Down but not out

It's possible that Rick Perry, an ex-Air Force pilot, has flown one sortie too many. And yes, campaign-wise, he's now struggling at the controls of a nose-diving plane that's clearly on fire. But don't write him off just yet. Huffington Post writer James Moore provides some of the reasons why: "Rick Perry is looking wobbly. But he has been politically staggered before and recovered to win the fight. If he falters in his current effort, it will be the first time in his 26-year career of public service. ... Perry's support will return. Straw polls and debates don't decide nominations and are only a small piece of what picks a president. George H. W. Bush was so bad in debates with Michael Dukakis that his lack of linguist skills was turned into a Saturday Night Live skit and everyone remembers how Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas stuck a shiv in Dan Quayle for comparing himself to John F. Kennedy. But nobody remembers a Dukakis-Bentsen administration. The only place Rick Perry is going is further out in front of the GOP pack." Moore goes further than I would on Perry's chances of capturing the GOP nomination. It's not a lock. During the 1988 Bentsen-Quayle debate that Moore referenced, Quayle intimated that he had as much experience in the Congress as JFK when the latter sought the presidency. Bentsen famously replied: "Senator ... I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." In a similar vein, Governor Perry is no George H. W. Bush -- or, for that matter, George W. Bush. I still say Mitt Romney will likely win the nomination. But that's assuming the GOP doesn't commit political seppuku first.