Will Perry Dodge Today's Debate ?

I posted yesterday about how Rick Perry chicked out at the last minute and ducked a candidate forum in South Carolina. Perry has never liked appearing on the same stage with his opponents, because he knows he'll probably suffer by comparison -- even with the nut-jobs running in the Republican primary. He's never been good at thinking on his feet.

Lending credence to that view was Perry's actions upon returning to Texas. What was the first thing he did? Was it to go and view the wildfires -- which was the excuse he used to duck the South Carolina forum? No, not at all. The first thing he did was attend a Town Hall meeting, where he gave a political speech about how he would replace the heads of the EPA with businessmen when elected president.

If he wasn't rushing back to view the wildfires (and he wasn't since he found the time to attend the political meeting), then why couldn't he have participated in the South Carolina forum and then flown back to Texas? The reason is obvious. He is afraid to debate his opponents.

Now Perry is saying he might not attend today's Republican debate either. He says he is "substantially more concerned" about the people affected by the wildfires than he is about the debate. Horse manure! The wildfires have been raging for months, and he only seemed to become really concerned about them when it came time to debate.

I'm betting he'll skip this debate. And it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't try to find an excuse to miss some future debates also. Rick Perry is not a debater -- he's a cheerleader. And cheerleading doesn't work too well when its time to debate.