Rick Perry can expect GOP hopefuls return to Florida

Hardly a day has passed since Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his presidential candidacy that Austin-based writer Jim Moore hasn’t found himself made up, miked up and holding forth to a national television audience.


Moore is the co-author, with Jason Stanford, of the forthcoming “Adios Mofo: Why Rick Perry Will Make America Miss George W. Bush,” one of at least three new books about the Texas governor. Perry’s late entry into the presidential race has created a sudden hunger for information about a politician whose career has been spent away from the national stage - and Texas reporters have been more than ready to oblige.




The last time a Texas governor ran for president, out-of-state reporters went looking for scandal and controversy about George W. Bush and found mostly glowing accounts in the Texas media of his rapport with Democrats, passion for education reform and success at coming off like a “fairly normal” guy despite his blue blood pedigree - and that positive judgment was more or less echoed by the national media.


“Bush could do no wrong,” recalled Paul Burka, who covered him for the Texas Monthly. “He just got a clean bill of health from the media, and that included us.”


Perry, whose policy was overturned by the legislature, said he regretted the way he went about ordering the vaccinations.


"If I had it to do over again, I would have done it differently," Perry said. "I would have gone to the legislature, worked with them. But what was driving me was, obviously, making a difference about young people's lives."


That answer didn't satisfy Santorum, who appealed to conservative concerns about government overreach.


"He believes that what he did was right," Santorum said. "He thinks he went about it the wrong way. ... There is no government purpose served for having little girls inoculated at the force and compulsion of the government. This is big government run amok. It is bad policy, and it should not have been done."


Bachmann, who has lost ground in the polls since Perry entered the race last month, also pounced on the vaccination issue during the debate. Bachmann followed up with a fund-raising letter and a campaign video comparing Perry's Texas policy to the federal health care law that conservatives detest.




"Whether it's Obamacare or Perrycare, I oppose any governor or president who mandates a family's health care choices," Bachmann says in the video.


Perry also raised concerns among GOP hawks when he gave an answer on Afghanistan that the conservative Weekly Standard called "incoherent."


After former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman called for a speedy pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Perry said, "I agree with Gov. Huntsman when we talk about it's time to bring our young men and women home and as soon and, obviously, as safely as we can."


Perry's campaign went into clarification mode afterward, emphasizing that Perry disagrees with Huntsman on a rapid withdrawal. In a Time interview later in the week, Perry said, "We need to make strategic decisions based on consultation with our military leaders on the ground, rather than just some arbitrary political promises."


Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the criticism Perry has taken from the right doesn't diminish Perry's conservative credentials.


On the vaccination issue, for example, "the governor erred on the side of life," Miner said. "The governor's a very pro-life person. This was a life issue."


He added: "The governor's been a conservative governor and he's been a proven conservative.