My bad. It was a mistake. Oops.
All those admissions of messing up would work for most people. But most people aren't running for President.
Texas Governor Rick Perry has admitted his 2007 HPV mandate was a mistake. The executive order was called RP 65. Parents had the choice to opt out, but if they didn't, their daughters would have received a shot to prevent a cancer causing STD. Merck was the drug manufacturer. The chief lobbyist for the drug company was Perry's former Chief of Staff.
But the mandate wasn't officially rescinded until four years later, just months before Perry announced he was running for President.
When asked what took so long to rescind the mandate, Perry's campaign spokesman Mark Miner avoided answering the question directly, but said "In 2007, the legislature passed legislation that prohibited the order from taking effect. In February 2011, the Governor rescinded several executive orders that were no longer operative."
The issue has come up before in Perry's statewide campaigns, but the mandate is getting more attention on the national stage.
In California, former front-runner Michele Bachmann made a point to hammer Perry on the mandate.
"There was an abuse of power, of executive authority, which the Governor of Texas admitted," Bachmann said. "He did make a mistake and then also the second question after that is the idea of crony capitalism. The idea of donors giving money and the favors coming from the executive. This is something that is not good. The American people don't like it and it's a real issue."
Perry, on the cover of the new Time Magazine, said in his cover story, "I should have had an opt-in and I should have worked through the legislative process."
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