President 2012,  Rick Perry

President 2012: Can Rick Perry Be the Comeback Kid?

Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Cornerstone Speech Highlights

The answer is NO.

The conventional wisdom has coalesced around the view that Texas Gov. Rick Perry, with his sizable bankroll, is the obvious choice to emerge again as Romney’s chief primary challenger. His campaign is now up with ads in New Hampshire and Iowa, reintroducing himself to the voters.  And businessman Herman Cain, with the latest scandal, could find himself falling in the next round of polls.

But I’m not so sure that, even with the Texas governor’s significant resources, his rebranding campaign will work.  Perry’s collapse since entering the race really has been remarkable.  Unlike other recent candidates who entered the race with high expectations only to fall flat (Fred Thompson, Wesley Clark, Rudy Giuliani), Perry boasted executive experience, a largely conservative record, and success in some hotly-contested gubernatorial campaigns.  On paper, he had that resume that translates to a presidential campaign.  That’s why many Republican voters initially viewed him so favorably, thinking he was the most electable conservative in the race.

But he was utterly unprepared to make the transition to the national stage, alienating the establishment with his weak debate performance and infuriating the base on illegal immigration.  The Republican chattering class now is convinced he doesn’t have what it takes to defeat a vulnerable President Obama, and the base is awfully skeptical that he’s the principled conservative they once thought.  That’s hard to turn around with a bunch of 30-second ads.

I have to agree. And, I can make a list:

  1. Gardasil
  2. Ponzi Scheme
  3. Illegal Immigration
  4. Debate performance
  5. Weird factor (see above)
  6. Too Bush

Is that enough?

Rick Perry won’t make it to Super Tuesday.

3 Comments

  • Anonymous

    all of your reasons are  totally out in left field.  just admit it…you don’t like success and you don’t like texans.

  • Fearthesame

    While most of the GOP field has similar problems with their record or verbal slip-ups, what especially hurt Perry was his sanctimounious almost lefty attiturde he brought to the issues 1 and 3 in his debates.  As for 2, “Ponzi Scheme” is a pretty accurate characterization of how SS has been handled.  I’m not sure about “too Bush”.  The Bush family doesn’t seem to like him particularly well.  He really seemed to be the best overall in the field until he shot himself in the foot with his debate performances.  He’s a done great job of making Romney look good.  In fact, the only candidate he seems to have hurt is Bachmann.   Cain, Santorum, and Gigrich have all seen significant rises in the polls since he came in.