Rick Perry: Too Lucky to Rule Out
There's been increased chatter this week about the presidential ambitions of Texas Governor Rick Perry. Governor Perry has made recent statements that open the door a bit to a possible presidential run. A simple Google News search for his name over the past week will inundate the reader with results on that topic. Naturally, some criticism has been interspersed with this attention, such as in a piece posted last week here at FrumForum. It’s a mistake though to dismiss or underestimate Rick Perry's chances as a presidential contender because he has exhibited an uncanny talent for luck and timing throughout his political career. As Paul Burka, a noted political reporter at Texas Monthly, has asked:
Are the fates conspiring to make Rick Perry president? It certainly seems so. Throughout his political career, Perry has always managed to be in the right place at the right time. Now, at the moment when he has compiled a record that enables him to contemplate running for the presidency, the Republican field has collapsed into the weakest group in many election cycles. Mitch Daniels’ exit from the Republican presidential race yesterday [Saturday] further weakens what was already a drab GOP field. Already on the sidelines are Barbour, Huckabee, Thune, DeMint, Christie, Jeb Bush, Jindal, Pataki, Trump, Bloomberg, and now Daniels. Those who are left: Romney, Gingrich, Palin, Pawlenty, Bachmann, Huntsman, Ron Paul, Santorum, Cain–and Perry. Romney has the money and the mantle of frontrunner, but Perry is no neophyte when it comes to raising money, and his conservative record is near-impeccable.
Burka is far from the only political observer in Texas who has noticed Perry's talent for making the right moves at the right moments. Jason Embry at the Austin American-Statesman points out that Perry has been able to position himself throughout his career in a manner that both rides and helps guide the political tides of the era, such as his transition from being a Democrat to a Republican during the late 80s to his early championing of the Tea Party movement when many Republican officeholders kept their distance from it. Regardless of whether one agrees with his stances and positioning on such matters, it's pretty clear that he has a knack for being at the right place at the right time. Also, he is telegenic (great hair - and I say that as a bald man with a sense of awe) and has fundraising capabilities that are second to none. Further, he would be running in a GOP field that is fluid to say the least, as the recent Donald Trump boomlet and Rudy Giuliani polling strength would seem to indicate.
It's easy to dismiss Perry as being yet another GOP governor from Texas or by bringing up a few gaffes here and there as being disqualifying (such as the secession comments - you say secession, he says federalism, which view may resonate more?), but his real political talent shouldn't be denied. Perry is the longest-serving governor in Texas history and has never lost an election. There's an apocryphal quote attributed to Napoleon in which he stated that the type of generals he wanted were the lucky ones. Rick Perry has been a lucky general throughout his political career. That's probably not an accident and his adversaries, both within the GOP and in the Democratic Party, fail to acknowledge that at their peril.
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