We’ve had some fun with Rick Perry in this space for the past year. Finger guns, real guns, gosh, probably even water guns. Too much fun. GUN FUN. Well, it turns out all that fun may have been at the expense of the governor’s health, so I can’t decide: more funny or less funny?
Perry underwent back surgery in July 2011; [longtime Perry strategist Dave] Carney said that the governor was told it would only take two weeks to recover. Instead, it took four months. The governor announced his campaign in August to great fanfare, but ended his campaign in January after a series of lackluster debate performances.
“The whole campaign was built on a very aggressive, arduous schedule of travel in order to make up for lost time,” Carney explained. The pain made it hard for the governor to sleep, “more difficult to study, more difficult to be comfortable.” However, he said painkillers did not play into Perry’s debate missteps, as some have speculated.
In addition, seemingly out of nowhere:
“It’s just a fact, it’s not an excuse,” the strategist added. “We passed tort reform in Texas, so we can’t actually sue the doctors for what they told him.”
They’re totally gonna sue some doctors.
