Why Support Rick Perry for President?

Polls as of this writing show Texas Governor Rick Perry trailing in the Republican primary race. But at the same relative point in 2007, leading up to the 2008 primaries and election, Rudy Giuliani was in first place and Fred Thompson in second. Giuliani had over 30% of the vote, compared to McCain’s 13%.

So a lot can change. I agree with Red State/Erick Erickson’s assessment that many Republicans are waiting for the “not Romney” candidate to emerge. To me that is due to a visceral sense that you just can’t quite read Romney’s core. Cain’s recent emergence is due to the exactly opposite visceral feel: you know exactly to whom you are listening, and he is saying what many want to hear.

Any one of the Republican candidates would be worlds better than the incumbent, for the simple reason that all of them believe at the core that the America we knew growing up is still the best country on earth, and all of them wish to preserve it.

Still, voters want to get it right this time, because so much is at stake in America. Conservatives in particular are honing in on and assessing their alternatives, and few of them have yet encountered any game-over Perry trait or policy that would cause them to cross him off of their lists.

Perry’s early meteoric rise in the polls was due in large part to his conservative reputation and to Texas’ stellar economy and job creation record. His subsequent slip in the polls may signal only that voters expected Reagan level discourse and became disheartened because Governor Perry did not dazzle in the early debates.

But there are speeches, rallies and emerging plans over the next weeks that will help re-define and re-introduce Governor Perry to America, and those poll numbers may be headed right back up.

I think Governor Perry will re-emerge as a leader as voters get to hear him more.

So here are the Bullet Pointers for Rick Perry:

  • In 2010, top executives voted Texas the best state to do business in, an honor Texas has received for 5 straight years. As reported in Chief Executive Magazine, these top executives measured business conditions in terms of tax policies, workforce quality, education resources, quality of life, and other factors. Anyone can argue tax, business and regulatory policy theoretically, but facts are stubborn proof of whether policies work—and Governor Perry’s policies clearly work.
  • Governor Perry has openly refuted “cap and trade” and other job-crushing, environmentally-extreme proposals designed to address speculative man-made global warming concerns, and he will pursue the energy development America needs. That development will create jobs, strengthen the economy and reduce our reliance on enemy-sourced energy. By contrast, some of his opponents have wobbled and waffled on this issue, seemingly more to appeal to the supposed centrist voters, than out of actual conviction.
  • Governor Perry’s inclination to let market forces shape the economy, industries, jobs and the future, is compelling. Contrast the Solyndra debacle with the Texas Enterprise Fund. Solyndra, a solar panel company funded in part under the 2009 stimulus with a $535 million taxpayer backed loan, filed for bankruptcy on August 31, 2011. By contrast, the Texas Enterprise Fund is designed to encourage businesses to choose to relocate to Texas (and employ our citizens) as opposed to some other out-of-state site it is considering. While some TEF sponsored businesses failed, the distinction is whether the purpose of the tax dollar spent is to cultivate politically correct business products, or whether it is to attract employers running successful businesses to one state over another, to provide jobs.
  • Governor Perry’s August prayer rally (which I did not attend), reveals a sincerity of faith that deserves respect. Surely Perry had advisors who warned that the picture of a southern evangelical political leader holding a prayer meeting might raise questions for some, but the quality of doing what you believe despite anticipated ridicule is vital for a conservative leader in Washington D.C. in 2012.
  • And another point on that prayer rally--- I’m a Northern girl who grew up thinking that even talking about religion outside of church was most inappropriate. So when we moved to Texas 11 years ago, I found the Southern culture of openness about prayer and faith a little foreign, but have come to see that for most Southerners, public acknowledgement of God and faith are about as comfortable as the monthly Progressive Dinners sponsored by my childhood Lutheran church. For many these are part of the natural expression of genuine religious faith.
  • Budget balancing determination is another strength that Rick Perry brings, and at this time that will require willingness to tackle really big issues such as entitlement reform including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Tackling these challenges will require strength, clarity and perseverance, and perhaps most important, leadership. Having executive leadership of some kind in your resume seems vital.

The legacy media is doing everything they can think of to distort and misrepresent President Obama’s job performance and popularity. Raising or implying it will be very hard for anyone to beat Obama is one tactic. The remaining serious contenders on the Republican side, Cain, Romney, Perry, Gingrich, Bachmann and Santorum, all could do that.

The question for voters is which among them “gets it” in terms of the need for major “back on track to limited government and free markets” type changes in Washington. Who appears to have the will, strength and courage to withstand the incoming media and liberal barrage that will no doubt result from the removal of Obama from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

Republicans need to hone in, choose our candidate, and then rally behind him or her, because we are in for a battle in 2012 that will shape America’s future in larger and more significant ways than in past elections in recent memory.

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