Newsweek takes a look at Texas and Rick Perry

   A spread on Texas and Gov. Rick Perry in the latest issue of Newsweek is sure to stoke talk about Perry as a contender in the 2012 presidential race, coming on the heels of Perry’s well-received red-meat speech to the Southern  Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans earlier this month.  Take , for example, this passage from Newsweek’s on-line edition::

“Could Perry be the second coming of Ronald Reagan, the plain-spoken man from the West who presided over a new "Morning in America" by cutting taxes, reducing government (well, promising to), and standing tall against the nation's enemies? As the tea-party movement gains momentum, as more Americans are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, Perry is their kind of hero, an avatar of a lost age that could come again, if only Washington politicians and other undesirables were put in their place.”

The article gives former Houston Mayor Bill White, Perry’s Democratic challenger in the governor’s race, an opportunity to weigh in his opinion of the Republican incumbent: 

 "Perry is likely to appeal to those who think Texas's best days are behind us," White said. "I'll get the support of Texans who think our best days are ahead of us."

White, however, may not be thrilled about the magazine’s comparison of the two men’s physical attributes.  Perry, says the magzine, is: “Ruggedly handsome in a Marlboro Man sort of way, with a rich mane of brown hair, slightly tinged with silver gray. “  

Of Perry’s Harvard-educated challenger, Newsweek writes:  “He's pasty white, with a bald pate and big ears. He talks in an even, slow monotone and refrains from gunslinging rhetoric. He's kind of like President Obama without the good looks and charisma—a cerebral man who craves consensus and relishes tackling problems by gathering a roomful of smart people with diverse views to hash things out.”

  The magazine also includes Perry’s oft-repeated assertion that he has no interest in presidential politics.   "I don't care about going to Washington, D.C.," he told  Evan Smith, editor of The Texas Tribune and a Newsweek contributor.    "The reason I agree to do interviews with national publications is so that people will pay attention to what is going on in Texas.”

-- Dave Montgomery

Comments

[Grover Weaver]

Rick Perry, is opportunistic and these interviews are 'a testing of the waters' to see if the money people likes how this Texan's look.