In the latest turn in the incipient Rick Perry for president campaign, two of the Texas governor’s former associates have left Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, Slate’s excellent blogger Dave Weigel reports. And the significance of this? A Wall Street Journal piece from a day ago explains:
Should he run, Mr. Perry would first have to overcome an organizational hurdle. Assured that he wasn’t running, his two top campaign aides, Mr. Carney and former campaign manager Rob Johnson, both signed up with Mr. Gingrich, the former House speaker. … Members of Mr. Perry’s still-extant group of campaign consultants say there is little chance he would embark on a 2012 campaign without Messrs. Carney and Johnson at his side.
The die appears cast. A born-again Republican governor from Texas seeks the White House. I’ll be interested to see the next poll from Iowa. Because of his Christian, Tea Party and anti-intellectual bonafides, I suspect Governor Good-Hair will immediately rate ahead of all the other GOP candidates. Pawlenty, Romney and that other Mormon must be gnashing their teeth. Obama’s folks, meanwhile, sharpen knives in a Chicago diner, remembering the last time they sliced and diced a Texas governor on the way to the White House.
John Mecklin, writer/editor 
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