Is Texas Gov. Rick Perry about to remake himself on the national stage after a launch that will be studied by political science in recent years as a case study in how to obliterate a well-hyped entrance? Perhaps so. This video is making the rounds in the mainstream media, new media and on You Tube. It shows a relaxed, passionate, likable Rick Perry. If he can appear this way in debates, his numbers will go up. The contrast between the Rick Perry we’ve seen in debates and what we see in the video below is so dramatic you almost swear it’s an actor and can’t be the Rick Perry we have grown to know (and not necessarily love):
This is closer to the Rick Perry who Americans believed would show up at the debates, if advance hype was to be believed.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.