By George Will
In the 1850s on the steps of the Waco courthouse Wallace Jeffersons great-great-great-grandfather was sold. Today Jefferson is chief justice of Texas Supreme Court. The governor who nominated him also nominated the states first Latina justice.
Rick Perry 61 the longest-serving governor in Texas history and in his 11th year currently the nations senior governor says these nominations are two of his proudest accomplishments.
French cuffs and cowboy boots are like sauerkraut ice cream an eclectic combination but Perry who wears both is a potentially potent candidate for the Republican presidential nomination because his political creed is uneclectic matching that of the Republican nominating electorate.
He was a 10th Amendment conservative (The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people) before the tea party appeared. And before Barack Obamas statism especially Obamacares individual mandate catalyzed concern for the American project of limited government.
Social issues especially abortion are gateways to the Republican nominating electorate: In todays climate of economic fear a candidates positions on social issues will not be decisive with his electorate but they can be disqualifying. Perry an evangelical Christian like most Republican participants in Iowas caucuses and the South Carolina primary emphatically qualifies.
Pausing in his enjoyment of a hamburger the size of a hubcap Perry the Eagle Scout son of Democratic tenant farmers says he entered politics as a Democrat: I never met a Republican until I was in the Air Force.
Perrys father had been a B-17 tail-gunner flying out of England in 1944. Perry stationed abroad flying C-130 transports became a captain and a believer in American exceptionalism.
He matriculated into the culture wars in the riotous year of 1968. As the University of Texas at Austin was becoming a bastion of liberalism Perry headed to Texas A&M which was transitioning from an all-male military school but not from conservatism. He became a Republican in 1989 I made both parties happy at a younger age than Ronald Reagan did and has never lost an election.
Mitt Romney the Republican front-runner might be easier to elect than to nominate. The reverse might be true of Perry. Is he a wine that will not travel? To win the White House a Republican must be competitive among independents including women in places like Montgomery County outside Philadelphia.
Perry his accent his Westerners body language those boots is proof that in spite of the cultures homogenizing forces regional differences remain remarkably durable. But so too do regional antipathies some of which have intensified as voters have become more polarized partly because of a Texas governor who became president.
Obama will not win another term stressing his accomplishments which consist of an unpopular healthcare law a failed stimulus and an anemic recovery. So Obamas campaign must be relentlessly negative decrying the Republican nominees extremism.
Democrats have worked that pedal on the political organ frequently successfully against Barry Goldwater futilely against Ronald Reagan.
Supposed examples of Perrys extremism evaporate in sunlight. One is that he intimated support for Texas secession from the Union. After people shouted Secede! at a rally he said he understood their frustration but added: Weve got a great union. There is absolutely no reason to dissolve it.
He signed a law requiring women seeking abortions to be shown sonograms of their babies. Do people objecting to this mandatory provision of information object to the new graphic warnings on cigarette packs?
The Republican contest probably will become a binary choice Romney and the Not Romney candidate. If Perry becomes the latter he will do so by his visceral appeal to social conservatives and by trumping Romneys economic expertise with Texas exceptionalism:
Between 2001 and last June Texas a right-to-work state that taxes neither personal income nor capital gains added more jobs than the other 49 states combined. And since the recovery began two Junes ago Texas has created 37 percent of Americas net new jobs.
Perry would rather not run but his wife who has a nursing background and is alarmed by Obamacare says sometimes desires are secondary to duties.
Perry who sensibly did not watch the Republicans recent New Hampshire debate because the Aggies were on ESPN playing Florida State in the NCAA baseball tournament says Im a long way from being a candidate.
But he did not finish the hamburger. Perhaps he is in training for something strenuous.
