Rick Perry for President?

Yesterday morning, the Wall Street Journal ran an article, New Whispers of Perry 2012 Bid:

But over the past two weeks, political advisers and friends say, Mr. Perry has changed his tune on a possible presidential campaign. In private conversations, they say, the three-term governor said he worries that the current GOP contenders have yet to stir real excitement within the party and may struggle when facing President Barack Obama. “He thinks there is a void [in the current field of candidates], and that he might be uniquely positioned to fill that void,” said one Perry

A key point made in the story was, “Members of Mr. Perry’s still-extant group of campaign consultants say there is little chance he would embark on a 2012 campaign without Messrs. Carney and Johnson at his side.” Carney and Johnson are veteran Perry campaign staff. One of my coworkers said, “The last sentence is the most important one in the piece.”

Then, about 2 p.m. yesterday, this story hit the AP and the Drudge report: AP sources: Senior aides on Gingrich presidential campaign resign en masse. That was it, nothing else.

Later on, the WSJ wrote more:

Newt Gingrich’s campaign manager and top aides resigned en masse Thursday, a remarkable setback that could prove fatal to a presidential run that has stumbled from the outset. The departures followed a week of heated debate within the Gingrich camp over whether the Republican former House speaker was sufficiently committed to his long-shot political comeback more than 13 years after he resigned from Congress.

The resignations included the aforementioned Messrs. Carney and Johnson. So, of course, Austin is all atwitter over the prospects of a Perry candidacy. And Gov. Perry helped things get moving when he recently said “he planned to ‘think about’ a presidential run after the Memorial Day weekend. He added, with a smile, ‘But I think about a lot of things.’”

When I came home last night, I mentioned all this to William. Here is a recap of our conversation:

Daddy: Gov. Perry might run for president.

William: I hope he wins.

Daddy: What do you think he’ll do if he is elected?

William: I think he will lower taxes and give back our money that the government took from us. What do you think he will do?

Daddy: I think he will tell the government to stop taking our property.

William: The government won’t like that.