Rick Perry Gets in the Race*

Well, it looks like Rick Perry doesn't read my blog. This morning, I wrote about the lousy track record of late-entrant "savior candidates" in presidential primaries, keying it to Perry's possible bid (worth a click for the art work alone). So what does Perry do? He goes and decides to run anyway -- *at least according to an unnamed Republican in this Wall Street Journal article:

Our normally reliable Republican source reports that Mr. Perry has surveyed the field and decided to get in the race later this summer, perhaps around the time of the national prayer meeting that Mr. Perry is hosting on August 6 at a Houston football stadium. Our source also reports that Mr. Perry is aiming to compete in the Iowa Straw Poll, even though it occurs just a week later, on August 13. The thinking is that apparent front-runner Mitt Romney "does not reflect the Republican Party" and is therefore vulnerable to a credible challenge from the right, especially after Mr. Romney's recent squishy remarks on global warming.

And if I'm reading this right, the claim is that Perry's denial of global warming is what compelled him to join the race. *Sigh* It's going to be a long summer.