If Perry and his record are not Presidential material, then absolutely nothing is.
Untrue. We were discussing this on another thread and there are many popular GOP governors around the country with much better conservative track records than Perry AND who won elections with much tougher competition. Examples are Don Carcieri of Rhode Island (he is an unabashed Reagan conservative elected twice in one of the most Democrat states in the country)and Mike Rounds of South Dakota (he won the GOP primary in a HUGE upset and has been a rock solid conservative governor). Even Christie of NJ would better. It's amusing the Chris Christie bashers on FR call him a RINO because he's a NJ politician, even though he has 10X the balls that Perry has when it comes to confronting Democrats. Christie doesn't just talk tough at tea party rallies when he's up for election, he governs that way. I could think of a half dozen Republican governors I'd prefer to draft.
If Perry's presidential timber, then so is Pawlenty. You don't need to “draft” Perry because you already have someone with the exact same credentials running: a successful multi-term Governor running for President with an acceptable conservative record who can point to “jobs creation” and “balenced budgets” during his tenure. Perry doesn't add anything to that except a Texas twang.