Perry is certainly not my first choice, but, I think he might appeal to more "Independents" than any other candidate. Secondly, his experience is unmatched by any other Republican candidate due to the fact that he successfully ran one of the largest economies for fifteen years.
Six things to know about Rick Perry
So you think you know former Texas governor Rick Perry, who launched his 2016 campaign on Thursday? Six things you may not know about him:
SON OF PAINT CREEK
Perry’s life until he attended college revolved around the small, hardscrabble community of Paint Creek, in the West Texas plains of Haskell County. Population in 2010: 324 people. The town had no stoplight or grocery store when Perry was growing up, and his boyhood home lacked electricity and running water for a time. Perry’s father, Ray, was a farmer and longtime county commissioner. His mother, Amelia, was a seamstress and made all of her son’s clothes — including his underwear — until he went off to Texas A&M University. Perry met his wife, Anita, when he was 8 years old at a piano recital and married her 24 years later.
A FORMER DEMOCRAT
The man who was the face of the Republican Party in Texas for the last 14 years wasn’t always with the GOP. Rick Perry was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1984. He was the state chairman for Al Gore’s 1988 presidential campaign, but he told the Austin American-Statesman that he ended up voting for George H.W. Bush in that year’s general election. Perry changed parties in 1989 and defeated state Agricultural Commissioner Jim Hightower, a liberal Democrat, in a 1990 upset.
PILOT’S WINGS
Perry joined the famous Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University and earned an Air Force commission upon his graduation. He completed training as a pilot and flew C-130 cargo planes out of Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene. Perry also served overseas in England and Germany, and flew briefly in the Middle East. In the 2012 race, Perry made reference to his military experience to contrast President Obama, who has none. Perry had snagged an interview with Southwest Airlines to be a pilot, but he never showed up because he decided at the time to stick with farming.
CREATING JOBS
A central tenet of Perry’s 2016 candidacy, as well as the 2012 version, is that he created jobs while Texas governor. Perry often states that almost one-third of all new jobs in America were created in Texas while he was governor. Fact-checkers from PolitiFact and FactCheck.org say that Perry is accurate, but only up to a point. The data used for comparisons is key. In his last speech as governor on Jan. 15, Perry says “1.4 million job were created in Texas†since December 2007 while the rest of the country “lost 400,000 jobs.†FactCheck.org says Perry used two different sets of Bureau of Labor Statistics data to make his claim. If he used the job-growth measure most economists use, FactCheck.org says, the rest of the country actually gained more than 500,000 jobs. The Washington Post notes a more comprehensive measure to compare job growth would take into account population growth, which would mean a quarter of new jobs in America came from Texas in 2000-2014.
FELONY CHARGES
Perry’s attorneys have asked a Texas appeals court to dismiss charges felony charges against him that stem from his 2013 veto of state funding for the Travis County District Attorney’s public corruption division. The veto came after District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg refused Perry’s calls to resign after she was convicted and sentenced for drunken driving. This move is separate from Perry’s attempts in state district court to have the case thrown out on constitutional and technical grounds. Perry’s allies — including several GOP rivals for the presidency — argue the charges against the former Texas governor are politically motivated. “What I tell people is I wear this as a badge of honor, standing up for the rule of law and the Constitution,†Perry said in Fox News interview.
UNION MEMBER
A Republican who is a card-carrying union member? Yes, Perry is and he’s proud of it. He became a member of the Screen Actors Guild after he appeared in a 2005 Tommy Lee Jones movie, Man of the House. Perry’s role was no stretch since he played himself. SAG-AFTRA, as the union is formally known, is part of the AFL-CIO — which is why Perry said in January that he’s a “dyed-in-the-wool AFL-CIO member.â€
http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/06/03/rick-perry-president-2016-six-things/
