According to Luntz’s focus group, this line by Perry was not only his worst moment in the debate, but perhaps the worst moment any Republican has had in any debate since he started doing these debate-watching focus groups.
I supported Arizona’s immigration law by joining in that lawsuit to defend it. Every day I have Texans on that border that are doing their job. But if you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart. We need to be educating these children, because they will become a drag on our society. I think that’s what Texans wanted to do.
Hey, Governor, if we wanted to hear suggestions that folks on the Right are heartless, we would have tuned in to watch a bunch of Democrats.
If you want to alienate Americans concerned about illegal immigration, the quickest and surest way is to suggest that they have cruel, draconian, xenophobic, or racist motives for their focus on border security.
The knock on Perry from a lot of folks is that he’s not tough enough on illegal immigration. When you hear him say at a debate that we have to keep one of the reasons we have an illegal immigration problem in the first place, a free or discounted education system that doesn’t try and determine if they’re eligible for it, lest we demonstrate our lack of a heart, then you have to wonder what else he’d give away so as not to feel heartless.
I’m sorry, but Perry is wrong for America. Could I hold my nose and vote for him over Zerobama? In a heartbeat, but it would be more of a “at least he’s not Obama” more than “he’s the right person for the job.”