Customer Stephen needles me regularly that it’s beginning to look like we’re going to get to keep Rick Perry in Texas all to ourselves.  Although Rick raised more than any other GOP candidate, his money came from the top 1%.

Perry is suffering from an inability to raise money from a broad base of supporters, usually measured by the number of small-dollar donors. Perry raised $13.4 million of his $17.2 million from donors giving between $2,500 and $5,000. He only raised $698,820 from donors giving less than $200, which was 4 percent of his total contributions, the lowest percentage for any current presidential candidate.

It’s a sad state of affairs in this country when the top 1% of old white male money holders only get  1 vote, same as say … a hairdresser.  Or Lulu the manicurist.

Having given Texas a new slogan – We Make Mississippi Look Like Heaven in Springtime – Rick’s work in Texas is done.  So if you guys can come up with something else he can ruin – say, Wyoming, because nobody even lives there – we’d appreciate the suggestions because he ain’t gonna be President.  His poll numbers are falling faster than a six legged jackrabbit.

But the upside is that the longer he stays in the race, the longer he separates rich people from their money – something none the rest of us could do.

Thanks to Stephen for the heads-up.

Check out Tuesday night!

Gotta wear socks with my flip flops!

Like Anita Perry, I am a woman of faith.  Unlike Anita Perry, I have never felt persecuted or brutalized because of my faith.  And that’s because I have … well, … faith.

Also unlike Anita Perry, my God doesn’t give me much personal advice, but is there to comfort me when I fall on my face.  My God doesn’t take sides in football games or tell me what car to buy.  My God walks with me beside the still waters.

Sweet Jesus gives me the peace that passes all understanding.

It just seems to me that if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego can come through the fires without whining or feeling brutalized, then it must take a distinct lack of faith not to be able to stand up to a little criticism.  I love that the 80 year old Daniel, after spending the night in the lion’s den, went home the next morning to pray.  He went home to pray.  He didn’t whine or hold a press conference or pray in a football stadium or hold a fundraiser.  He went home.

Living in upper middle class white America, it’s hard for me to believe that a rich white Christian woman would feel brutalized.  Does she even know what that word means?  I think she does.

Brutalize is when you bash gay people so viciously that they become the target of violent hate crimes.  Brutalize is when you deny medical care to children, or raise college tuition beyond the reach of the middle class.  Brutalize is when you will let a woman hemorrhage to death on the emergency room floor because she might be having a miscarriage.  Brutalize is when you would rather fire three school teachers than give up your $10,000 a month taxpayer paid mansion.  Brutalize is when your state has the highest percentage of uninsured and you don’t care.

I could go on and on.  You know I could.

I want my friends to know that not all people of faith feel like victims or martyrs.  The vast majority of us feel uplifted.

When Anita whined today that Barack Obama was to blame for her son having to resign his job in order to campaign for his father, I wondered why he didn’t take one of those minimum wage jobs that she says people are so hungry for.

Anita Perry blamed the Obama administration for her son having to resign his position.

“My son had to resign his job because of federal regulations that Washington has put on us,” Mrs. Perry said while campaigning for her husband in South Carolina, after a voter shared the story of losing his job.

“He resigned his job two weeks ago because he can’t go out and campaign with his father because of SEC regulations,” she continued, referring to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “He has a wife… he’s trying to start a business. So I can empathize.”

“My son lost his job because of this administration,” she said a few minutes later.

So now Barack Obama brutalized her son?

Dear Lord, since you appear to be the only one speaking to her, please tell Anita Perry that nobody in America wants to put up with 8 years of her whining, so as far as I’m concerned, she can keep on yakking.

Juanita has to take a deep breath and fan herself a tad before she reads Paul Krugman’s column.  She’s apt to swoon.

This morning?  The best description of Rick Perry’s plight:

the Cheshire Cat-like Rick Perry — he seems to be fading out, bit by bit, until only the hair remains

“Damn, I love Paul Krugman,” she sighs.

The Today Show Headline:

Rick Perry: ‘I don’t worry too much about polls’

That pretty much makes it even.  The polls don’t worry too much about him either.

Thanks to Bubba for the comment over my shoulder at breakfast this morning.