>>>>Potential candidate meets Valley GOP leaders — Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is mulling the possibility of seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, was in and out of a Fresno meeting Wednesday afternoon in one hour.
But that was long enough to leave several invited business, political and agricultural leaders impressed.
“He was real competent, clear,” said former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson. “He spoke 40 minutes extemporaneously, and he hit all the hot-button issues.”
Wednesday’s event – which was hosted by local businessman Richard Spencer and former Assembly Member Mike Villines – was held at Spencer’s office at Harris Construction.
It was closed to the media, and Perry’s only public display was to roll down his window and wave to the television cameras as he left the event.......
What Andreas Borgeas, Brand’s fellow Fresno City Council member, liked best was that Perry took the time to visit Fresno this early in the campaign. No other Republican candidate has bothered to do that, he said.<<<
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/07/20/2471051/possible-presidential-candidate.html
I’m trying to “save paper” by posting snippets of all the article covering Rick Perry as attachments.
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>>>>AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Should Rick Perry conclude that voter discontent has left him an opening to enter the presidential race, the longtime Texas governor would be among the GOP field’s most conservative candidates.
Primary voters would get a skilled politician with TV anchorman looks, a Southern preacher’s oratory and a cowboy’s swagger, matched by a disarming candor and sense of humor. The former cotton farmer from the village of Paint Creek in West Texas has never lost an election in nearly three decades as a politician.
What they wouldn’t get is a candidate whose politics are positioned to unite a Republican electorate that stretches from moderate pro-business fiscal conservatives to evangelical social conservatives, with the tea party falling somewhere along the spectrum.
“Texans, God love them, have that bigger-than-life persona about politics and that doesn’t necessarily play everywhere,” said Christopher Nicholas, a Republican political consultant who has worked extensively in the Northeast and Midwest. “I haven’t heard a lot of Republicans call Social Security a disease.”
Perry has. He branded Social Security and other New Deal programs “the second big step in the march of socialism,” according to a book published last year. The “first step” was a national income tax, which he has said stands alongside the direct election of U.S. senators as a major mistake among the amendments to the U.S. Constitution........<<<<
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Perry-s-credentials-As-conservative-as-they-come-1469120.php