At a piano recital when he was 8, Perry met Anita Thigpen, who, 24 years later, would become his wife. When he got to Texas A&M, Perry joined the Corps of Cadets and was elected as one of A&M’s five yell leaders. Perry said he learned there was more to college than fraternity parties — “Quite frankly, I struggled,” he said recently — and graduated with a degree in animal science. To this day, he kneels down to pet dogs when he sees them.
Perry joined the Air Force, piloting transport aircraft from 1972 to 1977, although he was never called into battle.
Perry has said that at age 27, when he returned to Paint Creek to work the family’s cotton farm, he was “lost, spiritually and emotionally.” He pondered his purpose but found God. And, in 1984, he launched what would become a nearly three-decade political career. He won 10 straight elections — state representative, agriculture commissioner, lieutenant governor and, when George W. Bush became president, governor.
“It’s a whole package,” David Carney, Perry’s chief strategist, said in a recent interview. “This is not manufactured. That’s what makes Rick Perry who Rick Perry is.”
Romney doesn’t talk about flying cargo planes — he didn’t serve in the military — or going from rags to riches. He’s always had the latter. The places he has lived — Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; Belmont, Mass.; Park City, Utah; La Jolla, Calif.; and Wolfeboro, N.H. — have almost nothing in common with Paint Creek.
The biography Romney shares with voters is one of bullet points on what by any measure is an impressive résumé:
Learned French during two years in France as a Mormon missionary. Married his high school sweetheart, Ann, at age 22. Graduated from Brigham Young University and gave a commencement address to his class. Completed law and business degrees in four years at Harvard.
Became a rising star in the management consulting world. Founded Bain Capital. Helped invest in or acquire companies such as Staples, the office-supplies retailer. Turned around the struggling 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Was elected governor of Massachusetts. Ran for president.
“I don’t have all the answers to all the problems that exist in America and around the world,” Romney has said. “But I know how to find the answers, and I also know how to lead.”
It is perhaps in the area of personal style that the two men are most different.
Consider how they approached the rite of eating a corn dog when they visited the Iowa State Fair last month. When a fair vendor handed Romney a vegetarian corn dog, he politely took it, turned his back to the cameras following him, took a delicate bite from the side and hurried along so he wouldn’t be photographed sticking the deep-fried foot-long in his mouth.
Perry, meanwhile, took a big bite of his corn dog, top first, photographic evidence of which raced around the Internet.
“A guy gave me a corny dog and it looked beautiful,” Perry recalled a few days later in South Carolina. “I took a big ol’ bite out of it and I thought, it kind of has an odd taste. He said, ‘It’s a vegetarian one. How do you like it, sir?’ ”
Stirring his audience of apparent meat lovers, Perry continued his riff.
“Let’s see,” he said, “I think [I ate] boiled egg on a stick and finished up with pork chop on a stick. So I got my protein that day!”
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