Presidential Candidate Stalled By Preadolescent Girls?

For a rough and tough presidential candidate like Rick Perry, you wouldn’t think something as small as tweenaged girls could drop his approval ratings.

But nevertheless, Perry’s decision to vaccinate all preadolescent girls against the sexually transmitted virus HPV.

This issue ballooned on Monday night when Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum fledged an all out attack against current Governor Rick Perry of Texas. Governor Perry issued an executive order which required all sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, and neither Bachmann nor Santorum were willing to let him get away with it.

They criticized Perry’s mandate as being an “overreach of state power in a decision properly left to parents.” Even Sarah Palin found fault with this decision of Perry’s.

Although there are many vaccines that are mandated despite some controversy, the HPV vaccination pushes the buttons of many conservatives.

They complain that it is an example of the government reaching too far into personal health care decisions, that the vaccine could cause mental disorders, (although this has been debunked by multiple, credible studies) and even that the vaccination could promote promiscuity.

Despite the fact that these complaints seem to be from right-winged extremists, they made their mark on Governor Perry’s confidence. Once the frontrunner for the Republican candidacy, Craig Robinson, a former director of the Republican Party of Iowa, noted that “these blows landed and affected [Perry].”

When Perry carried out the HPV legislature, he was doing a favor for former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, who was then a lobbyist for the makers of the vaccination.

The fact that this vaccination wasn’t even Perry’s idea, nor something he felt passionate about, makes Perry’s case for legitimacy even more difficult.

Republicans want a presidential candidate that represents their values as well as their idea of a laissez-faire government; maybe this just created more room for Republican runner-up Mitt Romney in the presidential campaign.