Perry Ducks Another Debate

Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) held his Palmetto Forum yesterday. This is where he invites the Republican presidential candidates to gather and be questioned on their views and qualifications to be the eventual nominee of the Republican Party. Of course, in his own little attemp to be a kingmaker, DeMint didn't invite all of the candidates -- just the ones he liked or thought had a real chance of becoming the nominee. Jon Huntsman, Buddy Roemer, Rick Santorum, and Thad McCotter weren't included.

The five invited candidates pictured above made an appearance -- Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney. You might notice a candidate missing from that group. The candidate that is currently leading in all the polls -- Rick Perry. Perry was invited and was actually in South Carolina, but at the last minute he found an excuse to scamper back to Texas. In other words, he ducked another debate.

This comes as no surprise to those of us who live in Texas. We know that Perry has a history of ducking debates. In the last gubernatorial election he didn't participate in a single debate. The governor doesn't think too fast on his feet (remember, his college GPA was even lower than George W. Bush's), and he didn't want to be exposed on statewide television as the fraud he really is. Although the Palmetto Forum wasn't an actual debate, it would have put him on the same stage as the other candidates answering the same questions -- and I think that scared the hell out of him.

Of course, he claimed to have a good excuse for missing the forum. He said he needed to return to Texas because of the wildfires raging in many parts of the state. But as Texans know, those wildfires have been going for a couple of months now. And the extent of Perry's reaction to them was to call for a statewide day of public prayer, which you might note did no good at all.

I will grant that the fires are closer to the capitol in Austin now, but what does Perry think he can do about them by returning to Texas. Couldn't he have called a press conference and done a public prayer while in South Carolina? I'm sure the press would have accommodated him (since they like that sort of thing better than ferreting out real news). Maybe he thinks public prayers work better if offered from Texas rather than South Carolina.

Personally, I think he just ducked another debate. There are three more coming up this month (Republicans seem to love their debates). I doubt he can duck out on all of them, but it really wouldn't surprise me if he tried. The man really really hates debates.