Texas governor Rick Perry is a man that liberals love to hate. To begin with, he is an evangelical Christian and that is a big no-no to liberals. But Perry is the longest-serving governor in Texas history and is now serving his 11th year in office. So what are Perry’s chances should he decide to throw his hat into the presidential ring?
Here are some excepts from ‘The Time Could Be Right For Perry Presidential Bid,’ an op-ed by George Will that appeared in Sunday’s Houston Chronicle:
Perry is a potentially potent candidate for the Republican presidential nomination because his political creed is uneclectic, matching that of the Republican nominating electorate. He was a "10th Amendment conservative" ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people") before the tea party appeared.
Social issues, especially abortion, are gateways to the Republican nominating electorate: In today's climate of economic fear, a candidate's positions on social issues will not be decisive with his electorate - but they can be disqualifying. Perry - an evangelical Christian, like most Republican participants in Iowa's caucuses and the South Carolina primary - emphatically qualifies.
Obama will not win another term stressing his accomplishments, which consist of an unpopular health care law, a failed stimulus and an anemic recovery. So Obama's campaign must be relentlessly negative, decrying the Republican nominee's "extremism." Democrats have worked that pedal on the political organ frequently - successfully against Barry Goldwater, futilely against Ronald Reagan.
Supposed examples of Perry's extremism evaporate in sunlight. One is that he intimated support for Texas' secession from the Union. After people shouted "Secede!" at a rally, he said he understood their frustration but added: "We've got a great union. There is absolutely no reason to dissolve it." He signed a law requiring women seeking abortions to be shown sonograms of their babies. Do people objecting to this mandatory provision of information object to the new graphic warnings on cigarette packs?
The Republican contest probably will become a binary choice - Romney and the Not Romney candidate. If Perry becomes the latter, he will do so by his visceral appeal to social conservatives, and by trumping Romney's economic expertise with "Texas exceptionalism":
Between 2001 and last June, Texas - a right-to-work state that taxes neither personal income nor capital gains - added more jobs than the other 49 states combined. And since the recovery began two Junes ago, Texas has created 37 percent of America's net new jobs.
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