IS RICK PERRY RIDING OFF INTO THE SUNSET?

He for whom I had such high hopes may now be, courtesy of his poor showing in Iowa and some pretty serious self-inflicted wounds, removing himself from the battlefield and returning back to the place he calls home. While Gov. Rick Perry said on Tuesday that he will be heading back home to Texas, "to determine whether there is a path forward" for his White House bid after he finished a distant fifth in yesterday's Iowa caucuses, there may now be some second thoughts taking place. "I have decided to return to Texas, assess the results of tonight's caucus to determine whether there is a path forward for myself in this race," Perry, told supports, but a day later on Twitter he proclaimed that it's on to South Carolina. In his in Tuesday night speech Gov. Perry told supporters that he appreciated their hard work but that he needed to consider whether there was a viable strategy for him to restart his campaign in South Carolina. But in a tweet today from his offical Twitter account, he insinuated that he may be heading to South Carolina to complete after all.



Before Perry spoke, his advisers had attempted to paint the first contest in the South as the real start to his strategy and braced for a lackluster performance in the Iowa caucuses, which typically thins out the field of presidential hopefuls. Perry entered the race in August to great fanfare only to later take a very steep nosedive after what can only be described as a couple of disastrous debate performances. He had originally planned, and apparent may still, to make South Carolina his final stand, but the events he scheduled there for Wednesday have now been put on hold while he headed to Austin to, as he said, "reassess his campaign." "With a little prayer and reflection, I'm going to decide the best path forward," he said. "But I want to tell you, there's been no greater joy in my life than to be able to share with the people of Iowa and this country that there is a model to take this country forward and it is in the great state of Texas." As much as would like it to be otherwise, I think the best thing for him to do now is to bow out gracefully, and to now choose to support the candidate whom he feels offers the best opportunity to defeat Barry. After all that is the prime objective here.


Perry, who described himself as a reluctant White House hopeful, began the day acknowledging his campaign's challenges. He badly trailed his rivals in pre-caucus polls; the final Des Moines Register poll released Saturday night had him at just 11 percent support and trailing the four rivals who would, in the end, best him. His rivals had the advantage of several months or more to organize their campaigns. His entry in August came the same day his rivals competed in the Ames straw poll, an early test vote that lets each candidate's political machine have a trial run. Perry bypassed it and instead made a splash, announcing his candidacy in South Carolina and overshadowing the straw poll winner, Michele Bachmann. Hindsight being 20/20, might that have been a misstep right out of the box? Some are likely to describe it as such. Speaking for myself, I have never run for president and therefore am not qualified to say what is, or is not, a winning strategy. All I know is that we must focus on selecting a candidate that's capable of defeating Barry, and then we need to coalesce behind that candidate offering whatever support we can.


The lack of on-the-ground organizing was probably the downfall for Gov. Perry in Iowa, as it never really came together in the short months of his campaign. Instead, he chose to lean on television ads and glossy mailers, a bus tour that took him to rural towns where he could practice the hand-to-hand style of campaigning at which he excels. Even before Iowans met Tuesday night at churches and schools to signal their preferences, Perry was downplaying the role of the traditional lead-off states. "The idea that one or two states is going to decide who the next nominee for the Republican Party is just, you know, that's not reality," Perry told CNN. Well, I suppose one could argue that while that assessment may be correct, the outcome in one or two states can dramatically alter the field of candidates, which is something that has now taken place in Iowa. But what now seems to be uncertain is that even though Perry's team has now supposedly put a hold on events in South Carolina, will he be continuing on. I think he's making things extremely difficult for himself, but what do I know?


I can still say that I like Rick Perry but I think, at least in this point In time, that his chances for success have become remote. Having said that, I do think he is deserving of a prominent position in any new Republican administration, if that would be something he would be open to. I mean, after all, he has done something right in Texas and I think that the skills he does possess would prove to be very beneficial to any Republican administration. We need to get this country turned around before it's too late and it is going to require the best people available. We can ill afford to have any grudges leftover once it has been decided who our candidate will be. Any remaining hatchets will need to be buried and we will all have to unite behind that one candidate as we set about defeating one of the worst, if not the worst, president in our history. There has been a lot of unnecessary nastiness throughout this campaign, but we are going to have to put all that behind us and focus on the country. In the end there can be only one, and it has to be the best one. And as much as I hate to say it, I just don't think that Gov. Perry is the one. I wish he were.