O.K. I am one. Considering all the other candidates and yet-to-be-announced candidates, my vote will definitely go to Perry. Yes, he has made mistakes (the backing of the land grab for his TTC idea, his intrusion into parental responsibilities with his mandatory injections of minors, his democrat supporting history, his overall stance on illegal immigration matters (as compared to Arizona and Alabama), etc do not make him anything but a politician. His overall history of being a conservative (Texas being the best job creator in America, strong backing of the 10th & 2nd Amendments, successful business man, good management of state spending priorities, etc) has put him at the top of my list. Texas is a weak Governor state and much of the state's success belongs to his Lt. Governor and the majority rule of Republicans in both the Senate and House. It has been Perry that has fostered this success and signed good, conservative bills into law. The replacement of Perry by Lt. Gov. Dewhurst would be a welcome replacement. Perry would be an excellent President (or even vice-president)in this life-long Texas voters opinion.
And just how much credit does Perry really deserve for that? To hear some talk, you'd think Perry was responsible for Spindletop and the fact that Texas has no state income tax.
The primary reasons for Texas' economic success precede Rick Perry by many decades.
his intrusion into parental responsibilities with his mandatory injections of minors,
I agree with everything you said except this was not a mandatory injection of a papaloma virus vaccine. Parents could opt out by not giving their permission.
Perry hasn't caused Texas' economic success. He simply hasn't done anything to put a damper on it (by design or default, I don't know). The state was already on a serious growth track when he first became Governor.
"Strong backing of the 10th Amendment"? A couple of strongly worded letters don't amount to strong backing when you're a Governor, in my book. Why hasn't he used the power granted to him by the Texas constitution to stop the invasion at our southern border? That would be asserting our 10th Amendment rights.
And if you can look the other way after Gardasil and the TTC, you're the type that compromises with your principles too easily to remain free.