"Perry Panic"...................by Dan Friedman

WSJ, NOTABLE & QUOTABLE, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Politico reporters Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman on liberals' 'Perry panic.'

[Rick] Perry panic has spread from the conference rooms of Washington, D.C., to the coffee shops of Brooklyn, with the realization that the conservative Texan could conceivably become the 45th president of the United States, a wave of alarm centering around Perry's drawling, small-town affect and stands on core cultural issues such as women's rights, gun control, the death penalty, and the separation of church and state. The epidemic of lefty angst isn't just a matter of specific Perry policies though; it goes to the heart of the liberal worldview. His smashing debut on the presidential stage suggests that the victory of an urban liberal Democrat, Barack Obama, wasn't a step toward a more progressive nation, but just a leftward swing of an increasingly wild pendulum, now poised to rocket to the right.

[At the rate they’re going, liberals (and some Republicans too) will be plum out of Perry canards even before primary season rolls around. Good. df]

Dan Friedman
NYC