Don't know that I'd recommend Texas Gov. Rick Perry as a role model for all gubernatorial behavior, but Gov. Mike Pence could certainly do worse than emulating this particular Perry approach:
Gov. Rick Perry’s high-profile efforts to lure jobs to Texas from other states may be good business and smart politics back home, but they’re infuriating to prominent Democrats around the country.
And now at least one Republican business leader says Perry’s taking the Lone Star swagger a little too far.
Perry’s forceful recruitment campaigns, featuring radio and magazine ads as well as personal appearances, promise low-tax, pro-growth policies in Texas —and they also trash the business climate in places like California (“…I hear building a business in California is next to impossible”) and Illinois (“…an environment that, intentionally or not, is designed for you to fail.”)
Those attacks hit where it hurts and have touched off an angry political backlash against Perry outside the Texas borders, with Democrats mocking his attempts to steal jobs as clownish – and warning the Republican governor to keep his handsoff. In a memorable put-down, Gov. Jerry Brown said Perry’s incursions into California were about as effective as breaking wind.
But other observers say Perry knows exactly what he’s doing.
I doubt Perry is losing sleep over "angry political backlash" from mocking Democrats out of state. He's doing the right things and all those other states are doing the wrong things, which is why he is able to do such poaching in the first place. The United States is doing the right things compared to the rest of the world, which is why we've always been seen as a haven for freedom. Let Third World countries mock us as barbarous clowns all they want to.
(Via Hot Air, which observes that the backlash is an indication Perry's campaign has been successful.)
