Is Perry ahead in the polls mainly because Republicans think he's most likely to win?

I'm reading this new CNN poll of Republicans and " independents who lean toward the GOP":

Thirty-six percent, for example, see him as the strongest leader in the field, with Romney second at 21 percent. According to the poll, 35 percent say Perry is the Republican candidate most likely to get the economy moving again, with Romney in second at 26 percent.

Nearly three in ten say that Perry is the candidate who is most likely to fight for his beliefs, with Palin in second place at 23 percent and, significantly, Romney in a distant tie for fourth at just 11 percent.

But Perry's biggest strength may be the electability factor, with 42 percent saying he has the best chance of beating Obama next year. Some 26 percent say Romney has the best chance of defeating the president....

As I said in the previous post, Perry gives Romney the opportunity to demonstrate a fighting spirit.

The poll indicates that Perry doesn't fare quite as well on issues. Only 26 percent say he is the Republican hopeful who is most likely to agree with them on the issues. That's good enough for the top spot on that measure, too, but it's a far cry from the low 30s and high 40s Perry pulls on electability and leadership.

Perry's biggest Achilles heel may be the likeability factor. Only one in four say he is the most likable GOP candidate out there, his lowest mark on the six items tested.

He still comes out in first place, though! (PDF here.) Second place goes to Palin, who's not even running (yet). So what kind of an Achilles heel is it that one in 5 persons thinks Sarah Palin is more likeable than you?!

"Why the Perry-Romney Slugfest Plays Right Into Obama’s Hands."

TNR's Ed Kilgore says:

Every moment they spend sparring over the New Deal and Great Society is a boon to Barack Obama. Even if the incumbent cannot win a referendum on his own presidency, he can win a competition between the ghost of Barry Goldwater and the ghosts of FDR and LBJ.

It seems to me that Perry is giving Mitt Romney a great opportunity to demonstrate his fighting skills.

Rick Perry, the death penalty, and the "Texas governor is weak" argument.

Jonathan Weisman in the Wall Street Journal:

In 2009, two days before an agency called the Texas Forensic Science Commission was to hear evidence that an innocent man may have been put to death, Gov. Rick Perry removed the panel's chairman and two other members, replacing them with a fresh set of allies who then bottled up the issue.

The move, which the commissioners say took them by surprise, was one of many Mr. Perry has taken to strengthen his authority and centralize control—turning a traditionally weak governorship into a power center. Now a Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Perry says he wants to diminish the reach of the federal government. His history suggests he would be unafraid to exercise power to achieve his goals....

The move, which the commissioners say took them by surprise, was one of many Mr. Perry has taken to strengthen his authority and centralize control—turning a traditionally weak governorship into a power center. Now a Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Perry says he wants to diminish the reach of the federal government. His history suggests he would be unafraid to exercise power to achieve his goals.

It could also suggest the opposite! If the point is, he's good at consolidating his own power, then, in a position of national power, he might consolidate power at the national level.

As for the death penalty issue in particular, Rick Perry — at last week's debate — did not rely on the argument that the Texas governor had little power. I believe some bloggers brought up the weak-governor argument, and I thought it was notable that he eschewed that excuse. I assumed he had decided to forgo that argument because it is generally unhelpful to his cause. (He wants to portray himself as a richly experienced executive.) But now I see the a specific reason involving the details of the Cameron Todd Willingham execution.

There's another debate tonight — which I plan to live-blog — and I hope the questioners — it's CNN this time — ask him about the issue raised in Weisman's article.

"Monday morning, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up..."

"It's time to go... time to go to work."

The tape tape.

Tape Generations from johan rijpma on Vimeo.

Via Metafilter.

"New Yorkers defiant in face of terror threat."

One more day of defiance passes in New York City.

"Violently liberal women in politics" preferred Adlai Stevenson to JFK because they "were scared of sex."

Oh my! The transcript of the Jackie Kennedy tapes has hit the NYT.

“Suddenly, everything that’d been a liability before — your hair, that you spoke French, that you didn’t just adore to campaign, and you didn’t bake bread with flour up to your arms — you know, everybody thought I was a snob and hated politics,” she tells Mr. Schlesinger. All of that changed. “I was so happy for Jack, especially now that it was only three years together that he could be proud of me then,” she says. “Because it made him so happy — it made me so happy. So those were our happiest years.”...

Describing the night of the inauguration, she recalled that she was both recovering from a Caesarean section and exhausted. She skips dinner and takes a nap. But she finds herself unable to get out of bed to attend the inaugural balls until Dr. Janet Travell, who would become the White House physician, materializes and hands her an orange pill.

“And then she told me it was Dexadrine,” Mrs. Kennedy says.

"Are carrots orange for political reasons?"

Possibly!

Presidential prayer demeanor.

Head bowed/head uplifted.

Would this be a better picture if Michelle Obama's head did not appear to be a bulbous extension of Obama's head? And if Bush's head didn't seem to be a weight hanging from Obama's neck? At first I thought yes, but now I think it's utterly fascinating, symbolically and graphically. Note that we only see Obama's body, so the other 2 heads seem like growths on that body. His wife would pull him back, perhaps with excessive braininess, and his predecessor would pull him down, with all the regrets and burdens of the past. With effort, he lifts up his head...

But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

That's not the Psalm Obama read at the ceremony, which was Psalm 46. This is Psalm 3.

LORD, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”...

Arise, LORD! Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

Lord, take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.

President Bush, reading Lincoln's letter at the 9/11 ceremony in NYC.

"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom."

President Obama reads Psalm 46 at the NYC 9/11 ceremony.

Come, behold, the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth...

Presidents Obama and Bush arrive at the World Trade Center memorial.

At the Reflection Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

"I thought I’ll only be alive for maybe a minute longer, so I only have to keep trying to figure out how to save my life for one more minute."

"I told myself I can’t give up until I pass out. I remember that I hoped for a fast death. Then something switched in me. I was okay dying.... Now I realize that the time when I could not breathe was probably less than a minute. I had accepted the pain and my death after only 30 seconds."

Penelope Trunk describes her post-9/11 path, from high achievement in New York City to retreat, of a kind, in Wisconsin.

Who would seek this gift of knowing what you would think if you believed you were living the last 30 seconds of your life? But if that gift arrived... what would it look like?

"Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?"

Asks Paul Krugman.

Is it odd to be subdued?

Having observed that we are subdued and that it is odd, Krugman applies the label: shame. We are ashamed of ourselves for what we did after the attacks.

Te atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue.

Te atrocity. Fix the typo, Mr. Krugman. People will think you haven't given enough weight to the atrocity. As long as we're looking for symptoms and making diagnoses, I might as well do it too.

The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.

I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.

You don't want to see what you don't want to see, which is oddly at odds with your belief that Americans have a shameful way of blinding ourselves to the full range of what is happening and what we are doing.

Today, we observe the 10-year mark since the terrorists attacks of 9/11.

What will you do to mark the occasion? Is the 10th anniversary different for you?

Do your reflections remain fixed on the human beings who suffered and died?

Do you think about how the attacks changed our country? Do you think about yourself — where you were when you first heard, how you reacted, how — perhaps — your life took a new path?