[excerpt]....The other potential major candidate is Texas Gov. Rick Perry. His top aides are signaling that he is clearly thinking about running. If he does, Mr. Perry would skyrocket to the top of the heap, smashing most of his GOP rivals - including Mr. Romney. He is the anti-Romney - an authentic Texan, who has a long record of achievement and proven conservative governance. Mr. Romney talks a good game; Mr. Perry actually plays one. The rap against Mr. Perry is that he looks and sounds too much like former President George W. Bush. He has the same twang and cowboy swagger. After the disastrous Bush years, the country does not want another Texan Republican in the White House, say his critics. Maybe.
Yet, Mr. Perry has one trump card: Texas. Under his leadership, the economy has boomed. As the country remains mired in a deep recession, Texas is growing. It has created more private-sector jobs than any other state. He has reined in public spending, restored fiscal responsibility, removed regulatory red tape, maintained flexible labor markets and stood up to the unions. There is no state income tax. He is a real Reaganite. He has combined pro-growth policies with flinty social conservatism.
Moreover, he is a principled defender of the 10th Amendment. He understands that federalism and states’ rights are not just buzzwords. They have been the key to America’s prosperity and success. The most urgent problem of our day is the expansion of the federal leviathan. It is strangling the economy, burying America under a mountain of debt and sapping the country’s vitality. Power must be devolved back to the states, enabling them to become the laboratories of democracy - as our Founding Fathers intended. On a range of economic and regulatory issues, Mr. Perry has directly challenged Washington’s overreach and incompetence.
Both Mrs. Bachmann and Mr. Perry signify a new development in American politics: the rise of nationalist populism. For decades, liberalism has been ascendant. The New Deal erected an entitlement state and brought to power a liberal ruling class - what the conservative philosopher James Burnham called “the managerial class.” This political and cultural cadre has dominated American life. Government agencies, the permanent bureaucracies, the mainstream media, universities, public schools, Hollywood, the arts, trial lawyers, the Federal Reserve, big banks and large financial institutions - they have all helped to sustain the progressive project of turning America into a rootless social democracy.
For a while, it seemed to work. Peace and prosperity ensured that any ideological assault on liberal hegemony could be contained - and eventually marginalized. Now, however, Mr. Obama’s misrule, combined with the growing economic chaos, threatens the very moral legitimacy of our liberal minders. They can no longer be believed or trusted.
Liberalism is in crisis. And as the regime cracks, insurgent populists are starting to fill the void. Middle America is on the march. [end excerpt]
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Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/21/the-middle-american-revolt/
Hutchison had no chance with solid conservatives, so her only hope was to siphon off votes from Perry. Thus Medina.
Take it to the bank (but don't try to cash it...)