Rick Perry Joined On Stump By Navy SEAL Hero He Helped
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, January 2, 2012, 6:50 AM
Gov. Rick Perry talks with retired U.S. Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, shown with Luttrell’s dog, Rigby, before Perry addresses the Lone Survivor Foundation’s Second Annual Gala at Minute Maid Park on Saturday. (Johnny Hanson/Houston Chronicle)
Governor Rick Perry will be joined today by a Navy SEAL he helped. Navy Cross winner former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell will join Perry. Luttrell lived with the Perry family for two years.
Boston.com reported, via Free Republic:
As Texas Governor Rick Perry makes his final pre-caucus appearances before Iowa voters today, he will be joined on the stump by a figure who’s well-known locally: 1996 and 2000 presidential candidate Steve Forbes.
The famous flat-tax advocate is expected to attest to Perry’s outside-the-box, anti-Washington campaign message.
But also joining Perry will be someone who once preferred to live in the shadows: former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell.
He received the Navy Cross after surviving a vicious 2005 battle in which three of his fellow SEALs were killed when they were discovered inside Afghanistan while pursuing a Taliban leader…
Luttrell later wrote about the experience in his book, “The Lone Survivor.” It is being made into a Peter Berg movie due for release next year.
Unlike Forbes, Luttrell isn’t expected to testify today to Perry’s policy. Rather, he will speak to the Republican presidential candidate’s character.
In a story Perry himself related to a trio of reporters from the Globe and two other news organizations during a chance encounter last night at Des Moines’s Django restaurant, Luttrell and the governor formed a bond after their own chance meeting on Coronado Island in San Diego…
……Perry told the reporters that after his initial meeting with Luttrell in California, the two reconnected in Texas as the SEAL battled post-traumatic stress disorder and struggled to get off a morphine regimen.
Over time, Rick and Anita Perry – the parents of two children – offered him a spare bedroom in the third floor of their Austin-area home. (They still are unable to live in the Texas Governor’s Mansion since it was burned by an arsonist while being renovated in 2008.)
Luttrell’s bed was nothing more than an air mattress, the governor related.
Perry said he also intervened with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to get Luttrell the medical and psychological treatment he needed. He ended up being a regular presence in the home for about two years.
In 2010, Luttrell established the Lone Survivor Foundation, which is aimed at helping wounded warriors return home.”
Also in 2010, he got married. And this past May, Luttrell and his wife, Melanie, had a son.
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Lady Mondegreen commented:
It’s not going to help Perry at this point any more than Bachmann’s 23 foster children are going to help her.
Peter Warner commented:
Astounding, and it is a great comfort to see Marcus Luttrell’s recovery. I listened to him on one radio interview after his return to the USA, and another after his dog (not the one pictured) was shot mercilessly. I’ve thought of him often, and hadn’t known about his marriage. Wonderful, really.
Of course, this all speaks well of Rick Perry. It’s nice to know of these things, because for one thing good people don’t usually broadcast about their good works. How many know of Goldwater’s free flights for servicemen trying to get home to Arizona at Christmastime, or Reagan meeting with the blind children when he was campaigning for governor (I think it was)?
This is good news all around.
Best regards, Peter Warner.
Rangerjagc commented:
I am thoroughly convinced that Perry is an outstanding, sincere, and compassionate man. I like him, but being a great human being is still not enough for a President. I was initially warm to his candidacy but observed enough problems that I think he was is and was not ready to be President. In many ways, he is better than the other choices, but electability is going to be my key factor, because another 4 years of Obama will mean the end of this country.
Pragmatic commented:
Go Perry Go!!!!!! here’s hoping he pulls off a surprise win, place or show in Iowa…..with one of the following scenarios:
WIN: (1) Perry (2) Paul (3) Santorum (4) Gingrich (5) Bachmann (6) Romney
PLACE: (1)Paul (2)Perry (3) Santorum (4) Gingrich (5) Bachmann (6) Romney
SHOW:(1)Ron Paul (2) Santorum (3)Perry (4) Gingrich (5) Bachmann (6) Romney
TiminPhx commented:
As long as Republican allow the Left-Wing media to tell us whose viable, or who they consider is a joke, we can expect never to really find the people who could lead the party to victory and the country to resurgance.
Newsweek framed Bachman with its cover in a pure attempt to hurt her early on. And it worked.
Perry, who can’t debate well had some stumbles, some self-inflicted, but the press acted as if that should automatically eliminate him from consideration. And most people did.
Don’t think they won’t go after anyone whose nominated. They will. And all you have to do, is cherry pick comments from months of on the stump and you can damage the nominee.
And you can expect no matter what the news, it’s going to be spun as if Obama just figured out a way to turn seawater to into oil and found a hidden cache of money the government somehow foforgot about to pass out.
Sasja commented:
The establishment republicans want Romney because he’s a RINO, as are they. I really don’t know if he is Obama-lite. His stance on global warming, climate change, or whatever, is disturbing as is his involvement with Zero’s health care legislation. Those who vote in these primaries need to take a serious look at each candidate and ignore the media, Rove, and the rest of the miscreants.
retire05 commented:
#1, Lady Mondegreen, when exactly, has Governor Perry ever used his friendship with Marcus Luttrell as a campaign talking point like Michele Bachmann has done, repeatedly, with her 23 foster children? Can you point to a debate, or stump speech, where Perry has brought that up? So you are trying to compare apples to oranges.
#3, Rangerjagc, “electibility”? Congratulations. You have swallowed the propaganda of modern election jargon. Electibility? How do you know if anyone who is currently running for the office of POTUS is electible in November, 2012, including Obama, when not one vote has been cast?
And I would ask you this: what will change if a northeaster liberal, who is running on the GOP ticket, is elected? How would they be any different than what we already have? Go down the list of social values and ecomonic record, and tell me that that everyone standing on that GOP debate stage will be better than what we have. It won’t. It doesn’t matter what letter you have behind your name, it matters that the candidate has put their conservative values into practice and that is part of their record.
Abraham Lincoln was considered unelectable. But do you even remember the names of his opponents, especially the one who was considered a certain thing, without looking it up? Every candidate running, save perhaps the one who now holds the office, is electable. Do we now pick a nominee, and possible president, because of “electability?” And who decides which candidate is electable and which one is not? The media? Talking heads? Political pundits?
BigAlSouth commented:
If you want to understand the warrior culture of the U.S. military, please read Luttrell’s amazing story in his book. I can understand his suffering with PTSD after surviving his ordeal.
God bless him and our military vets.
Campfollower commented:
As a longtime military dependent (daughter, sister and wife of soldiers and Marines) as well as an activist, I have to put Perry’s actions here in a different perspective.
I have not yet decided on my candidate, but know it won’t be Perry (for other reasons).
Like John Kerry in 2003-4, Perry appears to be using an angle that should not be used in a Presidential campaign. I don’t want to see Kerry do it, or Obama or Perry. It’s ok for different military and former military people to endorse a candidate, or even speak on their behalf. But for a campaign to blatantly PUSH such an endorsement crosses the line. There is a subtle difference.
Such endorsements also give the media another way to stack the deck for or against a candidate. Case in point: The media made a big deal about the Swift boat guys paid by Kerry to travel with him during the campaign, never revealing the compensation (at least one of those guys is now in prison for child porn, but that’s not been reported by the msm either). Yet, they blacklisted George W. Bush’s “band of brothers” — the aviators from his former national guard squadron who tried and tried to come forward to talk positively about him as a servicemember and aviator. I know first hand that this group was blackballed by the media for months while the msm pushed the notion that Kerry was widely admired for his brief military service, a sham that was revealed over the course of the campaign by a huge groundswell of military truth-seekers (still not acknowledged by mainstream beltway people or media).
This war has many, many military heroes like Marcus Lutrell, and I hope they will not be used by politicians’ campaigns.
The Bush campaign refused to use his former colleagues in campaign stops, even though they offered. Yet they were welcomed by the candidate as members of the crowds, and treated well. In other words, they were free to campaign on their own, but were not USED by the campaign. This should extend up to former generals (remember
retire05 commented:
Campfollower, how has Perry used his friendship with Marcus Luttrell in his campaign? Has he mentioned, even once, Luttrell during any debates or even on the stump? No, he hasn’t, but since the Lone Survivor Foundation is Luttrell’s own, I would imagine he requested Perry be there.
What you are doing is trying to compare Kerry’s paid hacks to Luttrell, and that is disgusting. Shame on you.
bg commented:
++
well, i won’t knock him for it..
but that GW&LB met with too numerous to count vets pre & post
his administration is probably he & the Mrs. best kept secret..
==
Rob commented:
Luttrell’s book was sobering. His life has been one worthy of emmulation. I live in Texas, know a lot about Luttrell, follow both Luttrell on FB and generally pay attention. THIS is the FIRST time I have ever heard that the Perry’s took Marcus in. So the criticism is unworthy and unfair in my opinion.
Perry is a good governor. The press had fun with Bauchman tearing him to shreads after he took a lead in the polls. It matters not who the GOP nominates, the MSM gloves will come off by late summer and Obama will skate. Just like how the media loved McCain up until the summer of 2008, and then together with the donks, they pulled every knob and cratered the market; bank run, oil price spike, etc, to punish the GOP and McCain. And Obama squeaked by.
Sometimes you have to look beyond the media spin and hype. I don’t want a polished but thinly layered conservative. I want a princibled man/woman who act on their convictions and govern.
Rob commented:
typos… ugh
greenfairie commented:
I’ve also read “Lone Survivor” and I pick up Luttrell’s feeds on Twitter and Facebook. I don’t blame a Texan for helping out a fellow Texan.
S. Wolf commented:
That’s my governor.
President James Richard Perry sounds good.
retire05 commented:
Want to know about the real Rick Perry?
http://www.burkslaw.blogspot.com/2010/02/haskell.html
And how many Congressional Medal of Honor winners besides Dakota Meyer have endorsed Rick Perry?
With the Middle East about to blow up (thanks to Obama and his stance on the Arab Spring) and Chavez and that idiot from Brazil teaming up with China and Iran, don’t tell me that it doesn’t matter if the next POTUS will have the military’s back. It does. The affects from the Obama administration is only now beginning to be felt, but I fear we ain’t seen nothing yet.
gee! commented:
5# bing ……………..
bg commented:
++
RCP January 2, 2012
National
27.4 Gingrich +2.2
25.2 Romney
12.2 Paul
6.4 Perry
6.2 Bachmann
4.0 Santorum
2.0 Huntsman
Iowa
22.8 Romney +1.3
21.5 Paul
16.3 Santorum
13.7 Gingrich
11.5 Perry
6.8 Bachmann
2.3 Huntsman
New Hampshire
40.5 Romney +22.0
18.5 Paul
13.0 Gingrich
10.5 Huntsman
4.3 Bachmann
3.5 Santorum
2.5 Perry
South Carolina
37.0 Gingrich +16.0
21.0 Romney
8.7 Paul
6.7 Bachmann
5.7 Perry
2.7 Santorum
3.3 Huntsman
Florida
35.0 Gingrich +7.0
28.0 Romney
6.5 Paul
4.0 Perry
3.5 Bachmann
2.0 Huntsman
1.5 Santorum
==
Molon Labe commented:
Its good to know that Perry did something like this. Too often good deeds are done secretly but this is why they are more significant. I am sure Romney, Obama or Paul would have done something similiar. But Bachman has done this 14 times over and the media never bother to look into it.
Still I hope this man recovers fully and adjusts to his new life.
retire05 commented:
Real Clear Averages from 1/02/2008/final
Iowa:
Huckabee 29.%/34.4%
Romney 28.3%/25.2%
McCain 12.8%/13.%
Thompson 11.8%/13.4%
From South Carolina 1/02/2008/final
McCain 13.0%/33.2%
Huckabee 25.8%/29.9%
Romney 19.3%/15.1%
Thompson 13.5%/15.7%
From Florida 1/02/2008/final
McCain 11.%/36.%
Romney 19.%/31.%
Giuliani 25.3%/14.7%
Huckabee 23.3%/13.5%
All you are doing bg, is proving how worthless polls are.
So the guy who was trailing badly in Florida and South Carolina and trailing in New Hampshire, went on to will all three states and take the nomination.
So what point were you trying to make?
retire05 commented:
#20, so you are sure that Romney, Obama or Paul would have done something similar? Then why didn’t they?
Lady Mondegreen commented:
Retire O5, your rhetorical questions don’t change the fact that – like them or hate them – both Perry and Bachmann are dead in the water as far as this election cycle goes. And they have both exposed themselves as such inept campaigners that their political careers may well be over. Santorum’s career has been over for years, but he doesn’t seem to realize it. He’s the non-Romney flavor of the month, but he’s unelectable. I’m not saying I like it, but it’s a fact.