Texas governor stiff-arms Obama’s Nobel Prize

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday compared President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, just months after being elected, to a freshman winning college football’s Heisman Trophy.

“It raised a few eyebrows,” said Mr. Perry, a Republican facing re-election. “And we’ll just leave it at that.”

Mr. Perry said Mr. Obama was elected in November amid great enthusiasm, but his efforts to reform U.S. health-care and limit carbon emissions have failed and are too costly.

“He is an amazingly popular president,” he said on The Washington Times’ “America’s Morning News” radio show. “Most Americans, whether they agreed politically, were proud to elect an African-American. But hope and change is all over with. Now we have to look at the policy.”

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Mr. Perry said passing the health-care reform legislation now on Capitol Hill “would be devastating” in terms of consumer costs, limiting access to care and dissuading young people from becoming doctors.

“I think you’re going to see a deterioration in medicine,” he said.

Mr. Perry said U.S. cap-and-trade legislation on carbon emissions in based on “shoddy if not fraudulent evidence” that will cost the average Texas family $1,100 to $1,200 more a year.

“It means nothing more than higher costs for energy and losing jobs,” he said.

Mr. Perry expressed confidence about winning the March 2010 primary against Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

“I think most Texans can figure this out pretty quickly,” he said. “They want a conservative leader versus someone in D.C. that may be learning some bad habits.”