A Prophet For President?

Is Rick Perry a prophet? He sure thinks so. At least that is what it said in Eileen Smith's blog “in the pink”( in the pink, Don't Call Me. I'll Call You, July 19th 2011).Ellen, a strong liberal, posts in her blog about the more than likely Rick Perry's likely run for president against Barack Obama in 2012. Eileen, well know for her sarcastic comments, (which I love it) mocks of one of Perry's early comments about being “called” to enter the race and how he looks for signals from the lord to make his decisions “I am a man of faith. I don’t make any apologies about my faithfulness…. So the idea that do I look for signs, and do I look for good Scripture that tells me how to live my life — absolutely I do that.” Sounds like we are going to have a prophet in the race next year.

If someone asked me couple months ago if I believed Perry would run for president, I would have said no. Incumbent Obama has reasonable chances of winning re-election if he at least keeps the job market stabilized. That being said, why would Perry risk his seat as state governor? He did not get a solid majority (he got a 2nd full term with less than 40% of the vote in a 4 way race) in the last state election, which could be seen as an indicator of how well he would do in a national campaign.The more coherent strategy for him is to remain as state governor and establish his name nationally until the 2017 primaries, where he would have a better chance. The problem I see with that approach is that Perry cannot wait that long. Texas representatives will have to vote on a new budget by 2013 for the 2014-2016 biennial, and Perry's major campaign rhetoric will be dead as the voters will see that our rainy day is gone, and our budget is as bad as California.

So Yes Eileen, Perry will run for president next year. He either does that, or he will have to put his ambition of becoming a president on hold for quite a while.