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Perry, 61, has known his wife Anita since childhood; they have been married for more than 30 years and have two grown children, a son and a daughter. If he runs, Perry says, Anita will be a big reason. In the past, Perry ruled out seeking the presidency and warned that Washington corrupts all who go there. But in the spring, he says, Anita began to forcefully push him to run, spurred by her dismay about Obamacare and the deficit. Aides raced to identify potential staffers and supporters in key states. Prominent religious leaders such as David Lane and John Hagee sent encouraging signals. Perry received policy experts, including two former top aides to Bush's first Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, for Austin briefings, along with potential GOP donors who just wanted to kick Perry's tires. By July, his aides were betting he would toss his hat in. Running, he says, "was a bit of a hurdle initially, but I'm very calm in my heart that this is what I'm supposed to be doing."
Perry's Prospects
Of course, many a late campaign entrant — think Fred Thompson in 2008 — has landed with a thud. Plenty of veteran operatives on both sides caution that the Rick Perry modern-cowboy act won't wear well with voters; even some of his friends hold their breath when he gets quizzed on topics outside his comfort zone, particularly foreign policy. Perry has already had to amend his statement that it was "fine with me" that New York legalized gay marriage. He later clarified that he opposes same-sex marriage and supports a federal amendment banning it. Strategist Alex Castellanos, who worked against Perry in the 2010 gubernatorial primary, is one of the few prominent Republicans to give on-the-record voice to the common perception that the governor is intellectually challenged. "Perry benefits from an uncluttered mind," says Castellanos.
Perry brushes off the charge that he lacks candlepower, as do friends like Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who argues that Perry's "aw-shucks country-boy sort of personality" leads people to underestimate him. That may be true. But as with Barbour, who chose not to run for President earlier this year after he got tangled up talking about the civil rights era, much of what makes Perry a formidable primary candidate could cripple him in a general election, in which Eastern and Midwestern suburban voters, particularly women, could be turned off by his cultural conservatism.
For now, though, Perry's team is pondering the nomination, not mapping out a general-election plan. It all starts with a lightning strike of weekend stops in the early-voting states of South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa, with an eye on quickly making it a two-man race, against Romney. Perry's top strategist, David Carney, argues that the campaign would be about "auditioning to center-right voters" to show who could "take the wood to Obama on the economy, who will be the most effective messenger on straightening out Washington on debt, deficit" and jobs.
That's a contest Perry thinks he can win. And Rick Perry has never lost a race.