Erstellt am: 17. 8. 2011 - 15:12 Uhr

Rick Perry - a new voice or history repeating?

Reality Check on Rick Perry, republican governor or Texas, and the plans to impose new regulations on the eurozone countries

“I’m calling on Americans to fast and pray like Jesus did”.

Rick Perry

When in doubt invoke God, even for solving problems connected with the US economy. On a political level, calling on the Almighty can do wonders for the American psyche whilst raising the spirit of nation, intoxicated by a mixture of patriotism and religion. If Rick Perry gets into the Whitehouse in 2012 we’re going to see a lot more joining of hands and bowing of heads before the cameras.

The similarities with George W Bush are striking

Rick Perry’s name has been on the horizon of presidential possibilities for some time. Now he’s announced his attention to become the Republican Party’s nominee for 2012, commentators are rushing to draw parallels with George W. First it’s Texas. Perry took over as governor of the Lone Star state after his predecessor headed for the White House, and Perry wears Texan credentials like a badge of honour. He was born in Texas on a ranch so I guess he has more cowboy credibility, unlike George W who was born in north-eastern Connecticut and used to pop the Stetson on for a good photo-op.

Wasn’t Rick Perry once a Democrat?

Yes - and not only that, in 1988 he ran the Texas campaign for Al Gore’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Now there’s an inconvenient truth for die-hard Republicans who are suspicious of flip-flopping Romney- types who reach too far across the great divide looking for compromise. But 1988 was a long time ago and at least Rick Perry can bring joy to present-day climate-change sceptics as he calls global warming “all one contrived phony mess”. If Rick Perry has any concerns on climate change issues, he’s certainly kept them to himself.

Will he fire up the Republican Party?

To a certain extent yes. He has the looks, the charisma and the kind of facial profile you could chisel into Mount Rushmore. But is the Republican Party ready for another governor from Texas who sounds like a clone of George W Bush? This could be Perry’s Achilles’ heel. In the final few months of the Bush presidency, there was a huge amount of disillusionment amongst grass roots republicans for George W. The Texas swagger started to count for very little in the autumn of 2008, as the country was heading into financial calamity and Bush was sponsoring bailouts. Four years is a short time and it could be a risky strategy to put Perry on the Republican ticket for 2012 if you are hoping to attract a groundswell of fiscal conservatives to your cause.

So where are Republicans heading?

The next few months will see things crystallize around Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. You can’t write off Sarah Palin at this stage, but short of any big announcements before the end of August, I’d say it’s not going to happen for her. Instead I will stick my neck out and go for a Romney/Bachmann ticket or a Perry/tbc ticket. Bachmann & Perry as a team would be too ultra-conservative to make any sense for Republican strategists and they don’t even appear to like each other, although they sing to the same tea-party conservative base. Do I think the Republicans could win next year? Absolutely! With the economy in such a dire mess and any recovery a distant dream, Obama is going to have a hard fought battle to avoid the same fate that hit Jimmy Carter, in becoming one of the few sitting presidents to run for re-election and lose.

Our Washington DC correspondent, Priscilla Huff looks at the front runners and their chances:

Also on Reality Check

France and Germany are proposing constitiutional changes for Eurozone countries to ensure they balance their budgets.

Johannes Pollack of the Institute for Advanced Studies assesses the plan and its chances for success with Chris Cummins.

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