Perry's Drops Out of the Race

Texas Governor Rick Perry ended his bid for the Presidency today and endorsed Newt Gingrich and adding "...he's not perfect" before his endorsement.

Wow, glowing endorsement there Governor. 

I have a few thoughts on Perry's exit from the race, and pay attention Texas Republicans.

I've been noticing something about a few local races, but the Perry exit personifies it for me. Sometimes, in our haste to vote AGAINST someone rather than FOR their ideas we latch on to anyone that comes along. Like a bad rebound relationship. 

What happens with candidates is that we often build them up in our perception of them and make them more formidable than they really are. Then, when the candidate that was never really all that viable in the first place loses, the person we were voting against is actually legitimized to an extent because of our build-up of the opposition.

Its true of candidates in several local races and its true of Rick Perry. When there was the initial rumors of Perry thinking about the Presidential bid, I was still on the air. I remember saying that I was HOPING Perry would get in the race because I thought he was a Democrats wet-dream of a Republican candidate. I knew he'd be easy to pick apart in an election. Which is why I was hoping he'd be the nominee against President Obama. 

Texas Democrats knew Perry, but most Republicans didn't. So they built him up because he was the alternative to Mitt Romney. In fact, I think the height of his poll numbers were probably before he formally jumped in the race or just after. Everyone thought how great it was. Like sex with a new girlfriend or boyfriend. At first you think its the greatest thing in the world. But if its not the real deal, you will quickly be left feeling like it wasn't all that satisfying.

Rick Perry left Republicans feeling like that after his first couple of debate performances. After that speech in New Hampshire they decided they wanted to break up with him. And like all bad relationships, it takes a while to finally end it formally, which happened today.

Let's face facts, Perry was never a good candidate. Now America sees why Perry was duckin' and dodging Bill White in the gubernatorial race. No wonder he never wanted to get on the same stage as Bill White. White would've cleaned his clock. 

What I find really interesting about Perry is that his demise came basically scandal-free. There was no major controversy, no philandering, no bad business deal, no nothing. He just didn't turn voters on and died a slow painful death. 

And here I go with another boxing analogy - Rick Perry lost the exact same way he beat Hutchison for the gubernatorial nomination, he was out jabbed. When he beat Hutchison it was just a steady flow of jabs from Perry and she never really found her campaign footing. Perry was essentially beat the same way. Sure, he was all-Mike Tyson in the first round, but we was out-pointed every round after that and you just had the sense that you wanted the ref to step in and stop the bleeding.

Fortunately for Republicans, he threw in the towel. Personally I would've like to see him stay in.

I was really looking forward to more New Hampshire speeches.