The thing I don’t get is who out of the current field other than, say, Perry, has a chance of winning? As much as I like Michele Bachmann, she isn’t going to win a national campaign. She doesn’t have the infrastructure or name recognition that you need. No one else has caught fire or the ones who have generated buzz are second tier candidates. And Romney has a national campaign and presence but he is so far removed from the conservative base that it would be very disappointing for him to win the nomination. Sarah Palin? Let’s wait until she announces to throw her into the mix. At this point thinking she will be the nominee and win are a fantasy. My hunch is that she won’t run, especially if Perry gets in (they are very close personally and politically). This is why I personally lean toward Perry. I see the posts on FR about what a RINO he is but they aren’t convincing. He’s no firebrand conservative but he isn’t a RINO.
If she decides to run can she win the Republican nomination? Certainly. But 2012 will be a campaign we cannot, for the very sake of the survival of this country, afford to lose. On that I would at this point consider Perry to be a safer bet.
And like you I don't see any substance in the "Rino" calls against him. All I see is along the lines of "he used to be a Democrat and supported Gore in 1988" (Ronald Reagan was a democrat till the fifties and actively campaigned for Truman in 1948), "he's another GWB" (other than the squint and accent I don't see it. Their backgrounds could not be more different), or "he's an open borders mole for the Mexican government" (come on, can anybody get elected in Texas by being as grossly anti-Mexican as some posters here? My impression is as governor he's been quite vocal and active about closing and controlling his State's border).
Romney? He would be toast going against either one but could eke out the nomination if they both run and cancel out each others' strengths. I could easily be wrong, but Bachmann I do not take seriously at all. Sitting members of the House of Representatives do not make for credible presidential nominees.
So I could support either of the governors (one a former) of the largest and second largest, and almost certainly the two with the greatest remnant ethos of human freedom, States in this Republic. But purely in a politically practical and strategic sense there's a very strong case to be made for Perry.