As the potential 2016 GOP candidates explore their opportunities, one in particular is looking for another shot: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose term in office will end soon and might take another shot at the national scene in 2015.
The media relentlessly portrayed Perry in the same way that they did George W. Bush - as bumpkins from Texas with limited intellectual capabilities. The Associated Press has a head start on the rest of the media in 2016, with a piece dubbing him "Governor Oops":
Texas Gov. Rick Perry would like to run for president in 2016 as a proven job-creator who modeled Texas' strong economy in his own political gunslinger image and says he can do the same for the rest of the country.
To do it, he'll have to convince voters to forget about "Oops."
It's the moment when Perry, in the midst of a 2011 presidential debate, was unable to recall the third of three federal agencies he'd promised to shutter, finally muttering "oops." Asked about the moment in a recent interview with The Associated Press, Perry said, "That's like going back and asking a football player who dropped a pass to win the Super Bowl, 'Did that bother you?'"
To be honest, when I read about Rick Perry now, I don't even remember the "oops" moment from that GOP debate. He's affable, charming, and quick on his feet in person - and as the Associated Press even notes, has a presided over a pretty stellar economic time for the state of Texas. Perhaps I'm too close to the situation and those 2012 GOP debates are too far away, but it seems like the AP is trying to drag an embarrassing national moment out of the closet to pre-define a potential Perry run.
Townhall's own Cortney O'Brien interviewed Gov. Perry at CPAC this year:
