Perry is an unrepentant globalist shill who only talks a conservative game. NO.
we know a few things about Rick Perry from a Texas perspective:
- he is a real fiscal conservative, ready to veto spending
- he is pro-business and pro-growth and is right to crow about the Texas record
- he is pro-life and very good on that issue
- he pro-gun and pro-property rights, and if you werent, you’d lose your GOP badge in Texas
- he is so-so on immigration/borders, talks tough and does some good things, but also put in instate tuition for illegal aliens; but so-so from a conservative perspective must be viewed in the prism of the Texas leaders hispandering in a state where the majority of babies born are now hispanic
- he has had some issues where the hint of lobbyist influence has intruded; nothing as bad as the Chicago gang, but the libs will play it up
- he’s a real pro; 20+ years in politics and never lost a race
- “unrepentant globalist shill” not really, he stands up for Texas, and with our AG fought against eg the ICC butting in on our death penalty conviction of a mexican citizen - if he is, then they all are
- “only talks a conservative game” - Nope. He does do the pandering to conservatives, which is a nice change. But he also delivers. in 2003, Tort reform. in 2003 and 2011, balanced a tough budget with no new taxes. This year, he put budget balancing without raiding the rainy day fund as a priority. He put voter ID bill on fast track. He egged on lege and got a solid budget and some conservative items passed.
Perry can win because he’s a good campaigner. His main disadvantage nationally is that he is the Aggie Texas cowboy that the liberals thought Bush was. They will hate him as much as they do Palin .... to me that’s just a bonus! ;-)
On balance, we could do worse than Perry .... can we do better? Bachmann, Cain, Palin ... hmmm, there’s one thing they, and Romney and Huntsman and Pawlenty, lack - 11 years of being Governor of the second largest state.
They will not be able to play the ‘stupid, crank, flake, inexperienced’ cards on Perry, which unfortunately they can and will play on the other conservative movement candidates. Oh they will try anyway, but it will fall flat.