This is about why Texas Governor Rick Perry should not be the Republican Party’s Presidential nominee in 2012. We have come to the end of the line in our ability to knowingly close our eyes to the character of those we elect to public office. It’s no longer acceptable that we decry, after the fact, having gotten exactly what is was we willfully refused to see before the fact.

When then candidate Perry was running for Governor of Texas he was interviewed by a local television reporter who asked the candidate, if elected, would he serve out his term?  Governor Perry answered “Yes.” When the reporter pressed him to confirm that he would not then run for the office of President, the now Governor said he would “not” and reiterated he would serve out his term as Governor of Texas.  If Governor Perry is the 2012 nominee, and is elected, he will not serve out his term as Governor of Texas despite having given his word to the contrary.

Strike one.

In the recent Tea Party Debate, Governors Romney and Perry got in a verbal back and forth over the legality of Social Security.  Governor Romney said that calling it a “Ponzi” scheme, as Governor Perry had, was frightful to seniors. Governor Perry countered that in Governor Romney’s book, he too called the Social Security System“criminal”… as is a Ponzi scheme. However, in his book, No Apology: Believe In America, Governor Romney called the actions of Congress in taking money from  Social Security an act that, in the private sector, would be deemed criminal.

Strike  two.

When Barack Obama was running for the Presidency, I read a book by Shelby Steele titled A Bound Man. It is the reason I did not vote for Mr. Obama. After reading it, I believed that I understood something about Obama and I thought that what I understood presented a danger to the nation.  Very few others must have read that book.  In fact, very few others did any kind of inquiry into who he was, what he stood for, or his level of integrity. We got what we refused to see.

When Rickard Nixon ran for President, he already had the nickname “Tricky Dick.” We got what we refused to see.

I’m not waiting for strike three from Governor Perry. He has shown himself, to me, to be a man upon whose word I cannot rely. While I have also eliminated a few of the other Republican contenders, I feel it important to address Governor Perry directly and outwardly as the press, and some polls, see him as the “frontrunner” or “the one to beat” and I think the flaw is glaring… as I did with Obama.

Regardless of his or her policies, we must have a leader with integrity on whose word and in whose judgment the American people can rely. We are all out of time to delay or err. This next President will determine a lot more than fiscal or foreign policy. This one will determine who we are as a People and what we value. Who we elect as our next President will tell us much more about who we are than who they are.

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