I am not surprised that the GOP Establishment and the remnants of the failed McCain campaign are looking to Jon Huntsman to be the sacrificial lamb for Obama next year. Rick Perry annihilated the Bush clan (father and son) and all their running dogs (Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Karen Hughes) when he destroyed RINO Kay Baily Hutchison in 2010. We all know that Obama plans on running against George W. Bush next year, well Rick Perry ran against Bush (actually a proxy of Bush’s – KBH) and was completely victorious. Rick Perry has a job creation record in the Lonestar State that other governors can only dream about.
by Stewart Lawrence
Should the Republican Party draft Texas Gov. Rick Perry as its presidential standard-bearer in 2012?
With the recent exits of Mike Huckabee and Mitch Daniels, Newt Gingrich’s seemingly endless gaffes and pratfalls, and the steadfast refusal of other GOP favorites like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to join the race, conservatives are beginning to whisper loudly about Perry.
Officially, the 61-year-old native Texan, who was just re-elected to his third full term, isn’t running. Unofficially, it’s obvious he’s interested — in fact, his top aides are quietly putting out feelers. But, like George W. Bush in 1999, Perry wants the GOP to ask him to run — or perhaps “beg” would be a better word.
And if current trends hold, it well might — and soon.
Consider what Perry would bring to the race:Jobs. Perry has already transformed Texas into the largest job incubator in the nation at a time when President Obama and the Democrats are being blamed for failing to reduce near-record level joblessness. Perry has offered special tax breaks to companies willing to relocate and open production facilities in his state — and they’ve responded in droves. Other GOP candidates — like the recently departed Daniels — can boast a track record tackling the deficit. But none has Perry’s standing on jobs.
Obamacare. Perry has been a steadfast critic of Obamacare and has refused to entertain compromises of the kind that may well doom the candidacies of Gingrich and Mitt Romney. And unlike two other Southern governors, Bobby Jindal in Louisiana and Nathan Deal in Georgia, who’ve tried to hedge their bets politically, Perry has discouraged Texas legislators from even introducing legislation to support a state-based Obamacare health benefits exchange. Perry’s tough position will place him squarely in the conservative Tea Party camp, alongside of Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty.
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The border. Perry is a border hawk, but he’s managed to craft a nuanced position that allows him to draw in a wide range of political constituencies. Unlike much of the GOP, he opposes an Arizona-style crackdown law, saying it’s not needed in Texas. He’s also criticized the U.S.-Mexico border fence, which many conservative landowners with affected properties along the border also oppose. Instead, Perry advocates stepped-up use of the National Guard and border patrol agents, as well as the introduction of Predator drones to maintain better surveillance of illegal immigrants and drug gangs. He opposes Obama’s “amnesty” plan, including the more limited DREAM Act.
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And then there’s the “Bush” factor itself. Though Perry, like Bush, is a protégé of Karl Rove, he’s broken with the Bush circle, especially after they backed his GOP primary opponent, Kay Bailey Hutchison. Perry cleverly pivoted, and won the endorsement of Sarah Palin, which helped him defeat Hutchison, before going on to defeat the Democratic mayor of Houston, Bill White, by double digits. And despite Palin’s support, Perry bested White 59-36 percent among independents, a clear sign of his enormous crossover appeal.
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But will it happen? That probably depends on how fragmented the current GOP field remains after the Iowa straw poll in August. With Daniels out, some GOP establishment figures, including veterans of John McCain’s 2008 campaign, and McCain himself, are plainly hoping that the pro-life Huntsman, a fiscal hawk with a stellar conservative governing record in Utah and serious foreign policy chops, can somehow steal the grassroots thunder of Bachmann and Pawlenty while wooing establishment funders still leery of investing in Romney’s already divisive candidacy.
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Read the rest: Rick Perry and the GOP’s ‘Texas Option’
