Four summers ago, 73 percent of Republicans were satisfied with the candidates seeking the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. Now, an NBC News/Wall Street Journalpoll revealed on Wednesday, only 45 percent of Republicans are happy with today’s 2012 contenders.
Despite pro-market ideas and an impressive, limited-government record, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty seems too genteel to leapfrog the apparent frontrunner, Willard Mitt Romney. For his part, Massachusetts’s telegenic former governor is a philosophical contortionist. He has inhabited at least two sides of nearly every major issue and even defends an individual mandate for health insurance, provided that state governments inflict it, à la Romneycare. Romney, thus, would let the states becomes laboratories of tyranny.
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Texas governor Rick Perry, 61, could cure the GOP’s ennui. As America’s economy slumbers, Perry tells a stimulating story about Texas’s pro-market growth and job creation, two subjects atop the American mind.
Gov. Rick Perry (R., Tex.) greets a young admirer.
Between January 2001 and June 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates, Texas’s non-farm employment grew from 9,542,400 in January 2001, when Perry took office, to 10,395,800 in June 2010 — an increase of 853,400 or 8.9 percent. Big-government California simultaneously lost 827,800 jobs. Employment in Texas grew more than in the other 49 states combined. “Texas was one of the very few which even added jobs over that time,” BLS’s Cheryl Abbot told PolitiFact.com.
Since June 2009, when the Great Recession officially ended, Texas has produced 265,300 net jobs, equal to 36.7 percent of the 722,200 positions created nationwide. Even during the downturn, the Texas Public Policy Foundation discovered, Texas’s peak employment dropped by 2.3 percent, versus California’s 8.7 percent plunge.
As last October 27’s Wall Street Journalopined, “Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio have become destinations for investment and entrepreneurship. Texas has become a mecca for high tech, venture capital, aeronautics, health care, and even industrial manufacturing, like the building of cars and trucks.”
For seven years running, CEOs polled by Chief Executive magazine have rated Texas first in business development and job growth. Texas boasts 58 Fortune 500 companies — more than any other state.
As America’s No. 1 exporting state, Texas shipped $206.6 billion in goods abroad last year, a full 16 percent of America’s $1.28 trillion in exports. California’s $143.3 billion in exports ranked it second, with 11.2 percent of U.S. outflow.
Americans seeking opportunity often vote with their feet. Texas wins that race in a landslide. “Texas led all other states with a net in-migration of 500,000 people from 2004 to 2008,” W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm found in a report for Southern Methodist University’s O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom.
Texas’s achievements so stunned Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic lieutenant governor, that he flew a delegation to Austin last May to ask Perry how he lures defectors from the Golden State. Of the 70 companies that fled California in 2011, the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund reported last April, 14 relocated to Texas — these exiles’ favorite destination.
So, what is Perry’s secret? Texas taxes neither personal incomes nor capital gains, and Perry proposed a 2010 constitutional amendment to require two-thirds supermajorities to legislate tax hikes. Beyond that, as Perry told Manhattan Republicans on Tuesday, “don’t spend all the money.” He advised “a regulatory climate that is fair and predictable” as well as “a legal system that doesn’t allow for over-suing.” Thus, Perry signed a ground-breaking “loser pays” tort reform and medical-litigation rules that caused malpractice-insurance rates to fall. Some 20,000 doctors since have flooded Texas.
Texas is a right-to-work state, which Perry should trumpet nationally. He should demand a woman’s right to choose — whether or not to join a union. Indeed, Perry should promise to fight for and sign Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R., S.C.) National Right to Work Act.
Mr. Murdock, as soon as the OFA/Austin liberals are aware of your article, they will attack you full force. It seems that Perry is making some in the socialist/left wing very, VERY nervous.
Perry has been a good governor. The fact that Kay Bailey was long thought of as a shoe-in went down in smoke last year. Conservative Republicans didn't like her and she couldn't pull the blue dogs. And Perry didn't pander to the (left leaning) Texas press, instead taking his message directly to Texans on their home turf. While we may live in a tech world, there is nothing like being able to actually ask the candidate a question, and Perry tapped into that momentum.
If nothing else, a debate between an animated Perry vs. Obama, sans teleprompter, would be a thing of beauty.
I'm having trouble finding the data in a useful format, but I think the whole "created more jobs than the rest of the country combined" line could be less impressive than it sounds. Obviously, it is good that many (any) jobs were created in TX, and that is better than most of the country, but, but summing up the other 49 states, one gets credit for California and the other 29 net-loss states. I wouldn't be surprised if several of the top states each created more jobs than the other 49 states.
Perry's speech and the response from the grassroots in New Orleans was incredible. I think if he enters the race he will be an instant contender for the race.
I wrote about his speech, and linked to the video on my site at External Link
Mr. Murdock - Great minds think alike. I used the very same words (Run Rick Run) in a comment I made last night on Pajamas Media. The more I read about Perry, the more I like him. I am, however, sure the LSM will try to destroy him as they have tried to destroy Sarah Palin.
I don't know enough about Perry to endorse him completely. What I've heard, I like, but I can't help notice that support for him among the NR writers (Deroy Murdock excepted) and other conservative pundits seems somewhat tepid. They're not saying he's bad, they're just not enthused. Figuring they know more about him than I do, I'm wondering what gives here.
And please spare me the whole "NRO is another way of spelling RINO" nonsense.
"There reportedly is little love lost between Perry and the aristo-socialist Bush family and their political henchman, the annoyingly ubiquitous Karl Rove."
Thank you for the column, especially that gem. Aristo-socialist is brilliant.
I'm willing to consider Perry, but he's being a little too coy. The whole "savior" pose is a little creepy. Republicans don't do that. We're certainly not going to beg him to run. He needs to get into the game if he wants to play. If Bachmann or Pawlenty or Cain can't beat Romney, then maybe we deserve to get stuck with Mitt.
And I have a little Hillyeresque skepticism about giving Perry all the credit for Texas as well. The Texas governorship is one of the weakest in the nation. The powerful legislature makes the laws and balances the books in Texas. Remember, even W came out of Texas with a great financial record, on paper, thanks to his legislature.
Either CA is $144 B exports (not $14.4 B) or their share is 1.12 % of exports, 11.2%. Math doesn't work...must be a typo on the $, I expect.
Great article on Gov. Perry. Farm/ranch boy, Animal Science Major, married HS sweetheart and stayed married to her, rock-ribbed Conservative.
Perry was actually Gore's campaign manager in '88 when he was a Conservative Dem who quickly, like Reagan, saw the dem party had left him so he joined the GOP.
This would be a nice story line too..."I was a democrat until the party showed me they were going to be led by socialists and left wing extremists!"
But Rick Perry has always been Conservative. I am a Conservative who happens to support more/mostly Republicans...like Gov. Perry.
Unlike GW Bush and Karl Rove who are Republicans who support some Conservatives. (Kay Bailey Hutchinson for Gov...please!)
Nonsense. Perry was a democrat all through the Reagan years. The Democratic party had gone off the rocker long before Perry switched parties. He didn't switch because the party left him. He switched because Texas left his party and he wanted to stay in office.
Let's at least try to think about these things a little.
And you gotta love how Perry handled his Democrat legislators when they decided to pull a Wisconsin....froze their pay and canceled their congressional credit cards.
The stars will probably never be better aligned
for a Perry run.
So, if he's going to make the leap , the time would be soon , while the buzz
and enthusiasm is building.
Romney is a competent and successful businessman who would be light years
better than Obama.
But, he gives off that " I won't criticize my dear Democrat opponents " wishy washy ,
McCain vibe.
Pawlenty on paper and in his internet ads is much stronger than Pawlenty in person.
He's just not catching fire .
Governor Perry has a subtle Texas swagger which will contrast nicely with the Illinois swish.
Without being a caricature.
Perry's military career as an Air Force C-130 pilot gives him a connection to the military
that Obama could never have.
And an unflappable demeanor.
Perry has the ability to express his conservative principles
in a way that will satisfy the base and yet , appeal
to independents
and disaffected Democrats.
Geography should not be a factor when the nation is desperately seeking a competent leader.
Run, Rick, Run !
While it's true the Texas governorship is a relatively weak constitutional office and has been so since reconstruction, its actual influence depends in great measure on the strength and persuasiveness of the individual who occupies it. In other words, someone endowed with great leadership abilities, communications skills, drive or what ever you want to call it actually has great influence over the direction of the state and the legislative agenda. Thus, we've had weak governors who did very little (example Preston Smith) and very strong governors who accomplished a lot (examples Allan Shivers, John Connally, Perry). The governor also does have a couple of very powerful tools; ie. the veto and the ability to call special legislative sessions confined to a strictly limited agenda of his choosing. Perry is not shy about using either power. A couple of years ago he vetoed something like 80 bills in one day (liberal papers bemoaned it as "the Father's Day Massacre) and right now the leg. is in special session dealing with, among other unfinished Perry initiatives, a ban on so-called sanctuary cities.
You don't get to be the number one leftwing target in Texas by doing nothing.
Interestingly, one of the weakest governors in recent times was the late Ann Richards. She made very little effort to influence a legislature that was well to her right and spent most of her time out of state hobnobbing with Hollywood celebrities and using the cachet of her office to raise money for the Democrat Party. She was also very quickly booted out.
Knowing something about Rick Perry, and what he does when no one is looking (like taking Marcus Luttrell in when Luttrell was released from Walter Reed and making sure the families of the fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan have access to him personally) I have been following the articles on the web re: Perry for about a week.
Immediately, the long knives came out, each one with the same talking points as if taken from some memo or email they received, all bashing Perry. Some are even claiming that Perry cheats on Anita, which is not just a lie, it is a horrible slander. And it seemed to me that the OFA/MoveOn crowd is very, VERY nervous about someone who is not even in the race yet.
Obviously, I don't hang out with Rick Perry, but I know people who do, and to a person, they say he is a decent and honest man. He is also not ashamed of being a Christian. How refreshing. But as we were told that Obama could not be bashed due to belonging to a Black Liberation Theololgy church for 20 years, there are already articles by left wingers saying Perry is too "Christian".
This campaign season is going to get nasty and down right dirty. But if anyone can handle the radical left, Rick Perry can.
I care less about the "Party" label (McCain, Dole, Ford anybody?) than I do about the person's principles and core beliefs.
Perry was more Conservative as a democrat than any of the three above were while putting the "R" after their names.
Meanwhile we have Romney who changes his principles and core beliefs easier than I change my socks...and he's a GOP lifer...and a big gov moderate at that!
Perry's "Conservative" credentials would be in the neighborhood of Ronald Reagan's...Romney's are not even in the same zip code.
jasgre - Perry would not be the first one to make the trek from Left to Right. At one time, Ronald Reagan was Democrat; and there are a whole slew of guys/gals at Pajamas Media who were once on the Left and have come over to the Right. So, don't judge Perry by what he's been but by what he is.
