Here in the Commonwealth of Virginia one doesn't find a stronger anti-intelligence and objective reality denying crowd than among the religious zealots at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, although the loons at Pat Robertson's Regent University and Mike Farris' Patrick Henry College are not far behind in the race for complete idiocy. As noted before on this blog and elsewhere, Liberty University teaches its students to ignore the law, support kidnapping and to hold a blind allegiance to the belief that the Bible is inerrant no matter what science and rational intellect prove to the contrary. Hence, it was a perfect marriage of the dumb and dumber for Rick Perry to visit Liberty University and address the Kool-Aid drinkers. One can only hope that Perry's statements at Liberty gain wide play in the main stream media and help voters realize that the guy is an extremist. Here are highlights from Washington Post coverage:
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a man of faith, and one of the big questions about him has been whether he would seek the presidency more as an evangelist or as a job-creator.
On the debate stage, Perry decidedly has done the latter. But he demonstrated Wednesday that he would not shy away from cloaking his candidacy in his Christianity, delivering an address here at the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University that presented his life in deeply spiritual terms and cast his political aspirations as destiny.
In perhaps his most reflective and personal remarks as a Republican presidential candidate, Perry never once said the word he utters just about everywhere else: “jobs.” His 20-minute speech was shorn of policy prescriptions and denouncements of President Obama. Instead, the evangelical Christian governor spoke the language of the movement with ease.
“Rick Perry’s a more overt, less subtle guy than George W. Bush, and he is going to be more overt in his policy statements and his statements about his faith,” said Richard Land, a longtime leader of the Southern Baptist Convention
Perry said before an estimated 13,000 students and faculty members who filled the basketball arena here for their thrice-weekly convocation.
[Liberty Chancellor] Falwell said he would not endorse in the race, but gave Perry a particularly enthusiastic introduction Wednesday, calling him “one of the most pro-life governors in American history” and likening him to Reagan.
Absent from the list of those who’ve made a pilgrimage here is Perry’s top rival for the nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has rarely, if ever, publicly discussed his Mormon faith during his current campaign.
With his speech here, Perry drew one of his sharpest contrasts with Romney, as well as former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. The contrast was not only over religion — Huntsman, too, is Mormon — but over their backgrounds. Romney and Huntsman are sons of privileged families, but Perry spoke at length about his more humble origins.
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