Rick Perry, the governor of Texas and one of the current GOP presidential candidates, has the most experience when it comes to finding solutions to illegal immigration, border patrol, and drug cartels in Mexico. Drug cartels are a rapidly growing threat to Mexico as a whole and also have the potential to spew over the border into the United States if something is not done, and done soon.

Perry is trying to come up with some solutions to solve the crisis that has not been effectively addressed by Washington. Perry’s potential plan of action to solve the ongoing threat of drug cartels in Mexico was presented in New Hampshire this past week. He stated, “It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and to keep them off of our border.”

Although the idea seems sufficient for dealing with crimes in Mexico, the Mexican government has not responded with open arms to the hypothetical idea. Arturo Sarukhan, the Ambassador to Mexico stated, “The matter of the participation or presence of U.S. troops on Mexican soil is not on the table.”

This is not the first time Perry has been faced with concerns involving Mexico. Being along the border, Perry has had his hands full and dug deep into the pockets of the constituents in his state to control illegal immigrants from crossing the border.

Perry has spent more than  $230 million dollars in securing the Texas-Mexico border from his office’s budget, including putting more Texas police on the ground near the border, surveillance cameras, and hiring additional law enforcement. He also believes it is the job of the Federal government, and not the state, to deal with the problem of border patrol.

Another issue facing Perry is how to handle the immigrants that are already in the state of Texas that have successfully crossed the border. One of his policies allows in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, saving them close to $100,000 in schooling over four years. He stated, “In 2001, we had this choice: Are we going to kick these children over to the curb and say you cannot have access to college? Because the fact of the matter is there’s no way they could pay the out-of-state tuition.”

This plan quickly backfired in the most recent debate and several  candidates challenged him on this topic, including Rick Santorum referring to him as “soft” on immigration. Santorum also pointed out  problems with Perry’s stance on illegal immigration in a Newsmax  interview. He concludes that Perry is doing three things wrong in dealing with illegal immigrants.

First he thinks Perry’s opposition to a fence along the border and using  troops on the ground instead to defend the border has been ineffective. Secondly he believes that Perry has promoted incentive programs that attract immigrants to come to the country illegally such as the in-state tuition policy.

Lastly, Santorum thinks Perry isn’t doing enough about illegal immigrants as far as locating and  deporting them. From illegal immigration, border patrol, and drug cartels it seems as if Rick Perry has been faced with them all. Whether other candidates agree with Perry or not, he has probably spent more time and money on the issue than any other candidate running for election in 2012.

He may be the best qualified in providing  solutions regarding these issues.

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States are now clamoring to move the Republican primary up early, leaving the traditional first states left in the dust. Florida Republican presidential primary is likely going to be held five weeks earlier than normal, moving the primary to January 31, 2012 instead of early March.

The Florida GOP has selected the early date by a vote of 7 to 2, according to GOP insiders. This move is in violation of Republican National Committee guidelines. It also upsets the traditional standards that allows the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina to be the first primary states in every presidential election.

Although Florida may be sanctioned by the RNC, Florida’s Republican officials seem to be looking past any punishment. They believe by moving up their primary, they will be the fifth and deciding primary of the season. Early primary states are upset by Florida and other states leapfrogging moves.

Arizona had previously announced that they were moving their primary up to the same day as South Carolina’s primary. South Carolina has asked that the Republican National Convention be moved out of Florida where it is scheduled. New Hampshire is also unhappy since they have a state law mandating that the state have the first primary in the nation.

Officials in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada have already said that they will be moving their contests. When Chuck Todd played this out on MSNBC last week, he anticipated that the Iowa caucuses, the first contest of the season , would be moved to Jan. 5. But by the time this all shakes out, it could end up being worse.

As CNN’s Peter Hamby tweets this morning: “NH Sec of State does not rule out holding New Hampshire primary this year. As in, 2011.” This means those potential candidates that are still lingering in the dust better start to announce their candidacy if they are interested. Yes, I am talking to you Sarah Palin, Chris Christie or even Mr. Huckabee.

The chance to build up a campaign was just shortened by a month.
R. Gino Santa Maria / Shutterstock.com

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Another intense night unfolded as the GOP presidential candidates continued to battle for the lead — which means knocking Rick Perry out of first place. The candidates might not agree on anything, but they seemed to have the same opinion on the President’s performance. In Tampa, Florida on Monday night the eight presidential candidates showed similar behavior as they did the previous week.

Perry continues as the front-runner in the race thus far and it was obvious that all other contenders were relentlessly trying to shake him. Michele Bachmann targeted Perry on his bill that requires teen girls to have the HPV shot in the state of Texas. She questioned if the drug company’s donations were the initiative behind the mandatory vaccinations or if it was actually about “protecting life.”

Mitt Romney challenged Perry by telling him how he really felt about his job creation, saying, “look I think governor Perry would agree with me that if your dealt four aces, that doesn’t make you necessarily a great poker player.” Romney and Perry continued their one-on-one battle throughout the night, as seen the week before. They still remain the top two candidates in the race.

Ron Paul also chimed in on Rick Perry’s job record and mentioned that as a taxpayer in Texas, and with Rick Perry as his governor, his taxes have doubled alongside spending since he came to office. Rick Perry was not the only candidate faced with criticism. Ron Paul also dealt with confrontation from Santorum and sustained booing from the audience.

The cause was an article posted on Paul’s website that stated the 9/11 attacks were America’s fault. Michele Bachmann had a strong night and was seen as a bit more aggressive in Tampa than she was the week before in California. This was essential for her position as one of the top three front-runners and secured her stay in the race.

Many viewers believe that Bachman performed the best out of every candidate. Bachmann said she had “wonderful positive feedback and comments from it, so we’re delighted.” Candidate Herman Cain chimed in from time to time with his policies and said, “he would bring a sense of humor to the white house, because America is too uptight,” which added some humor to the debate.

No matter what stance each candidate took throughout the night, it was made clear across the stage that President Obama had to be replaced in 2012, amid a sense of humor. Newt Gringrich said, “I’m not particularly worried about Governor Perry and Governor Romney frightening the American people when President Obama scares them everyday.”

Santorum stated, “Some people say that Barack Obama’s economy is a disaster, my feeling is it would have to make a dramatic improvement just to be a disaster.” With a few more debates left to go, it will be interesting to see if Perry will continue to be the target for other candidates and if candidates will continue to clobber the President in hope of republican support.

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President Barack Obama launched a three-day bus tour, speaking in town hall meetings through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, but he emphasized that he is not campaigning yet. Obama, however, spent his speeches focusing on jobs and the economy while criticizing the GOP field of potential nominees.

The President criticized the Republicans for their uniform opposition to any deficit-cutting compromise involving new taxes. “That’s just not common sense,” Obama told the crowd at a town hall-style meeting in Cannon Falls, Minn. “You need to take a balanced approach,” he insisted.

Obama spoke about last week’s GOP presidential debate where all eight of the candidates said they would refuse to support a deal with tax increases, even if tax revenues were outweighed 10-to-1 by spending cuts. Obama didn’t mention any of the candidates by name, and prefaced the remark by saying, “I know it’s not election season yet.”

At another town hall meeting, Obama was questioned about his health care reform and used the opportunity to take a shot at Mitt Romney.”You’ve got a governor who’s running for president right now who instituted the exact same thing in Massachusetts,” Obama said, referring the requirement for nearly everyone to carry health insurance. “This used to be a Republican idea,” Obama said. “It’s like suddenly they got amnesia.”

Obama also criticized the anti-government message that the Republican Party embraces. “When you go to the National Parks and those folks in the hats, that’s government,” Obama said. “As frustrated as you are about politics don’t buy into this notion that somehow government is what’s holding us back,” he said.

Obama began his speech at the town hall meetings by criticizing Congress, accusing lawmakers of putting politics ahead of the country and calling on voters to tell them to cut it out. “You’ve got to send a message to Washington that it’s time for the games to stop, it’s time to put country first,” Obama said.

“I want everyone to understand here, I’m not here just to enjoy the nice weather; I’m here to enlist you in a fight,” he said. “We are fighting for the future of our country. And that is a fight that we are gonna win. That is a promise that I make, with your help.”

Not everyone was pleased with Obama’s town hall meetings. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and a few dozen protesters showed up in Cannon Falls. “We won’t stand idly by while he uses our hard-earned tax dollars to spin his failure to put America back to work,” Priebus said.

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