COMMENTARY | The recent mass resignations of Gingrich campaign staffers have stoked speculation about a Rick Perry presidential run. Perry, the governor of Texas, once employed Gingrich's now ex-campaign manager, Rob Johnson, and now will again, reports the Blaze.
Despite being wooed by groups like a group of California legislators, Perry's official stance is that he is still "thinking about it," according to Pajamas Media, and is now busy with the special session of the Texas legislature.
If Perry should decide to run, he would enjoy certain bragging rights that few other candidates can have in this era of economic malaise. He has not only balanced a state budget while making painful cuts in the face of opposition from special interest groups, he has presided over a state that has actually increased jobs and fostered economic growth.
According to a Wall Street Journal story, Perry's Texas has added 37 percent of all net jobs in the United States since June 2009 in an era of fitful, 1.8 percent growth. Perry can point to a business-friendly regime of low taxes, low spending, and light regulation as reasons. He might even suggest that Texas' economic growth would have been even greater had it not been for President Obama's war on the oil and gas industry.
That narrative of a Perry campaign practically writes itself: "Let me do for America, what I have done for Texas." It would be a campaign based on a record of executive competence as much as it would be on conservative ideology.
Mitt Romney, still bedeviled by the disaster that is Romneycare, would be hard pressed to offer a reason why he would get the nomination and not Perry. Perry's main rivals would be Tim Pawlenty and, if she decides to get in, Sarah Palin, both of whom have sterling records as governors of their states.
If Perry were to get the nomination, he would provide a conundrum for President Obama and his people. Obama, whose failures in economic policy are manifest, will not be able to contest Perry on that field. The only recourse would be for Obama to go on the attack, accusing Perry of balancing his state budget on the backs of school children, sick people, and the elderly. That strategy has been part of the Democratic playbook for generations and there is no reason for Obama not to use it.
The problem is that a reelection campaign is generally a referendum on the record of the sitting president seeking four more years. If Obama cannot make the case that he deserves four more years to give the country the same medicine that he has given it the first four years, he will be defeated. Jimmy Carter found that out in 1980. George H. W. Bush found that out in 1992. Obama would have to convince people that he would do a better job than a President Perry (or a President Palin, President Pawlenty, or even a President Romney.) If he cannot, he is as done as a Thanksgiving turkey.
Texas resident Mark Whittington writes about state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network.
