Rick Perry has come out with guns blazing. Five days after announcing his candidacy he is in first place, ahead of a man who has dedicated months to this campaign. We are to believe that Perry got carried away and in an unguarded moment went too far in his criticism of Ben Bernanke. That theory assumes he has unguarded moments. The Beltway Republicans attempted to pass it off as a novice's gaffe that wouldn't be repeated while in their desperation reached out to Paul Ryan and Chris Christi to please come save us all. Those people just don't understand the kind of english this guy gets on the cue ball. While I don't find him as personally endearing as Sarah Palin, Rick Perry brings a game to town that hasn't been seen in generations. His understanding of politics is intuitive - not learned and not intellectual. He is the Fast Eddie Felson of politics; the sort of guy who could walk away with your rent money in his pocket before you even realized you were playing for keeps. He very much understands bluffing and bluster. They are his stock in trade. Does anyone really think Rick Perry would seriously entertain secession from the union. No, of course not but that added bit of theatrics is one reason why Mitt Romney finds himself in second place. Probably we would have to go all the way back to William Jennings Bryan and his free silver crowd to find Americans debating monetary policy. In the months ahead Perry will exploit the misgivings the voters have about the Fed and its unelected appointees who work in mysterious ways to set interest rates and drive up stock prices and Americans will be debating monetary policy because Rick Perry wants to debate monetary policy.
Like Donald Trump, Rick Perry will take the fight to Obama. When Obama long formed Trump it was game over. Unlike Trump, Perry is not a one trick pony. If the monetary issue looses steam he has more rounds in the chamber. He will go after Obama's lack of leadership, Obama's debt, Obama's stimulus bill, Obama's healthcare bill, Obama's FinReg bill, Obama's economy and the voters will damn well know who was responsible for failure. He will say more outrageous things and the hapless Obama will take up the argument just to lose it. The coming campaign is going to be fought on the issues Rick Perry wants to fight. We will find that Perry doesn't want to "lead from behind". The problem is not Obama won't lead. It is Obama can't lead. There is a leadership vacuum in Washington. Perry sees this and he means to fill that vacuum. He'll pick the fights that he can win and Obama won't feel a thing until he's flying home to Chicago.
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