Most Controversial Rick Perry Quotes

"Since June of 2009, Texas is responsible for more than 40 percent of all of the new jobs created in America. Now think about that. We’re home to less than 10 percent of the population in America, but 40 percent of all the new jobs were created in that state."

Rick Perry made this pronouncement in a speech given to announce his candidacy for president on August 13, 2011. At the time, Perry was speaking to the RedState convention in Charleston, South Carolina. This speech, not surprisingly, was focused heavily on the state of the economy (and jobs).

But is this statistic, that Texas makes up 40 percent (!) of all new U.S. jobs created, right? Sort of. It's all how you interpret the numbers. There's no doubt that Texas IS adding new jobs, but as 'The Washington Post' points out, it's partly because energy prices have skyrocketed, opening up more employment opportunities for those who work in the oil and natural gas fields.

"When we came into the nation in 1845, we were a republic, we were a stand-alone nation. And one of the deals was, we can leave anytime we want. So we're kind of thinking about that again."

Rick Perry definitely raised eyebrows when, in April of 2009, during a discussion with some tech bloggers in Austin, he threw out the idea of Texas seceding from the U.S. To some degree, this isn't a surprising quote coming from Texas' longest-serving governor. Come on, it's Texas, people: They've been threatening to secede for decades! For the record, Perry's spokesperson emphatically denies that his boss is a secession advocate.

Everything's bigger in Texas, including controversy. Remember the Alamo, people...

"And until we know that, I hope we don't see a knee-jerk reaction across this country that says we're going to shut down drilling in the Gulf of Mexico... From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented."

How, exactly, is a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico an "act of God?" Unless God somehow screwed with BP's drilling equipment and caused an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig that killed 11 people, injured many more (and, oh, yeah, resulted in the biggest oil spill in history). Yeah, maybe that was it. This major disaster was caused by a Higher Power. Talk about protecting your interests (see: Offshore Oil Drilling) at the expense of others!

"Willingham was a monster. He was a guy who murdered his three children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so that he wouldn't have those kids. Person after person has stood up and testified to facts of this case that quite frankly you all aren't covering..."

Let's put this particular quote in context, shall we? On February 17, 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by the state of Texas. He was accused of setting a fire that killed his three young daughters in December of 1991. Willingham was convicted of murder and sent to death row, where he continued to maintain his innocence. As Willingham's execution date approached, Governor Rick Perry refused to issue a stay of execution, even in the face of new evidence that could prove Willingham's innocence.

There's more. Some have accused Perry of using his political influence to delay a commission looking into new evidence in the Willingham case. He actually removed several people from the panel and replaced them, appointing a brand new panel chair who promptly canceled the hearing! Despite all of this, Perry (in this quote and others), continued to maintain that Willingham was "a monster" who deserved to die...

Yes, this particular case, where a man was possibly wrongfully executed on Governor Perry's watch, could come back to haunt him during his presidential campaign.