Rick Perry Sounds Ready to Run for President

He's openly mulled the possibility of running. His prospective financial backers have called Washington operatives to feel out his chances. He's spoken to GOP donors in Manhattan. Republican insiders have predicted a growing likelihood that he'll run for president.

Now comes this revelation about Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) in Sunday's edition of the Des Moines Register: Perry feels, more and more, that he has been "called" to run for president, as advisers and family members have urged him to run:

"I'm not ready to tell you that I'm ready to announce that I'm in," Gov. Rick Perry told The Des Moines Register. "But I'm getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I've been called to do. This is what America needs."

"I'll be real honest with you, I don't wake up in the morning - never did and still don't today - and say, 'Gee, I want to be president of the United States,'" Perry, 61, said by phone last week.

Perry sounds ready to run. Politicians don't typically word things like that -- i.e., "I'm not ready to tell you I'm going to do X" -- unless they're actively planning to do X and they know an announcement could be made in a few weeks. And if he's not ready, he sounds like he's on the brink. Such language is generally reserved either for maintaining one's non-candidate status while hammering out the details of strategy and logistics, or for the final stages of personal introspection.

Read the full story at the Des Moines Register.