Rick Perry Is Terrible, Part Wev in an Ongoing Series

[Trigger warning for violent rhetoric.]

Texas Governor and Professional Dipfuck of Epic Proportions Rick Perry is like a one-man thunderdome of belligerent pugnacity, whose campaign strategy appears to have been devised by Godzilla: "Just stomp the fuck out of EVERYTHING."

Rrrrrooooowwwwwwwwr!

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a leading advocate of gun rights who likes to boast of having dispatched a coyote on a recent jog, so I asked him during today's walking press conference at the Iowa State Fair whether he was armed.

"I never comment on whether I'm carrying a handgun or not," he said. "That's why it's called concealed."

(If he was armed, he could have found himself in hot water with the state police over a ban at the fair that has rankled some local gun groups.)

Perry's appearance at the fair, where he challenged reporters on whether they were "tough" enough to walk with him, chomped on meat and a hard-boiled egg and struck rugged poses was a well-staged political triumph. (The word "manly" got thrown around a lot, with varying degrees of irony, in the press pack.)

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who entered the presidential campaign on Saturday, appeared to suggest a violent response would be warranted should Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "print more money" between now and the election. Speaking just now in Iowa, Perry said, "If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y'all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion." Treason is a capital offense.

Thump!

Speaking to reporters tonight following an event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Texas Governor Rick Perry appeared to question President Obama's patriotism. In response to a question from Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal, who asked Perry if he was suggesting that Obama didn't love this country, Perry replied: "I dunno, you need to ask him."

Meanwhile, this is the guy about whom Serious Journalist Richard Cohen thinks it's "just plain folly, as some have already suggested, to think that he cannot campaign effectively in the rest of the nation. This man was born for the stump."

If Perry is the GOP's secret stump weapon, Obama's sure got an easy campaign ahead of him.