En abril pasado, antes de saber que por estas fechas estaría a punto de postularse como candidato a la Casa Blanca, el Gobernador Rick Perry convocó para hoy un masivo evento evangélico de siete horas en el Reliant Stadium de Houston, con música, oraciones, lectura de las Sagradas Escrituras, y discursos religiosos con implicaciones políticas.
Ahora que es casi candidato presidencial, este "día de oración" se ha convertido en un asunto más delicado. La actuación del Gobernador ya no es sólo para consumo de los texanos, es de interés nacional.
Deberá actuar con tiento y cuidado para no ser identificado con algunas de las ideas más extremas que puedan expresar los participantes pero tampoco puede permitirse el lujo de molestar a los líderes evangélicos y arriesgarse a perder su favor.
Time:
(...) What is Perry’s role? Ah, the real question. Rick Perry is intimately tied to The Response. Its official website is dominated by a large video of Perry and a signed statements inviting Christians to join him in Houston to pray. Perry supporters emphasize that the event has something the governor has been planning for a long time, before his name emerged as a possible presidential contender. And yet as of Wednesday, according to the Chronicle, Perry’s office was still “evaluating how it would like to handle Perry’s involvement.” Surely his advisers won’t want to put him in the position of applauding extreme and potentially damaging statements from any of the speakers. But if Perry just slips in to kick off the gathering and then is never seen again, does he disappoint religious conservatives by seeming to distance himself from his own prayer rally?* Se podrá seguir el evento en directo por internet aquí.
More than anything, the questions that have surrounded The Response highlight what could be Perry’s greatest liability in a national campaign: the Texas cocoon. All cracks about Texas being a foreign country aside, Perry has not been terribly involved in national politics and it’s starting to show. His initial response to New York’s decision to legalize gay marriage–”fine with me”–revealed a man out-of-touch with the fact that national social conservatives are far more concerned about “the gay agenda” than state rights. And his assertion that The Response will be a “diverse” event because it’s attracting conservative evangelicals from different parts of Texas suggests that his definition of “diversity” could use some expanding.
George W. Bush only held office in Texas for five years before he left for Washington–and for only three years before he started exploring a presidential candidacy. But Perry has been in the Texas Capitol for 13 years. That time is the difference between having an ease around those Americans who are religious conservatives and having the belief that all Americans are religious conservatives.
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