Rick Perry, the Lucky Duck Politician

Could Texas governor Rick Perry be one of the luckiest politicians ever. Many are starting to say just this. Sure good things happen around him and we question how the state of Texas is making more new jobs than all other states combined without luck. We might even wonder about the point that the housing bubble didn't affect Texas nearly as much as it did the other states. Obviously pure luck. Perry is just one lucky duck. It's pure luck that Texas happens to be a good state with a strong economy and lucky that the oil and gas industry is still making money for the state of Texas. Perry is also lucky that his stance on lower taxes keeps luring more and more of the Fortune 500 companies to move their headquarters to Texas.

Is it sheer luck that Perry is the longest running governor in the history of Texas? Is it luck that Perry has never lost an election? Paul Burka of the Texas Monthly agrees that Perry must be carrying a rabbits foot in his pocket.

Are the fates conspiring to make Rick Perry president? It certainly seems so. Throughout his political career, Perry has always managed to be in the right place at the right time.

www.texasmonthly.com...

Paul Burka is not alone in his notion that Perry is a lucky duck. Jason Embry who writes for the Austin American-Statesman makes a similar assessment about the lucky horseshoes that Perry keeps finding.

For all of Gov. Rick Perry's attributes as a political candidate — his message discipline, energy, charisma, looks, folksiness and killer instinct among them — his career has often benefited from luck.

And luck seems willing to help him once again.

www.statesman.com...

Today even the New York Times jumped in on the bandwagon to call Rick Perry lucky. They lead off with all the great things that are happening in Texas despite the state of the national economy but then they have to ask, what if all of this is just luck? This would be years of luck of course but still it could be just that. Pure luck.

Texas is home to at least one-third of the jobs created nationwide since the recession ended. The state’s economy is growing about twice as fast as the national rate. Home prices have remained stable even as much of the country has seen sharp declines. Is Texas lucky, or has the state benefited from exceptional leadership?

www.nytimes.com...

Rick Perry's luck is famous on a global scale now. Just last week the Guardian was busy jawing about the excessive luck that Rick Perry has had in his life-time. They spoke of his work in the democratic party and his switch to the republican party at just the right time. Rick Perry must have an entire lawn of 4-leaf clovers the way his success is touted as one who tripped over a rainbow and fell into a pot of gold.

Rick Perry to try his luck in presidential race

But what really sticks in the Democrats craw is how Texas's longest-serving governor has gone on winning elections even as one of the most divisive leaders in the state's history. What they cannot agree on is whether it is through a masterly grasp of politics or an astonishing run of good luck.

"He's the luckiest politician that ever walked the face of the Earth," said Chris Bell, a former congressman who ran against Perry for governor five years ago. "Luck has a lot to do with success in politics – good timing, right circumstances, all play in to the likelihood of success and he has been very opportunistic throughout the past couple of decades and it has served him well."
www.guardian.co.uk...

At what point do we quit saying that this man has had 20+ years of unending good luck and just admit that he's not as stupid as some people paint him to be. I've often heard that luck is just preparation meeting opportunity. I think at this point we can all stop pretending that this is just luck. The evidence is overwhelming that the man just knows exactly what he's doing. Was he lucky to skip the Iowa Straw Poll or was it just calculated planning. Only time will tell but if the past is any indication he's going to end up as the republican nominee all the while people keep wringing their hands and shaking their heads wondering when his luck will run out.


But luck must account for something. Perhaps a little luck is just what we need to get this country turned back around and headed in the right direction. Never overlook the success of someone even it it is pure luck. What is luck other than a skill we just can't quite put our fingers on? When asked “What kind of generals do you want?”, Napoleon was supposed to have said “I want lucky ones”. I'll take good luck over what we currently have in Washington D.C. anytime. That might just be the lucky break we all need.

Luck seems to be the new code-word to excuse bad behavior and dismiss good behavior.

Obama: I reversed recession until 'bad luck' hit

"We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again," Obama told a crowd in Decorah, Iowa. "But over the last six months we've had a run of bad luck."

campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com...

It is a subtle way of denigrating any abilities he might actually have.

I'm not particularly a fan of "Governor Good-hair" as we call him here, but the Austin-American Statesman has to find something non-nasty to say about him at this point, if they want to sell newspapers to anyone besides the blue party faithful.

Ditto Texas Monthly. They cannot even report on anything on the "far side of the Brazos." They had to get a map to find out where his home "town" of Haskell is (They mistook it for a county in Kansas. Just like they did with Abilene back during the Jeffs sister-wife kerffaffle.)

reply to post by dbates


Maybe he just eats his lucky charms every morning.

Its like that old Michael Jordan thing.
You better eat your wheaties!

I suppose id better contribute a little more than nonsense, at least an actual point of view on the topic though.

Uhh, I have lived in Texas for roughly 32 years. I'm a native Texan from Texan families or from the Texarkana region. Not one of those years did I vote for Bush Or Perry yet both remained office for multiple terms. Im not sure how he won the last election, but he did.

I think there are possibly several things that might have contributed to that.

1. He's an Ag guy, and if you want to win in Texas, you go Ag or oil, we're an Ag/Energy state. That means we do two things well here, we ranch and produce oil. Ok, cant forget football/baseball. Texans love ball games.

2. You have to always maintain this mindset about Sovereignty and Big Government. While you wont find the majority of the population here are extreme about either, we do not like to be pushed around and generally would just like to be left alone to live our lives. When we need help we'll ask but other than that? Yea.. just let us be and we'll pay that same respect to you and yours.

3. You have got to be Patriotic in every since of the word. From the Constitution, Health, to the Economy, to natural disaster to keeping the spirits of our troops in mind and if your not talking about those those when you speak? You probably ain't sayin' much and many of us here are taught to have that sort of pride/concern in our country. Just look at Ron Paul.

4. Religion- You dont have to be a christian, but when you send folks over to fight a war for you or send our men and women out in the oilfield, I don't know a person in Texas or the rest of the country for that matter who doesn't find some sort of spiritual guidance and or balance/peace within themselves real quick. be that Jesus, buddha or the big bang. I think every Texan/American can relate to that.

So you can probably see, we arent that much different from any other American, and when you can appeal to everyone about those things, you go places because everyone can relate to those topics in our country. This isnt just what we do in Texas, its who we are and typically who most Americans are.