Aggies

This is the kind of publicity TAMU can get along without.

I graduated from A&M and attended grad school there as well, so I'm usually interested when the Aggies are front-page news. Normally, the newspaper headlines reflect the manner in which the football team has redefined the concept of bad. Lately though, there are political ramifications to the reports, prompting the following considerations.

The distinctive thing about Texas is that most Texans think of themselves as unique in all the universe. Aggies think of themselves as unique among Texans. Rick Perry thinks of himself as unique among Aggies. Much of what we're seeing in College Station is a result of inflated and unwarranted self-esteem.

Many people aren't especially gifted. They're mediocre in terms of their abilities, but they're content to go through life working at one of the few things they're fairly good at, and trying to do that thing as well as they can.

Now and then we come across a person with mediocre ability who has grand ambitions far exceeding his or her skill level. It seems like these people often wind up in elected office; the 43rd president was a classic example of a politician whose big ideas were inversely proportional to his knowledge and ability. Rick Perry is another.

Rick Perry's single talent is his ability to win the good-ole-boy vote, which in Texas is at least a plurality. Texas good old boys look at Perry and see someone who speaks their language, and seems to be a little brighter than they are. Plus he has the hair. Apparently that's been enough to keep him on the payroll as an elected official, year after year after year. Milking his only talent gives Perry the power to push ambitious ideas, all of which are bad.

What Texas needs is a governor with exceptional ability and a few manageable good ideas; what we have is the exact opposite. Like Bush, Perry is starting to leave a trail of wreckage behind him, and Texas A&M is the location of the latest damage.