Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:
1. The Dallas Morning News (subscription only) takes a look at a phenomenon I mentioned Wednesday — presidential candidate Rick Perry mostly avoiding social issues like same-sex marriage thus far on the campaign trail. It’s partly bcause Perry has been campaigning in places like New Hampshire, where 40 percent of Republicans back same-sex marriage. “Appealing to [so-called] religious values, moral values, doesn’t go well here,” one expert told The DMN. “You’re not dealing with a socially conservative electorate.” In other words, New Hampshire GOP voters actually have some sense, and Perry is totally out of his element. Which is why he’s polling at only 18 percent in the Granite State, well behind Mitt Romney at 36 percent.
2. Here’s why I love it when politicians seek higher office, because fun stories like this one tend to resurface. In 1995, Rick Perry purchased between $5,000 and $10,000 worth of stock in Movie Gallery, a huge distributor of pornography that later became the target of a boycott by the American Family Association, which of course funded Perry’s recent day of prayer. You’ll have to read the whole story if you haven’t already, but who knows, maybe Perry just really liked Bisexual Barebacking Vol. 1 (above).
3. The new H&M store opens at NorthPark today, and the company is going all out to promote it: rotating images projected on the sides of tall buildings, street teams in Uptown and downtown to generate hype; coach buses shrink-wrapped with H&M ads transporting students back and forth from UTD; and even the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Wait a second, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders? Since when do the gays like cheerleaders?
