Perry's Talking Turkey About Turkey

As the South Carolina primary is getting closer (January 21), one debate follows the other. A new one is slated for tonight, but let’s take a look at the one that took place last Monday. Fox News aired this showdown between the five remaining GOP candidates, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Sadly, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman had dropped out of the race that same day. The clip above shows the entire debate.

As expected, Romney faced attacks on account of his leading the polls. The other candidates brought up his past as a venture (vulture?) capitalist, attacking him from the left, and questioned the Governor’s use of attack ads produced by super PACs. In Gingrich’s case, that criticism now seems disingenuous because of his poorly concealed bitterness toward Romney; ever since (and even prior to) Iowa, the Speaker has done nothing but badmouth Romney and tried to make his negative stance look like he’s just raising “fair” issues. It’s not a pretty sight.

Let’s fact-check the debate. The single most jaw-dropping moment of the debate was when Rick Perry claimed that Turkey was ruled by “what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists”. This is the only democratic, Muslim ally to the U.S. – and Perry chooses to not only challenge, but spew lies about, the country’s leadership. He followed it up with ignorant, utterly stupid remarks about the current scandal where Marines urinated on corpses. The Governor was severely rebutted by Turkey, and his embarrassing performance should once and for all disqualify him from the presidency.

PolitFact took a close look at the debate and one thing is for sure. There’s been a lot of debates and most of the arguments remain the same, whether or not they’re true. Romney repeated an old lie about President Obama’s trade policy, for instance. Gingrich brought up an ad from a Romney super PAC claiming that he and Nancy Pelosi sponsored a bill that supported China’s one-child policy. PolitiFact convincingly explains why this is a “pants-on-fire” statement… and there you have one explanation for Gingrich’s grumpy attitude toward the Governor.

One last comment. The back-and-forth between Santorum and Romney on whether or not felons should be allowed to vote is mind-boggling. Both candidates provide different shades of gray, but they’re equally wrong. Stripping citizens their right to vote, regardless of what crime they’ve committed, is undemocratic. Not a complicated issue.

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