I know all of you care who I am going to endorse for the upcoming republican presidential nomination, therefore let me get it out in the open so that I have hard evidence to cite when I am proven correct. Not only am I picking Gov. Rick Perry to be the party nominee, but I am also predicting him as our 45th president.
Is he my ideal candidate?
No, but he's close enough, and has some swagger to boot. Given the field of candidates, I don't see anyone rising out of the woodwork to beat Perry. There is always a chance for a race-ending scandal, but that doesn't seem to fit the bill given his consistent, conservative record.
Perry is the "vanilla" candidate, if you will. He is a safe pick, with a proven record of success and values. He has experience running a large state in administrative and legislative roles, which are skills that can translate very well to the presidency.
He is a Washington outsider and a man of the people. He speaks well enough, and he has a believability about him that makes him come off as real and down to earth. He is a Christian and makes it known that he is in public. While a minority in this country is turned off by such brazen religious showmanship, many find it refreshing. As long as social issues don't take too much of a front row stand, I can respect an overtly Christian leader as well.
Perry is a partisan. He likes guns, the military, fiscal responsibility, low taxes and states' rights. He was an Air Force captain and a Texas A&M graduate, and has all-American looks. People can see how he would fit the job and he has the ideas to do it well. And don't even get me started on how much more competent he looks when juxtaposed against Pres. Obama and his record.
Upon first glance, Perry does not have the rousing qualities that have defined great conservative leaders like Ronald Reagan. He doesn't have that fire that makes his espousals so absolute that any other way of solving the problem at hand is foolhardy. Perry can command respect, but he doesn't necessarily command the heart.
That doesn't mean he won't develop these traits as he becomes hardened by opposition in Washington. We also don't know how he will handle certain things. What will he do with illegal immigration? How much of a war hawk will he be? Will he really be successful in changing the Washington culture and getting the reforms we so desperately need?
More of these questions will be raised and answered along the campaign trail, but we won't really know for sure until we put him in office. It is still very possible he will surprise us and develop into a great leader, the chosen one we so desperately seek to lead us from the darkness of Obamageddon, the Barracolypse. Only time will tell, and I hope I am taken by surprise.
Perry's strengths are also his weaknesses in some cases. Being a Texas governor, the liberals will quickly try to make the connection between Perry and Bush, using their elitist attitude to assault his intelligence in the eyes of the American people. They will run around screaming about his poor college grades (where is Obama's transcript?) as evidence of his inability to lead the country. They will mock his pleasant Texas drawl and his small town roots. His state school pedigree will be no match for Obama's Harvard degree, in their elitist eyes.
I don't think America will fall for it this time, however, because that Harvard degree hasn't stopped Obama from tanking the economy, letting over a thousand U.S. Servicemen die in conflicts overseas, keeping millions of Americans unemployed, inflating the national debt to break the bank levels and screwing up our healthcare system for years to come.
Heck, many probably would have preferred another Bush term over the last four years to what we actually got.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a total Perry fan-boy. I hadn't even heard of the guy until he announced he would run. And I do have a lot of love for many of the candidates running for their shot at the nomination. I think many of them will make great administration officials if they want to serve in that capacity, but we have to pick the candidate that, without a shadow of a doubt, will beat Barrack Obama in 2012.
We have to pick the safe candidate, because no lion has risen to take back his pride. All the other candidates have their glaring weaknesses for the top job, but I love their enthusiasm and conservative conviction.
Perry is our man, and if he is who I hope he is, he will unite the party, defeat Obama and his liberal allies and make this country great again.
Mark Easely is a senior Computer Science major. He can be reached at measely@nd.edu
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
