Via Patterico comes a marvelous moment from Texas governor Rick Perry:

[youtube]YSQIILTmRrI[/youtube]

Here’s a free-form translation: They say I used my authority as Governor to line-item-veto a part of the budget to get rid of a horrible, horrible district attorney.  Danged straight I did this.  I said I was going to do this, and then I went and did this, and I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight because I did this to a drunk driver who blew a .239 on her BAC and then threatened the cops who arrested her booze-raddled carcass.  I get that this might be all right behavior by Austin voters’ standards, but it’s not for the rest of us, and by ‘us’ I mean America.  And I’d do it again, with a smile.  Because I want to be President, and Travis County Democrats just made it the tiniest bit easier for me to get the job.

Remarkably, I’m not really doing too much free-form translating there.  This was six minutes of political fun: a line in the sand, just the right amount of genuine anger, and absolutely no weaseling at all.  I don’t know if anybody’s told the Democratic party this, but that plays well in Peoria.  Also Des Moines, Boulder, Richmond, Miami, Reno, Concord, Lansing, Cincinatti, and even Madison…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Those of you who remember 2012 – and Rick Perry’s doing much better now in terms of responding to hostile questions, huh? – will know the word that I am referring to.