Gov. Rick Perry Fail

Remember how when you were young, there was always that one nerdy kid in the class that nobody really liked? Nobody wanted to go to his birthday party. But you and maybe one other kid felt bad for him so you went. Or maybe your mom made you go. He was so glad and thankful that somebody showed up that it was embarrassing. All you wanted was to get out of there.

Governor Rick Perry held his big prayer party (the "Response") on Saturday, and sadly, only one of his invited guests showed up. Oh sure, they had a whole bunch of evangelical Christians there, praying and singing. But Perry invited all forty-nine state governors to come pray with him, and only one showed up (Kansas Governor Sam Brownback). Just one. Just like that kid in elementary school.

Governor Perry and his supporters are trying to paint "The Response" as a big success. They had 20,000 to 30,000 evangelicals in attendance. They had people all over Texas praying in smaller groups. But Texas is a state where they have churches with 20,000 members. It's easy to get the flock out to a rally. The fact that Perry couldn't get any support from other political leaders is very telling. His message of intolerance and exclusion simply doesn't appeal to mainstream Americans.

Actually, I sort of wish he'd done better at his little party. If Perry keeps screwing up like this and only appeals to the extreme political right of his party, then he's not going to have a chance. We need Governor Perry to beat Mitt Romney and become the Republican candidate for president. That would guarantee a win for Obama.