Rick Perry, governor of Texas.

He announced his candidacy on Saturday. As of Monday, according to Rasmeussen, he opened up with a 12% advantage over the former front-runner, Mitt Romney.

His claim to fame (other than being George Bush's successor as governor of Texas) is that since the recession, Texas has been responsible for more job growth than all other states combined and multiplied (about 75% of all jobs were created in Texas).

Positionally, he's a bit different than Bush - where Bush went across the asile to work with Democrats on issues such as No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, TARP and such, Perry is very partisan and ram-rodded a lot of legislation through, which makes Texas the least regulated, most anti-union state in America. In Texas, there is no EPA, government unions are not allowed to form, and some places have even got rid of Social Security as a forced practice. He's also gone on record as saying Social Security is a ponzi scheme.

Here's his On the Issues' placard:

So what is your take on him?

I'm 50/50. He's a better candidate (if elected) than pretty much every other GOPer outside of Ron Paul or Gary Johnson. On the flip side....That isn't saying much. He's still a social conservative, but not quite as hard-line as others (e.g. drug policy is a state issue, not federal).

yea. he screams death to america to me.

Please no more Republicans!

It makes me sad. I really wanted Ron Paul to win it. =(

Though I didn't know about some of the stuff in the OP. Still iirc, I didn't agree with Perry's border policy. Which is a big thing with me =/

Edit: nvm, I'm not sure where I heard he was for loosening the security of the border. But that doesn't seem to be true o.o 

I don't think it's quite that drastic. He entered on a high note because he's the new guy and people are pretty dissatisfied with the Republican field. "Not sure" is in third place, ahead of Bachmann. But Perry's numbers are only going to come down from there, and it wouldn't exactly take a miracle for Romney or Bachmann to beat him.

That said, I like him better than either of them. Good on him for talking straight about Social Security.

The Daily Show did a segment last night on how the media is ignoring Ron Paul, even though he came in second in the Iowa straw poll. It actually made me feel bad for the guy!

They also did a funny segment comparing Perry to George W. Bush. It is kinda scary how similar they are...

For Republicans? There is almost no base of economic/social liberals. You can find people that are libertarian (economic right, social left) like Ron Paul, Gary Johnson and Pat Buchannan, but actual leftists are very rare, as Republicans are generally the polar opposite of Democrats (who generally have more leftists in given regards).

As for Obama beating Perry...I think you're sorely mistaken. Obama is quickly becoming the most hated first term president since Carter or even Hoover. Gallup has him at 39% favorability which is nearing where Bush was at the lowest point of his second term.

Honestly, I think the media - both left wing and right wing media (CNN, FOX, MSNBC) are so scared of Ron Paul that they won't give him air time. He's won many polls, but never makes headlines because of it.

My opinion is that they don't give Ron airtime, because he is one of a rare breed that would bring down typical bi-polar talking points between both parties, as he has actively denounced areas that both parties deal in to create bigger government. He is popular with both liberals and conservatives in a way that would make him a huge threat to the status quo....Thus he gets ignored.

Think he means economic liberals as in free marketeers, not leftists.

What I want to know is... Why does everyone say "He's too Republican to be elected" when he was Democrat... who campaigned for Al Gore... to the point of where he was Al Gore's Texas Campaign chair!