Texas Governor Rick Perry is out of the GOP presidential contest, but he’s not leaving the national stage quite yet. Matt Laslo reports from Washington that Perry was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd at a massive conservative conference.
Hundreds of conservatives from across the U-S are in Washington this week for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. They haven’t been giving many standing ovations, but Governor Perry got one.
Perry: “A candidate I am no more, but a committed tenth-amendment-conservative I will be until the last breath I draw in my body.”
While Perry is no longer campaigning for office he continued his campaign against Barack Obama, ripping into his administration.
Perry: “We don’t need Washington meddling in our local schools. We don’t need Washington and their EPA discarding the clean air rules established by the states. We don’t need the Justice Department deciding whether states have the right to require a photo ID to vote. We don’t need that.”
Perry’s message resonates with activists like these, but his lackluster presidential campaign raises questions about his future. Matt Mackowiak is president of the Potomac Strategy Group, a Republican consulting firm. He says if a Republican wins the White House they’d be wise to appoint Perry to their cabinet, possibly to run the Agriculture or Homeland Security Department. But Mackowiak isn’t sure Perry would want that.
Perry: “I think he has the kind of experience where he could be in the cabinet and be very affective. And it just sort of remains to be seen. Does he want to be in Washington or does he want to be in Texas? I think by getting out of the race and returning to Austin he’s made clear he wants to be in Texas and serving as governor and doing a good job. But if there are future opportunities for national service he’ll look at them very seriously.”
Mackowiak says he could also see Perry resurrect himself nationally and eventually run for the Oval Office, but for now he’s working to reestablish his reputation in Texas.