Um.

With another presidential election comes a bunch of Republican candidates who say thinly-veiled racist things against Obama and then pretend that anyone who calls that shit out is a liberal hysteric.

Texas Governor and full-tilt asshole Rick Perry, in Iowa earlier today:

Perry focused his fire on President Obama, who will be in a different part of the state later Monday.

"He says he's on a listening tour," Perry said, "so I'm going to talk to him."

"Mr. President, you need to free up the employers of this country to create jobs." Perry called on Obama to "free up this country" from "stifling regulation."

"I'm a pro-business governor, I don't make any apologies about it and I will be a pro-business president."

Perry warned that a "big black cloud" hangs over the country.

He didn't mean it that way blah blah fart.

Perry also sent this message to President Obama: "I think you want a president who is passionate about America—that's in love with America." So yet another Othering dog-whistle about how Obama isn't a "real American," which is truly galling when one recalls that Rick "I'm in Love with America" Perry was suggesting that maybe his state should secede from the union two years ago.

Love it or leave it, eh, Rick?

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For more fun Perry reading today, check out Matt Yglesias' "The Ten Weirdest Ideas in Rick Perry's Fed Up" and Michelle Goldberg's "A Christian Plot for Domination?"