Texas
Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he will visit
Israel
in October, a move that signals to the political world that he is
seriously considering making another presidential run in 2016.
“We will be going to
Israel to bring together Arabs, Christian and Jews in an educational forum,”
Mr. Perry
told The Washington Times in an interview just three days after he
announced he would not seek an unprecedented fourth term as Texas
governor.
Many analysts interpreted that decision as evidence that he is setting the table for a
White House campaign. Asked what would induce him to announce a run, he told The Times that he has “plenty of time to make that decision.”
Mr. Perry
ranks among those on the short list of Republican contenders for 2016,
despite a series of flubs that led to an early exit from the 2012
primaries. Also on that list is
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who made his own trek this year to
Israel,
a pilgrimage that has come to be expected of would-be presidential
candidates — especially conservatives — looking to establish foreign
policy credentials and show loyalty to the key Middle East ally of the
United States.
Two other potential Republican candidates,
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, have made trips to
Israel this year, and
Mitt Romney, who defeated
Mr. Perry to win the 2012 nomination, visited during the general election campaign.
Israel’s stance as a bulwark against
Iran
earns it the backing of Republicans, but the U.S. commitment to
military involvement in the region has become a dividing line within the
party.
Mr. Perry and
Mr. Paul have embraced the tea party movement and its more libertarian-flavored brand of Republicanism, and
Mr. Perry made it clear Thursday that he backs a more deliberative approach to the use of American military muscle.
Noting that America’s founders, including
George Washington and
Thomas Paine, warned against military intervention abroad unless the U.S. is directly attacked,
Mr. Perry said, “How we intervene is crucial.”
“Investing our treasure in educational operations will go more toward creating peace than any military foray,”
Mr. Perry said.
He offered pointed criticisms of President Obama and former President
George W. Bush, a fellow Republican and Texan.
“Having
a president who has not served in the military and does not understand
the burden of sending our treasure — our young men and women — into
battle is wrong,” he said. “
Afghanistan
is a good example of how we can learn from history but have not. From
Alexander the Great to the British Empire to the Soviets, the people of
Afghanistan remained the same. Why we thought we would have a different outcome using our treasure and resources, I will never understand.”
Mr. Perry
is widely considered the most aggressive and successful state governor
when it comes to personally persuading corporation heads in the United
States and around the world to relocate part or all of their operations.
Texas has no personal income tax or limits on legal claims on corporations, and
Mr. Perry has earned credit for making Texas the premier raider of other states’ and countries’ top businesses.
His personal ability to attract corporate CEOs may be
Mr. Perry’s biggest asset in arguing that he is ready to take the helm of the U.S. economy as president.
“It’s
not just low taxes and business-friendly regulations,” he said, noting
that “30 percent of all jobs created in the last decade, in all of
America, were created in Texas, which has less than 10 percent of the
population.”
Mr. Perry said attracting business and jobs is “not just about the entrepreneur-friendly regs, but also quality of life.”
There are many ways to judge quality of life, he said.
“There
is no question that 10 to 15 years ago folks might have had a point in
saying we were culturally and intellectually a backwater — Al Gore once
said the air is brown here,” he said. “Well, today, we have won that
battle, both in perception and substance. The cultural arts here have
exploded. From zoos, to music, to museums, to theater. In Houston, we
have more theater seats than any other city in America except New York.”
Mr. Perry’s
strong commitment to faith has been a big part of his political career,
but he sees the economy as pre-eminent in the lives of Americans,
whether religious or secular.
“Americans have to decide what is
the most important to them — social issues, foreign policy, national
security and other issues, but all those issues — many of them should be
the purview of states, not the federal government. You can’t have any
of these if you do not take appropriate care of taxes, regulation, legal
policies, so that there can be the revenues for those desires.”
Mr. Perry’s
presidential nomination run last year flopped when, during a televised
debate with Republican rivals, he couldn’t remember the name of the
third federal department he promised to shut down if elected president.
He has made self-deprecating jokes about the “oops” moment ever since.
That sense of humor is expected to be another strong suit in a second bid for his party’s presidential nomination.
