A while back I noted an opinion piece that ludicrously suggested Rick Perry as a candidate for a Vice Presidential slot. Heaven help us, the Dallas Morning News nearly devoted an entire article on the subject:

Perry political adviser Dave Carney declined to talk about anything beyond the current Texas race. But as a measure of the effort to market Perry on the national stage, the governor and Carney met last year with a top Washington operative to discuss writing a book to showcase the governor's conservative bona fides.

Gov. Rick Perry has made a number of out-of-state appearances that have heightened his national profile. "There have been a lot of conservative leaders and politicians who have been successful as book authors, starting with Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich," said Craig Shirley, whose firm markets books for major political figures.

Shirley said he had lunch with the governor and Carney, where they discussed the process of writing, publishing and promoting a book.

"When they came to me, they already had the idea of writing the book," he said. "I offered some suggestions about topics and publishers and things like that."

He said Perry - who succeeded Gov. George W. Bush in 2000 when Bush became president - would have strong appeal among national conservatives because of his views on taxes and social issues.

Shirley added that it was clear Perry wanted to win re-election first before publicly expanding attention beyond Texas.

I suppose this solves the mystery of where the aforementioned opinion writer got the idea that Perry was a natural consideration for VP: From Perry's henchmen.

Rick Perry will likely be re-elected this fall because he is the luckiest politician I have ever seen and for little other reason. Four years ago he faced off against a fractured Democratic rainbow coalition that (surprise, surprise) didn't sell with moderate white voters. Two years before that he got the governorship cause the governor was promoted to president. He got the lieutenant governorship because he was a Republican and Republicans did not lose in 1998. He came the second closest to losing, though, right after Carole Keeton Rylander Strayhorn. Strayhorn, of course, is one of the three opponents Perry has this year in a four-way race, the other two being a one-term congressman and a Jewish country musician named Kinky. He may well get re-elected with under 40% of the vote.

I wouldn't even be mentioning all this. Last time I was pretty concise because I considered the whole thing too absurd to actually comment on.

Whatever one thinks of the competence of Bush as president and even if they didn't agree with a lot that he did in Austin, they should be able to agree that he was at least an effective governor. Whether you liked them or not, things got done. I would question whether or not Perry could lead a bunch of kindergardeners to the playground.

And even if Rick Perry were competent, he's a friggin' white, male Republican from Texas! If there is anything -- anything -- that he would actually add to a ticket, I would love to hear it. If the GOP presidential nominee is so weak that Perry would prove to be an electoral asset, stick a fork in it because the election is done.

[via Adrianne]