Andrew Ferguson's Piece on Perry....

. . . from a couple of months ago somehow escaped my notice (and perhaps not coincidentally,Jennifer Rubin’s) until today. It’s the highest, most unreserved praise for a politician I’ve ever read from the formidable mind of Ferguson in which he extols Rick Perry’s accomplishments in reforming the Texas higher education system. No other candidate in the field comes close to being as effective in taking on an entrenched establishment in the interest of taxpayers.

Perry’s admirers praise his sure-footedness—his ability to sense cultural trends before others do and turn them to his political advantage. He was the first national politician to ally himself to the Tea Party movement in 2009, a move that’s just now paying off. He caught the mounting anxiety among middle-income parents about college costs early on. Most American parents now say that a college degree will be essential for their children’s future success; at the same time, according to a new Pew Foundation poll, only 22 percent of Americans believe that most people can afford to send their kids to college. And 57 percent describe the quality of American higher education as “only fair” or “poor.” To address this anxiety Perry’s opponents offer more government subsidies, which in turn provide an incentive for schools to raise their prices—an attempt to douse the fire with gasoline. Perry’s ideas are cheaper, more comprehensive, more imaginative, and more likely to work.

It is simply mystifying that conservative voters are even countenancing the notion of sending Newt Gingrich — one of the primary architects of the status quo in DC today — to uproot the system that’s strangling the nation to death. And the idea that a political Slinky like Mitt Romney is going to do anything to upset the powers that be is laughable given his penchant for compromise.

Perry stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by the two current front-runners. As Ferguson points out, he has demonstrated an innate sense of what issues he can seize on in order to successfully institute badly needed reforms and he takes decisive action. Where he doesn’t succeed completely, he manages to make dramatic improvements that create momentum for further successful reforms down the road. Unlike Romney, Perry acknowledges the elephant in the room. And unlike Gingrich, he knows that you have to eat the elephant one bite at a time.

The challenges facing this country — fiscal and cultural — are going to require the kind of unapologetic leadership Mitt Romney has never shown the stomach for, and a steady, measured approach that the erratic and mercurial Gingrich is temperamentally incapable of applying. And while Romney and Gingrich may be better at articulating polished soundbites and meticulously crafted applause lines, Rick Perry can actually point to accomplishments as a man of deeds rather than words.

Now that Herman Cain seems to have finally dealt the coup de grâce to his own campaign, there’s still hope that the GOP primary electorate will give Rick Perry a second look as he steadily regains his footing. There’s still a month before the first votes are cast in the Iowa caucuses, and the complexion of the race can change dramatically in a very short period of time. Rick Perry has a great deal to point to in the way of accomplishment and has improved remarkably in his debate performances.

And maybe now that Cain has demonstrated beyond any doubt that it takes more than glibness and skillful presentation to be a successful presidential candidate, GOP primary voters will be able to place Rick Perry’s early struggles into their proper perspective and examine his undeniably successful stewardship over the state that managed to create millions of jobs and balance its budgets even as the nation as a whole remained locked in a spiral of debt and unemployment.

Betting on Rick Perry - a winner in a GOP year, with no need in the world to win liberal approval ………..”IT WILL BE THE JOBS ISSUE—and Texas’s record in creating them—that will define Rick Perry’s presidential run. Since he became governor in 2001, the U.S. as a whole has had a net loss of private-sector jobs, while Texas—which has only 8 percent of the nation’s population—has had a net gain of 825,000 jobs.

Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Board, told me that if you look at the number of jobs created since the recession technically ended in June 2009, Texas has accounted for 48 percent of net new jobs created in the U.S.

Fisher also disparages claims that the jobs are all low-paying jobs at McDonald’s or Walmart, paying the minimum wage, or that they were primarily caused by the oil and natural gas boom. According to Tom Pauken of the Texas Work Force Commission, the annual median wage in Texas in 2010 for all occupations was $31,500 a year, only 7 percent below the national average. That difference is easily explained by the fact that Texas has a younger workforce than most states and a higher percentage of workers in lower-pay agriculture jobs near the border with Mexico. [ CW: Cost of living in Texas is lower than many other states; Texas has no state income tax; Texas is a right to work state.]

As for where the job growth has been, three sectors of the economy have grown faster than the energy sector, which alone added 40,500 net new jobs in 2010. Last year, Texas added 57,900 new jobs in trade, transportation, and utilities; a total of 53,400 jobs in professional and business services; and 44,900 net new jobs in the hospitality industry.

For each of the past seven years, CEOs polled by “Chief Executive” magazine have rated Texas first in the nation for economic development climate and job growth. What is the secret of Texas’s success? Rick Perry isn’t shy about his answer. “It’s all about four points,” he told me. “First, don’t spend all the money. Keep the taxes low and under control. Have regulations that are fair and predictable so business owners know what to expect from one quarter to the next. And reform the legal system so that frivolous lawsuits don’t paralyze employers who are trying to create real wealth.”

If there is on issue which Perry has made a personal crusade, it is lawsuit reform. Working with the legislature, he has helped pass curbs on frivolous lawsuits, implemented a first-in-the-nation system under which loser pays all court costs in many lawsuits, and reformed medical malpractice law.

Dick Weekley, the co-founder of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, says Perry showed genuine political courage in resisting calls for watered-down reforms that wouldn’t have addressed the core problem. He recalls that in 2002 Perry vetoed a bill strongly supported by doctors that would have required them to prompt payment from health maintenance organizations. In the eyes of the tort reform advocates, the bill was a Trojan Horse compromise negotiated between doctors and trial lawyers. “There was a huge response from physicians [against the veto],” Kim Ross, the former top lobbyist for the Texas Medical Association, said. TMA went so far as to endorse Tony Sanchez, Perry’s millionaire Democratic opponent in the 2002 election. “Perry sent a signal that he wanted real reform and would stand his ground,” Weekley told me. “Soon the medical lobbyists playing footsie with the trial lawyers were gone and the obstacles to real reform started falling.”………………..

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AND now the TMA is endorsing Gov. Rick Perry. They understand now what he was doing would HELP them.

...."The Texas Medical Association’s political action committee recently endorsed him for president, and its members are helping him raise money and make connections with medical groups in other states.".... source

You infer that I am counted in the shallow NON-intelligent conservative camp due to the fact that my pragmatism causes me to incorporate my expectations regarding the voting habits of the American electorate. Most unfortunately, this wide spectrum of individuals includes many who are decidedly not conservative in addition to being highly ill-informed. In this media age, they are most definitely swayed by the communication skills of the candidate. American Idol Elects A President and all.

Indeed, it is a scary thought to imagine Gov. Perry in a debate with 0 (alas; he can't even beat Romney at it and therefore won't even get the nomination). A sinking feeling set in. If I support Perry, Romney wins. If Romney wins, 0 is re-elected. Horror and desperation ensues. Ergo, Newt Now.

Besides, Rick Perry is NOT the only one running who can right this sinking ship. Not even close.

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