VIDEO added: Will Texas Governor Rick Perry Jump Into 2012 And Shake Up The GOP Field

Video added below the post of Perry's press conference.

"Texas added more jobs in the past 10 years than the total jobs of the 19 states, including the District of Columbia, that were positive for job growth."--- The Business Journals

There has been buzz, rumors and speculation as to whether Texas Governor Rick Perry would toss his hat into the ring as a presidential candidate for 2012, despite his prior rejection of the idea.

Reports today show that the thought is there and the possibility is not as unlikely as many once thought it was.

Via Statesman:

Gov. Rick Perry today gave his strongest indication yet that he may run for president.

“I’m going to think about it” after the legislative session ends Monday, Perry said. He added, “But I think about a lot of things.”

More:

Perry was asked about the presidency during a press conference to hail a voter-identification law that he has signed into law.

The presidential talk began when a reporter asked Perry for his reaction to the fact that the Hispanic Republican Conference of Texas, a group of state legislators, endorsed him for president on Thursday.

“I don’t make a lot of anything dealing with that until we get past the Monday deadline for this legislative session,” Perry said. “That’s our focus. I appreciate everybody’s interest. All of us know that the work at hand is the most important thing we have to do in getting this balanced budget finalized and passing pieces of legislation like this.”

Unemployment is a huge issue and promises to be one the top issues going into the 2012 campaign season, with unemployment at 9 percent now and estimates from experts believing unemployment will not be under 8 percent by Nov. 2012. Job growth has also been the focus of the latest plan put together by the GOP, unveiled yesterday with "America's Job Creators".

Recent reports with data obtained by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that Texas over the last decade has seen private-sector job growth of 732,800, the highest of all 50 states and DC.

No other state even topped 100,000.

Perry is into his third term as Governor, making him the longest serving governor in Texas history and would benefit greatly from Texas' job growth over the last 10 years as well as his reputation as a social and fiscal conservative.

Others have noted that recently Perry has been weighing in on national issues as well which could been indicative of a 2012 presidential run.

More on Perry's stances and votes on individual issues can be found here.

This is definitely a story to watch if for no other reason than if Perry enters the race, the campaign season would get much more interesting.

Herman Cain is a Mysterious and Powerful Candidate Whose Mystery is Exceeded Only by His Power

All day I’ve had stories cross my RSS Reader about last night’s GOP candidates’ debate in South Carolina and just about every one of them could be headlined “Herman Cain Mysteriously Wins Debate With Mysterious Powers of Mystery. Also, He Can’t Win Anything.” With each story, I’ve gotten more and more irritated at how quickly the authors, who were usually well-established and professional political pundits, threw up their hands and declared utter bafflement at Cain’s performance. What irritated me the most is how so little time any of them spent looking into why Cain did so well and why he wowed a Fox News post-debate focus group.

John Guardiano wrote perhaps the most succinct illustration of what irritated me so in the American Spectator.

Herman Cain seemed to strike a chord with Frank Luntz’s voter focus group, though I’m not sure how or why. Cain did articulate faithful conservative positions; and he has a certain folksy, down-home appeal. That he’s a retired businessman and entrepreneur, and not a career politician, also adds to his electoral allure.

Let me take this apart piece by piece, starting with the first sentence. Guardiano’s use of the weasel word “seemed” is flat-out disingenuous. Cain didn’t “seem” to score big with the focus group. He did. Take a look at the video. Watch the hands rocket skyward when Luntz asks them who thought Cain won the debate. Listen to the glowing and crisp complements — almost 2 minutes worth of them.

Better yet, read Guardiano’s own words. They echo nearly every complement given to him by those folks in the focus group. And yet he’s completely flummoxed?

I call shenanegans. Any author worth their salt would have at least acknowledged the focus group’s reactions. A truly good writer would have spent a few moments trying to put themselves in the head of one of those folks. Who doesn’t show at least some interest in solving
Guardino is but one of many – several of whom Stacy McCain soundly thrashes in this post — professional commentators who simply can’t get past their own insulated worldviews to see what is plainly true. There’s no mystery to Cain’s appeal. Stacy quoted Cain’s communications director Ellen Carmichael whose explanation is just about perfect: “When people meet Herman, they like Herman.”
You don’t have to accept her word for it, though. I have data.

Gallup has held a running poll of something they call “Positive Intensity” that measures how strongly people like a candidate they know about. A counterpart to name recognition, positive intensity measures how likely it is people will like a candidate once they become familiar with them. In the three polls where Gallup has included Cain’s name, going back to mid-March, he has consistently placed in the top 5. He’s beaten such candidates seen by the professional punditocracy as “serious” candidates as Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, and Haley Barbour (before he dropped out). He’s been running neck and neck with Mitt Romney, the guy the pros would simply anoint to the nomination if only they could get past all us pesky voters.

But if that doesn’t convince you, listen to Stacy McCain. He has seen Cain operate on the ground more often than I have. He’s seen first-hand how strongly Cain connects with audiences time and time again. That’s why he believes Cain is a legitimate contender for the nomination. Now I don’t know how often Guardiano has seen Cain at work. I suspect he’s not gotten outside his own DC world see one of Cain’t many public appearances — 15 times in the past three weeks in New Hampshire and elsewhere. He might have seen Cain speak at CPAC where he lit up the crowd like it was a gasoline-soaked haystack, but if he did, he’s forgotten the visceral connection Cain made with a packed hall that day.

Guardiano and the rest of the Beltway commentariat considers Herman Cain’s appeal an ineffable mystery. I don’t. I can read the polls. I can see how people react to him. Herman Cain is a presidential candidate, not the Continuum Transfunctioner. All I had to do to see that was get out of my own safe bubble and look. If the John Guardianos of the world can’t manage to do that soon, no one could blame us for asking how much of their stupefaction is honest and how much is intentional.

UPDATE: In a related story, it’s probably a mystery how Cain’s team manages to play the political game pretty well too. Who can know how they do it?

Posted by Jimmie

 

BY http://www.sundriesshack.com/

Rick Santorum Gets into the Presidential Race

Rick Santorum (google it), has said he has formed a presidential exploratory committee. The man-on-dog former Senator made the announcement on FOX News "On the Record", the NYT reports:

Mr. Santorum, who for months has been introducing himself to voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, filed papers with the Internal Revenue Service that permit him to solicit contributors. He is the fourth potential Republican candidate to start raising money for a presidential bid.

“The test for me is whether we can raise the money that’s necessary, so I’m going to set up a committee,” Mr. Santorum said. “We’re going to determine over the next few weeks as to whether the resources are going to be there to do it.”

Mr. Santorum has been aggressively reaching out to social conservatives in early voting states. He received an initial showing of support by winning a straw poll last week at a Republican convention in Greenville County, the largest county in South Carolina.