I like Perry...were he a Texan fresh on the national scene...no worries at all. But I guarandamnteeya..if he is the Republican nominee..that by August 2012...the general public won’t be able to tell him from Dubya...and the Independents will STAY HOME.
Especially true if Rick Perry exhibits some of the same mannerisms as Bush. Nope, not fair at all. Just like it wasn’t fair to Jeb Bush that his brother ruined his chances of being POTUS. Or anyone else from the Bush family for at least 2 more generations. From everything I’ve read, Jeb might have done a much better job than W—but we’ll never know.
Not necessarily, I have an “obama voting but fed up” friend who absolutely hates Bush and is concerned about Perry for the exact reason you state, but he will vote for Perry if he is the candidate, or Mitt. I still have more convincing to do get him to confirm that he will vote for Palin too if she is the candidate.
The depth of Obama disgust among so many of those that voted for him is very deep, so deep that many of them would vote for George Bush over Obama if that was the choice.