The only people cheerleading for him are from outside the state of Texas. The "substantive" reasons they posit for him tend to be statistics about how much better Texas is doing than most of the country, which speaks to the supremacy of the overall political environment here in Texas, but doesn't necessarily reflect on the merits of Perry as a political leader in general or as governor in specifics. Most of the FReepers FROM TEXAS who have commented on these threads have commented against him because we have seen some of the very UNconservative things he has tried to do while governor. We recognize that much of the economic strength here in Texas has resulted from conditions that would have prevailed due to our conservative legislature with or without Perry's help. We do NOT need another John McCain as our nominee, even if he does have better hair.
While that is an interesting observation, it still doesn't give any substance to the objections to Rick Perry. There are also a lot of Ron Paul supporters on FR, many of whom I assume are from Texas. Just because a FREEPER is from that state doesn't give them automatic credibility. I'm much more inclined to give credibility to Sarah Palin's support of Perry than I am a bunch of nameless, faceless FREEPERS whose conservative credentials could be suspect.
Rather than take anyone's word for it (including Sarah Palin's), I would prefer to see an accurate account of Perry's record and I'll make my own call about his conservatism. That was the issue that my initial post was bemoaning.