Run Rick, Run

by Deacon Blues

Barack Obama is a lucky man. Oh sure, the GOP has been set to destroy him since his first day in office, even if Obama himself didn't catch on to that fact until recently. And yes, Wall Street has conned him and his political team into cowardice since Day One, wrecking any chance at a real recovery and accountability for the crimes committed by those that then got federal payouts thanks to Obama's thirst for acceptance by the wrong people.

But Obama is lucky because of the ineptitude of his political opponents. At a time when a centrist Republican anchored in Main Street could mop the floor with him by pitching a pro-jobs, pro-accountability platform, Obama instead gets to watch Texas governor Rick Perry enter the race. And why does Perry want to be president?

"I’m not ready to tell you that I’m ready to announce that I’m in," Gov. Rick Perry told The Des Moines Register. "But I’m getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do. This is what America needs."

That's right. The governor who is a Karl Rove creation, who is owned by Big Energy and whose job creation strategy can be described as oil workers and burger-flippers, who has the highest amount of uninsured workers in the country, feels he is being called by God to enter the race because the country needs more of what he's saddled Texas with. The same Rick Perry who has saddled his state with enormous deficits that are about to lead to large cuts in education. But "this is what America needs."

Calling Perry delusional wouldn't be unfair.

"As an elected leader, I'm all too aware of government's limitations when it comes to fixing things that are spiritual in nature. That's where prayer comes in, and we need it more than ever," Perry says in a video posted to the event's website.

Gee, how come I can't find evidence that Perry asked for national prayer and spiritual guidance when George W. Bush and the GOP threw away the Clinton surplus on two tax cuts, Medicare Part D, and two wars on credit? I don't remember seeing Perry call for a national day of prayer when the economy cratered under Bush and a total lack of corporate moral accountability. Yet Mr. Delusional is convinced that God can help spread Texas to America once again.

"If anybody tries to argue the fact that we have not created an economic juggernaut in the state of Texas, then they're either naive, they have a political agenda, or they're just not paying attention," Perry told the Register, hinting at what would be the foundation of his campaign's message.

The best part of all this is that Perry's entry in the race will really lead to chairs being thrown in the GOP campaign. Rove couldn't stand to be on the sidelines, and now his creation will actually be in the race. Now Big Energy and the Koch brothers have their man and can avoid having to endorse a woman. And Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, and the rest of the evangelical candidates will either have to engage and fight him, or be dusted off the landscape when the Texas money starts coming in. In other words, a real GOP civil war to appease the Tea Party and Big Energy.

And all Obama has to do is back his way into reelection while these guys kill each other.