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Rick Perry established a new gold standard for hawkish foreign policy at Saturday night’s GOP debate in New Hampshire. Not only is he mad President Obama withdrew US forces, he wants to put them back on the ground there immediately. “I would send troops back into Iraq,” Rick Perry told a New Hampshire audience at Saturday night’s GOP debate, warning that without yet another military operation in Iraq it would fall under the influence of neighboring Iran. “I think it’s a huge error for us,” he said. “We’re going to see Iran in my opinion, move back in at literally...

January 13, 2010: Gov. Perry: Texas Knows Best How to Educate Our Students - Texas will not apply for Federal Race to the Top Funding Gov. Rick Perry today announced that Texas will not submit an application for federal Race to the Top education funds. Despite tremendous education successes, Texas’ application would be penalized by the U.S. Department of Education for refusing to commit to adopt national curriculum standards and tests and to incur ongoing costs. “Texas is on the right path toward improved education, and we would be foolish and irresponsible to place our children’s future in the hands...

If Santorum is indeed pulling away from the social conservative tangle that’s kept him, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann stuck near 10% for much of the last two months, it changes the Iowa math considerably: evangelicals may actually coalesce around one candidate, spoiling what looked likely to be a split decision win for Ron Paul or Mitt Romney and raising the possibility that Perry or Bachmann finish poorly enough to end their campaigns. If you want evidence for how real that threat is, check out Perry’s new ad, cut today for Iowa radio: It’s also, like so many of the...

Gov. Rick Perry is back in the saddle. Zeroing in on Mitt Romney like a prairie varmint and telling Herman Cain that they'll be "bumpin' tax plans" soon, Perry rode back into the middle of the Republican presidential race Tuesday night with some of his old swagger and his saddlebags still full of cash. Ten weeks and four more TV debates away from the Iowa caucuses and the launch of election season, Perry remains the Anti-Romney. If you're a Republican who can't stomach a former Massachusetts governor as the nominee, Perry has $17 million to win your vote between now...

Gov. Rick Perry likes to say the best way to promote economic growth is to reduce regulation. When it comes to the environment, Perry has made Texas one of the most industry-friendly states in the nation. Perry has cut funding for clean air programs and sued the Environmental Protection Agency to avoid enforcing laws to make the air cleaner. As part of his Republican presidential campaign, he routinely blasts the White House for tightening environmental standards. "As president, I would roll back the radical agenda of President Obama's job-killing Environmental Protection Agency," Perry wrote recently in an op-ed for the...

Rick Perry's embrace of a flat tax makes the tough-talking Texas governor the unlikely political heir to Steve Forbes, the nerdy publisher and erstwhile presidential candidate. Mr. Forbes, who ran in 1996 and 2000 and now is advising the Perry camp, said that the "concept remains the same" as his own flat tax plan from the 1990s.

Herman Cain leaving the campaign trail: Why now? Herman Cain is surging in popularity in a number of polls. So why is Herman Cain putting his campaign on hold for the next month? The Hermantor Experience is, by almost any measure, the hottest thing going in the GOP presidential primary (not named Chris Christie). < snip> But Cain seems destined to squander it. And here’s why. As NBC’s thoughtful First Read points out this morning, Cain's promoting a book - and appears to be taking himself off the campaign trail for almost a month. Cain won’t be back in the...

(CNN) – Businessman Herman Cain previously advocated for a criminal trial in the event that al Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki was captured. But now that al-Awlaki has been killed by a drone missile, the 2012 GOP presidential candidate is "pleased that we have one less al Qaeda member that's threatening us," according to campaign spokesman JD Gordon. When pressed on whether Cain's feelings represent a departure from his earlier views, that al-Awlaki was an American citizen and deserved a trial, Gordon said, "It would be better to try him in court (but) if that's not feasible, we don't want him...

Now that the GOP race is being framed as Mitt Romney vs. Rick Perry, the media has been comparing both candidates’ records, past accomplishments, and current popularity within the Republican party. To that extent, Bill Kristol predicted today that if the Republican race is a relatively “normal” one, Perry will be the GOP nominee. Chris Wallace highlighted Romney’s upcoming jobs speech, and asked Kristol what the former Massachusetts governor needs to do to reclaim his frontrunner status from Perry. Kristol offered some advice to the candidate, but then explained why Perry has a better chance of winning the race than...

CORPUS CHRISTI — On Saturday, Gov. Rick Perry acknowledged what many Texans have known for two years at least — that he's running for president. To buy into the notion that he finally gave in to the urging of his legions of supporters (especially his wife), or heeded a call from a higher power, requires a suspension of reality that would overtax the truest of his believers. And Perry doesn't like to tax. It has been pointed out that now Perry is in for some serious scrutiny — the inferences being that it hasn't already happened here in Texas and...

WASHINGTON (JTA) – To some conservative Jews, Texas Gov. Rick Perry would make an excellent presidential candidate. He’s been to Israel more than any other candidate already in the field and has said he loves it. And Perry creates jobs. But other Jewish conservatives seeking the anti-Obama candidate look at the three-term governor and see something arresting: He believes he’s on a mission from God. Perry has nonplussed longtime Jewish supporters by claiming that he has been “called” to the presidency and by hosting a prayer rally this month that appealed to Jesus to save America. Jennifer Rubin, the Washington...

WASHINGTON — After nearly three months of public posturing and private deliberation, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is looking very much like a presidential candidate. ...Here are 10 important steps on Perry's road ahead. 1. The tea party primary ....For Perry to defeat Romney, he must emerge as the conservative alternative......... 2. The money primary By this time...Texas Gov. George W. Bush had raised more than $37 million. Perry, still a non-candidate, has raised zero..... 3. Rudy-palooza ....Perry endorsed...Rudy Giuliani... This time, Perry is counting on the moderate Yankee to reciprocate..... 4. The Iowa caucuses Iowa Republicans will be the first...

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Rick Scott isn't heading to Texas for Gov. Rick Perry's all-day prayer meeting Aug. 6, but he is sending a video, he told reporters. Scott has previously said that he thinks Perry will ultimately jump in the race for President, but he said he hasn't actively encouraged him to do so. "I’ve not encouraged anyone to get in the race for president," he said. All of the Republican presidential candidates have reached out to Scott thus far, but he has not endorsed any of them.

DENVER - Texas Gov. Rick Perry sounded very much like a presidential candidate Friday night when he blasted President Barack Obama in front of a crowd of nearly 900 conservatives. In a Gallup poll of Republicans last week, Perry was tied with Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, even though Perry has not formally declared his intent to run for president. It was Perry's second visit in as many weeks to Colorado, which has been a Romney stronghold. "Our federal government has grown well beyond its intended size and purpose so that it now threatens the liberties it was created to protect,"...

Jul 20, 2011 — Will the Texas governor elbow his way into the crowded presidential race? Longtime Perry watcher Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune talks about why he thinks Perry will run and what kind of candidate he'd be. [snip] We spoke with the Texas Tribune's Evan Smith about the man he has followed since the early 1990s. A former editor of Texas Monthly magazine, Smith says he's convinced Perry will make a run at the White House, and tells us why other Republican hopefuls should be worried.

In the Russell Senate Office Building Caucus Room, Fred McClure was watching the crowd. It was March 1978, and the American Agriculture Movement — a pressure group for government support of farm prices — was meeting with Texan congressmen. A legislative aide to Sen. John Tower (R.), McClure was leaning on a door when a rancher from Paint Creek, Texas, named Rick Perry walked past. Newly retired from the Air Force, Perry held a degree in animal science from Texas A&M. His class ring gave him away. Spotting the ring, McClure, a fellow Texas A&M grad, introduced himself, and the...

Anita Perry doesn't look real happy. She doesn't look like she's having a good time. I think I should invite her down to Giddy Ups beer joint near Manchaca and buy her a beer. I can make it all better for you, sweetheart. They have a jukebox AND a shuffleboard table. No, seriously, did you see that photo of Texas' first lady on the front page of this newspaper on Wednesday? The photo was shot on Tuesday at Gov. Rick Perry's inauguration. It shows the Perrys marching out under some swords held aloft by Texas A&M's Ross Volunteers... .....It's one...

A group of atheists and agnostics is suing to stop Texas Governor Rick Perry from participating in his much-trumpeted prayer rally in Houston next month. The suit says the Republican governor, who is considering a run for president, is officially endorsing evangelical Christianity in violation of the U.S. Constitution by organizing and promoting the event as a state leader and on his official Texas governor's website. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, a government and religion watchdog group that says it has 16,600 members, filed the suit on Wednesday in a federal district court in Houston. A Perry spokesman said...

Employing deeply religious language that national experts say affords both power and peril for his political career, Gov. Rick Perry in late May told a group of East Texas business leaders that he was "called to the ministry" at age 27, suggested that the governor's office was his pulpit and that God put him "in this place at this time to do his will." According to a transcript of the private meeting, organized to raise funds for Perry's Aug. 6 "day of prayer and fasting" at Reliant Stadium, the governor stated that property rights, government regulation and a "legal system...