I think what’s going on here is that people are seeing that Perry simply isn’t up to standards needed to go toe to toe with Obama (or especially Hillary, as I think she’ll wind up on their ticket). No big deal, and no surprise given his history in Texas, where he may have been governor for a decade, but hasn’t even had a debate in 5 years(as I’ve read)...he basically got coronated (when Bush-43 became prez) and just keeps getting re-coronated, over and over again.
He probably really thought he’d get a coronation for the Republican ticket in 2012. Oh well...not so easy.
Unless you are from TX, you really know nothing about him. If he were not a conservative, he would not have been elected three times by wide margins. I am from TX and will comment that not everyone is a good debater. I will also state, that those three so called debates, were not done well and showed little about the candidates.