas Political Dictionary, you would see a group photo of the Burnt Orange kidz. They are the most vile group of partisan hacks anywhere. I mean, think about it. Many of them are literally paid by the party apparatus to blog full-time.
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy I can amuse so many brave Republicans who leave anonymous comments on blogs.
ReplyDeleteYou all should check the comments hamiltonfan leaves on BOR...
Haha, Philip Martin calls out the one Anonymous post to try to act like a tough guy... subsequently ignoring the other four (now five) people that are not anonymous that have valid points. And here is another one for you Mr. Martin and which to ignore this fact of life would leave you being just another political hack with an agenda.
ReplyDeleteYou say the debt has gone up... uh WRONG!
The budget has gone up, yes! And why is that??? Because Texas is growing at a real fast pace! Are you going to say that a state can stay on the same budget when they have 18 million residents as when the state has 25 million residents? If you do then you would believe that someone who is single, then gets married and has children that they can live off their same budget as when they were single... now, to liberals that would make total sense when it fits their liberal agenda... but if it hurts their agenda and/or they have a rational mind, then they would say that is ridiculous and that the budget would HAVE to go up!
But of course, you probably would either ignore that or twist it in some way. Either way, I don't wanna hear your excuses.