Rick Perry is no Sarah Palin

The last person we need in the White House is another good ol' boy
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Gov. Rick Perry appears poised to announce next week that he's going to make a run for the White House. Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post report that the Texas governor's supporters are already soliciting donations for the coming Perry campaign:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is expected to announce his presidential plans shortly after the Ames Straw Poll this coming weekend, and his supporters are already soliciting contributions for the campaign, according to an e-mail from a Perry supporter.

The e-mail from Gene Powell, a real-estate executive who Perry appointed to the University of Texas board of regents, states, “We expect that announcement in a week to ten days” and tells people to start writing checks today.

It is further evidence that Perry is truly ramping up for a 2012 presidential campaign, even though a top Perry adviser says the e-mail’s timeframe isn’t hard and fast.

Perry adviser David Carney told The Fix that the no one should read too much into the e-mail, which he says contains some factual inaccuracies.

“While we are encouraged by this enthusiasm, we have not made the final decision, as even this email indicates,” Carney wrote in an e-mail, “and there are some other items in that email that are incorrect, but it just goes to demonstrate how excited some of our folks are.”

Carney said the timeframe for the possible campaign continues to be “this summer with Labor Day as the outlier.”

If he announces as expected, we may give up on trying to read the tea leaves. Back on May 19, we didn't believe Perry was seriously considering a run for president because:

If Perry does allow himself to be persuaded to chase the bandwagons to the White House along with the other big dogs, it would be the biggest flip-flop since John Kerry voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it. After all, Perry stated in November of last year:

"I've made my decision. If I really believe in the 10th amendment, then being a governor of a state is where the action is."

Asked during a GOP gubernatorial debate on Jan. 29 whether he would serve his full four-year term if re-elected, Perry answered that he would "absolutely" as long as the Lord lets him live that long:

"If your intent here is to question where I would want to go any better than being the governor of the state of Texas, that place hasn't been made yet," Perry said.

Perry told the Daily Beast's Andrew Romano just nine months ago that he was "Not going to run for president." Silly us. At the time, we believed Perry to be cut from the same cloth as Sarah Palin, someone who means what they say. But intensive research over the months has informed us that any resemblance between Perry and Palin is purely superficial.

Unlike the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, what Perry says can't be taken to the bank, and there are other significant differences. She's a political reformer; he goes with the flow. She's a small-government Reagan conservative; he's much closer to the GOP establishment than his feud with the Republican Party's Bush wing would lead you to believe. She left Alaska with a $12 billion surplus; he's saddled Texas with twice the debt and doubled state spending on his watch. Rick Perry is a good ol' boy, but the last person we need in the White House is another good ol' boy. Unfortunately, Rick Perry is no Sarah Palin.

Cross-posted from Brazos Valley Pundit

- JP