Rush Limbaugh is starting a movement, a movement to draft Texas Governor Rick Perry for President. Here's what Rush said this week on this radio program: "There's no way you're gonna hear Rick Perry supporting amnesty in any way, shape, manner, or form. He's solid on that, plus pro-life. Rick Perry stands in opposition to inside the Beltway Washington elites, I don't care what party they are."
Since Mike Huckabee bowed out of the presidential race this week, conservatives are now in a mad search to find a non-Washington establishment candidate to lead the campaign against politics as usual in DC. The pickings are slim.
Whatever you call it, Tea Party, conservative, or just plain dissatisfaction, there are lots of us outside the Capital City that just plain don't want more of the same. We all share a simple observation, DC changes good people. Call it a desire to be loved, call it a desire to be accepted, call it the influence of staff or pomp and circumstance, we repeatedly send good people to DC that fail to cut the size and scope of Government.
We are embarrassed by the spectacle of House Speaker John Boehner trying to cut deals with Democrats. Too many deals over too many years have put this country at dire risk. We want a government modeled on the US Constitution.
Our rallying cry is don't listen to Wall Street, they just fleece us for bonuses, don't listen to public employee unions, they fleece us for cushy benefits and pensions. We are looking for a leader who will listen to us the people. We want no more debt, no more fat benefits at our expense, and we want no part of too big to fail on the part of private corporations seeking taxpayer money.
Texas Governor Rick Perry may fit the bill. In Texas, his record has been outstanding.
California Assemblyman Dan Logue traveled to Austin, Texas recently and reported, "a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers visited Austin a few weeks ago to learn why Texas was creating jobs while the Golden State was struggling. We found that from January 2008 to December 2010, Texas added more than 165,000 jobs while during the same time period, California lost 1.2 million jobs. For me and my colleagues" Logue said, "we saw those numbers as an indication that, under the leadership of Rick Perry, Texas was doing something very right."
Perry has guided Texas successfully through the worst national economic crisis in our lifetimes. Logue was so impressed with what he saw he launched the website www.draftperry2012.com. You can actually send Governor Perry a voice mail message from the website.
Ironically, when conservative ideas are on the ascendency across America, the leading Republican contenders for the nomination are all establishment icons who excel at fundraising from the moneyed special interests that dominate Washington DC, no matter who is in control.
Both Governor Mitt Romney and Mitch Daniels have records supporting government run healthcare. This is the largest single issue of the 2012 campaign because it has such a negative impact on job creation.
On social issues, both Daniels and Romney have adjusted views in recent years to get more in sync with social conservatives, but both governors make social issue conservatives nervous because of past actions. Gary Glenn of Michigan's American Family Association wrote of Daniels: "He issued an executive order adding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the state's nondiscrimination policy, and not just to the laundry list of characteristics already found in the policy, but highlighted in a separate paragraph all their own."
Perry, from the Bible Belt state of Texas, would in contrast poll very well with social conservatives. We are waiting to see if the Rush Limbaugh ignited campaign creates momentum in support for Governor Rick Perry amongst Republicans nationwide. If so, Perry may be the person who can right this listing ship and get America back on an even keel.
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