Texas Gov. Rick Perry ripped into the GOP’s last two presidential nominees in his speech at CPAC today. “The popular media narrative is that this country has shifted away from conservative ideals, as evidenced by the last two presidential elections,” Perry said. He followed up with, “That might be true if Republicans had actually nominated conservative candidates in 2008 and 2012.”
Perry supporters on the web ate it up.
https://twitter.com/conservtivemom/status/312349854460436480
https://twitter.com/LibertyBelleJ/status/312347044557758464
https://twitter.com/csciolaromd/status/312325301998870528
https://twitter.com/imsure/status/312311967358537729
https://twitter.com/catwahler/status/312346468906323970
https://twitter.com/shelbO_72/status/312338818239959041
Alas, the 2012 election results do not provide much support for his hypothesis.
In battleground states Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, outperformed relatively conservative GOP Senate candidates.
Even in conservative Texas, Romney performed nearly as well as Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz: Romney carried the state by 16 points, while Sen. Cruz won by 17 points.
We won’t even mention Indiana and Missouri.
Yet Perry implies the Republican Party will prevail if it moves to the right.
Isn’t it pretty to think so?