Rick Perry: the dumbed-down George W. Bush?

Evil twins?

I’ve been thinking that maybe I was being unfair in asking whether Rick Perry was a dumb version of George W. Bush based on his college transcript. One flaw in the post was noting that Bush went to Harvard, while Perry went to Texas A&M. Bush got his MBA from Harvard (Perry didn’t do graduate school) so the comparison is unfair. I should have compared Bush’s undergraduate school to Perry’s. So Bush went to Yale.

Not much of a difference for Bush, right? But how did Bush do at Yale? Here’s his transcript:

So Bush was a solid C student at an Ivy League university. Meanwhile Perry’s transcript shows a C-minus student at a school described as “this cute remedial school we have in Texas.”

But there’s a huge difference in background. Perry didn’t come from a rich family; he grew up on a cotton farm with no running water. Bush never knew (and still can’t relate to) hard economic times. Perry wanted to be a veterinarian, but look at his transcript. You can’t be a vet if you get a D in veterinary anatomy.

The two share some common traits: college cheerleader, Air Force pilot far away from war zones, governor of Texas. But word is that Bush doesn’t particularly like Perry, although he took on the Perry persona as president: Bush, the eastern elitist with an Ivy League education, was a Perry wannabe.

So saying Perry is a dumb George Bush is extremely unfair.

George W. Bush was a pseudo-sophisticated version of Rick Perry.

James Richard “Rick” Perry, on the other hand, is a dumb version of Rick Perry.

And he’s got a really good shot at taking the GOP presidential nomination, because he doesn’t have to appeal to the party’s base. He is the base.

Related articles

• Open thread for night owls: What’s the difference between Rick Perry and George Bush? (dailykos.com)
• Perry Dismisses Bush Comparisons (politicalwire.com)
• George W. Bush Impersonator Considering (Short) Leap To Rick Perry (npr.org)

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