Custom «Journey to the White House» Essay Paper Sample

Rick James Perry was born on 4^th March, 1950 in Paint Creek which is a small unincorporated neighborhood in West Texas. His mother Amelia Holt and father Joseph Perry were ranchers. Back in the days, his father had been the Commissioner of the County of Haskell and during his reign, it was expected that he had introduced Rick Perry in the world of politics. From his youth, Rick Perry was actively involved in Boy Scouts. He was to later earn the top most rank in Eagle Scout. Rick Perry attended Paint Creek High School from which he graduated in 1968 after that he enrolled to Texas A&M University and undertook a bachelor’s degree course in animal science. Owing to his numerous pranks that he pulled on his classmates, he found his way to the male cheerleader crew in the university. He was also a part of the Corps of Cadets, and after graduating from college in 1972 he got a chance to train with the Air Force where he specialized as a pilot. After successful completion of his training, he was given a permit to fly C-130 tactical planes, a job which he did until 1977. He resigned from the forces having attained the captaincy rank and went back home to Texas to his father and assisted him in his farming business. In 1982, he wedded his teenage sweetheart Anita Thigpen; together they have two children, Sydney and Griffin.

Rick Perry’s first real encounter with politics was in 1984, being a democrat candidate he was elected to the House of Representatives, Texas. He remained in office for a two year period. During the presidential elections in 1988, Rick Perry was very much instrumental in driving the agendas of Al Gore in Texas. Al Gore was the democrat’s candidate who was eyeing the presidency. In the following year, Rick Perry made a great switch from his Democrat Party to be a Republican. As a newly packaged Republican in 1990, Rick Perry vied against the sitting Democratic Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Jim Hightower, and emerged the winner. He held this position for almost eight years. In 1998 he was then selected to be the Lieutenant Governor of Texas (Saenz, 2011). Rick Perry was to later assume governorship in 2000; this was following the resignation of then Governor of Texas, George W. Bush who had presidential ambitions. Rick Perry won the elections and became the 47^th governor of Texas; he retained his governor’s seat in the years of 2002, 2006 and 2010.

During Rick Perry’s occupancy as the Governor of Texas, he has proved to be a man of action. He has never wavered delivering the promises and because of this remarkable statesmanship, he has been a darling to Texans. It comes as no surprise that indeed Texans have had their trust in him that they re-elected him thrice for the governor’s position. Some of the achievements by Rick Perry are described as follows.

First, he is a leader who is sensitive about the sanctity of human life. In fact Perry has always been a Pro- life type of leader owing to his Christian upbringing. In showing sensitivity to life, Governor Perry agreed to put his signature to a Pro Life Pledge that protects the inviolability of human life right from conception to death, a principle which he has put in action as the Governor for Texas. A clear depiction of his commitment against abortions can be seen from the Pro Life Legislations which he has passed in Texas coupled with the abolishing of the taxation on the ‘planned parenthood’ which is the leading committer of abortions. His efforts in partnering with the Texas Right to Life to foresee the cutting down of revenues allocated to the abortion industry, has made Texas to be seen as a more committed State in the fight against Abortion. As a result of this strong stance that Texans have embraced, the ‘abortion businesses’ in Texas has been dwindling and ultimately these businesses have been forced to close down.

In the same view of human life sanctity, unlike many other states, Texas under Rick Perry introduced Parental Notification Laws which stipulate that parents and guardians have to be notified about the intentions of their minor daughters who are contemplating abortions. This particular legislation has been of great benefits because ultimately it has seen a decrease in the rates of abortion in Texas. Also this legislation has strengthened many Texas families together with protecting parental rights. In his more than a decade as a Governor, Rick Perry has had numerous opportunities to protect innocent life and sure enough, he has utilized most of them. Back in 2003, he passed a bill named the ‘woman’s right to know law’. The law stipulated that there should be a twenty four hours waiting period prior to conducting abortions and within that time, information would be given to the lady seeking to abort (Graham, 2011).

Rick Perry has also been hailed for the remarkable work in creating employment opportunities in Texas. The recession that had hit the US some two years ago had almost spelt doom for many residents. It is remembered that around that time, many people were being laid off toppled with other financial difficulties experienced. With barely two years shy off the recession, the State of Texas has amazingly un-snared from the effects and snapped back to normalcy with a boom. Through Rick Perry’s contribution, the state of Texas has opened up almost 300,000 new jobs. The Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas reported that Texas had accounted for a whopping 37 % of all the newly create jobs in the United States of America. By virtue of Rick Perry achieving such a feat has drawn critics to doubt its feasibility some even calling it a ‘miracle’ but Rick Perry maintains all can be achieved with hard work and good leadership. Talking of hard work, Governor Rick Perry has been acknowledged by Cato Institute as the 9^th best governor in the entire US.

Another yet great score point that Rick Perry has achieved lies in the taxation. Texas is among only 9 states that are devoid of a state income tax. This can be all attributed to the efforts of Rick Perry made in the restraining of the debt of Texas. All these aspects consequently have made Texas an ideal location for hiring of people and this explains why it had a higher employment rate after the recession. Apparently the economic growth of Texas alone has been growing at approximately 3.3 percent per annum, juxtaposed with that of the national average which is recorded to be at 2.3 percent (Chicago Tribune, 2011).

The health Industry in Texas has also been boosted by the efforts of Rick Perry to fight off diseases. He initiated an Institute for Applied Cancer Science located in the University of Texas. The main aim of this move was to facilitate the coming together of scientists and presumably the inventions of working therapies against cancers. These state of the art laboratories would be able to provide better comprehension of cancers. The institute delves into the vast opportunities that have been researched on and are available from up to date transformative technological and scientific advances to progress the terribly low rates of success in the fight against cancers.

Having been a governor long enough, and given that he had the backing of a string of achievements that can be directly or indirectly associated to his doings, Rick Perry decided to aim for the top job; the Presidency.

Rick Perry threw himself in the murky waters of presidential campaigns determined to bring some changes in America that would set it in motion for improvements. After all he had the formula of bringing improvements in the American economy by the restriction of frivolous lawsuits, restricting the general revenue expenditure, cutting of taxes and avoiding expensive regulations. With these agendas, he sorts out to convince the electorate and seek endorsements. Rick Perry’s journey to the White House has not been all that rosy. First, when he entered the race, people had already written him off claiming that he had no sufficient knowledge in economics. However, this did not dampen his spirit. He was admired in his home turf Texas and he got a worthy endorsement from the speaker of the House of Representatives in Florida, Mr. Dean Cannon. Cannon had cited that Rick Perry’s job creation record was impeccable. He further asserted that America needed to take a different approach just like the one Rick Perry offered.

The preceding months Rick Perry’s campaign had gained momentum, with the Christian community in support of him, however in early November last year during one of the debates Rick Perry had a slip up and forgot what he meant to say as he was watched by my millions of people. His speech had been poorly worded and incoherent. People already had crossed him off and concluded that he would not match up the oratory skills of the democrat candidate, Barrack Obama (Spillius, 2012). Few months after that embarrassing moment he decided to drop out the presidential race and instead he opted to endorse Newt Gingrich his former rival.

Even though his mission to reach the White House was cut short due to drawbacks along the way, Rick Perry is still respected for the quality of leadership he posses.