Rick Perry's presidential campaign is on life support at the moment, and according to a group of Hispanic Republicans, Joe Arpaio's recent endorsement of Perry could be the final nail in the Texas Governor's coffin.
"We believe the Arpaio endorsement is a colossal blunder from which Rick
Perry will never recover, and we call on Rick Perry to leave the
presidential race," the group Cafe Con Leche Republicans writes on its website.
Perry, albeit briefly, seemed as though he could win the Hispanic vote in the primary. During a debate with his GOP opponents, the Texas governor defended his policy of giving instate tuition to the children of illegal immigrants who wanted to attend state universities.
"If you say that we
should not educate children who have come into our
state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of
their own, I don't think you have a heart," Perry said earlier this year.
He's since backed away from the comments -- and adopted a more hawkish
attitude towards the immigration problem -- which is what earned him the
nod from a border bully like Arpaio.
"He apologized for that," the sheriff told New Times yesterday. "He never should have said it, but he apologized."
Perry has since said he would support
a federal program "to detain and to deport every illegal alien that we
apprehend." More on that here.
Perry's new, Arpaio-esque approach to the immigration problem may win
him the support of a wild west sheriff, and score him a few points in
the GOP primary, but it could come back to bite him in the arse in the general election (should he escape the primary, which is unlikely).
"Joe Arpaio is widely detested among Hispanics, and news stories about
racial profiling, prisoner abuse, etc. are staples in the Hispanic
media," the group goes on to say. "For example, a pregnant immigrant was forced to give birth in shackles, and Arpaio is notorious for racial profiling and for his neighborhood sweeps of Hispanic neighborhoods. Most experts believe that the successful GOP nominee will need Hispanic support in the 40% range, as received by George Bush in 2004. Hispanics are now 16% of the U.S. population."
Read more about Cafe Con Leche Republicans -- and the group's dire prediction for Perry -- here.
