Why is Rick Perry distancing himself from his controversial book?

The GOP presidential hopeful's Fed Up! was released less than a year ago, but the author is already trying to bury its provocative arguments

Texas Gov. Rick Perry at a book signing in June 2011: The GOP presidential candidate may be stepping back from his firry criticism of federal social security system.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

It's only been nine months since Texas Gov. Rick Perry released Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America From Washington, a book arguing that the country's social safety net — from child labor laws to Social Security — is unconstitutional, and comparing Social Security ("a crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal") to a Ponzi scheme. Now, however, just a week into Perry's presidential campaign, his team is disavowing the book. "Fed Up! is not meant to reflect the governor's current views," says Perry's communications director, Ray Sullivan. It's a "look back, not forward" that is "not in any way a 2012 campaign blueprint or manifesto." What should we make of Perry's rapid about-face?

This is a transparent campaign tactic that no one will buy: Perry's book is "not some 20-year-old graduate thesis" that he wrote years before going into politics, says Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress. It's a "substantial, nationally published manifesto," copies of which the governor was proudly signing just months ago. In fact, he was promoting it and its arguments as recently as last Monday in Iowa. And now Perry's staff is saying he's not accountable for anything in this book. Come on.

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