Rick Perry Compares South Carolina To The Alamo

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Sunday that he's not giving up on the race for the Republican presidential nomination, comparing himself to the fighters who rode back into the Alamo knowing there would be no reinforcements coming.

Perry returned to South Carolina for his first campaign stop in the state after a disappointing finish in last Tuesday's Iowa caucuses. At his first rally he addressed a crowd of about 300 at a packed Spartanburg burger joint.

"We're not quitting on America. We're not quitting on this race," Perry said.

He said war heroes have been campaigning for him ahead of the Jan. 21 primary. "And we're doing it as much for those young men and women who have given substantial amounts of their lives," Perry said. "And in some cases they gave it all. That is what is going to push us through."

He told of two South Carolinians who fought at the Alamo during Texas' fight for independence from Mexico. "That's what this election is about," he said. "Men and women who love America enough that they will sacrifice whatever it takes to put America on track."

Perry took shots directly at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who's leading the GOP race. "Mitt said, `If you want to know how I'm going to perform, look at my record.' And I have, Mitt."

A woman in the audience said, "I don't like it."

"I'm with you, ma'am," Perry said to chuckles.

The question is whether South Carolina is with him.

Perry's schedule in the state is packed. Katon Dawson, Perry's campaign manager, said the campaign will get back on track here. "It's not desperate," Dawson said. "We're the underdog, but we're going to work real hard and I think we've got a chance."

Comments

[FanaticRealist]

01:37 PM on 01/19/2012

Speaking today with Perry throwing in the towel, does that mean Perry would have chickened out of the Alamo in the same way he's chickened out of South Carolina.

[ConfuciusSay-]

08:13 PM on 01/09/2012

Oh how dim are the bulbs that gave money to reanimate the Perry zombie campaign?
Even Perry knows he's a cooked goose.

[Rich914]

07:39 PM on 01/09/2012

Lovely legend of the Alamo. In reality, Texas independence was contrived to make Texas a slave state and join the Confederacy. Mexico prohibited slavery in the territory that would become Texas, because the Pope forbid it. New states could only enter the union as slave states if slavery was legal there before statehood was granted. By winning "independence" from Mexico, American Texans who had sworn an oath not to own slaves as a condition of settlement rights, got to break that oath, which they did not mean to keep in the first place. They made slavery legal and then became a slave state, then joined the Confederacy.

[Wrongway62]

07:15 PM on 01/09/2012

Rick, history point, those folks at the Alamo were not fighting for USA, they were fighting for the Republic of Texas.

[HOMEY1]

07:05 PM on 01/09/2012

he should have chosen stalingrad and you know he is a goosestepper with those cowchip kickers he wears

[NYC619]

05:42 PM on 01/09/2012

Gov. Rhinestone Cowboy still thinks he's in the running? Well, he always came off touched by the sun.

[happiness333]

04:36 PM on 01/09/2012

Just think: This man IS the governor of Texas! Worse. He has the audacity to want to be the
PRESIDENT of the United States! (A return to school-NOT higher education, but a repeat of high school, would definitely serve him better!)

[dvglass3]

07:01 PM on 01/09/2012

Please stop reminding us that he is our governor.....we don't want him either!!!!

[stephan67]

04:26 PM on 01/09/2012

I think he should compare his fight to the battle of Waterloo.

[stopnlisten]

04:05 PM on 01/09/2012

Sad. He doesn't even know how he has single-handedly turned stupid into funny.

[Bueno Hombre]

03:52 PM on 01/09/2012

He might have problems passing the standardized exit exams for High School if he thinks we won at the Alamo.

[lisaman]

03:14 PM on 01/09/2012

My family lives in SC and they are all republicans. I have been pushing for them to support Perry, he is so entertaining I would be sad to see him go. My mother is a Romney supporter and the others refuse to even tell me who they like. I am guessing it is because they know I will tell them all the reasons to not support whomever they chose.

[Gestas]

02:44 PM on 01/09/2012

Just add Rick Perry to your list of reasons to stay away from Texas.

[zatonoichi]

10:53 PM on 01/09/2012

Texas, the state, isn't so bad. It's just the radical rightwing Texans that are scary. It's sort of like being okay with Jesus, but terrified of christians.

[rmrgdr]

12:57 PM on 01/09/2012

Oh Ricky, Ricky Perry, King of the wild frontier!
It will all be over soon Rick, just surrender to the void!

[MBryant]

12:10 PM on 01/09/2012

The thing about the Alamo - they were brave and.. they were dead. maybe that's the analogy - South Carolina is the place where Perry's campaign is going to die. He's a Texan - he knows this. (if you are a conservative Republican - please send Perry's campaign oodles of money - it's ending anyway and I rather you not send it to a candidate with a future. Perry is so full of himself - he won't give it to others - he'll hoard it and run for Senator or President of Texas or dogcatcher or something).

[dvglass3]

07:06 PM on 01/09/2012

That was funny! Great post. f/f

[RCnDC]

11:35 AM on 01/09/2012

Well he could have said it was like iraq and he was going to be invading it soon to get the votes..