NEW ORLEANS — A candidate in waiting, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is elbowing the Republicans already in the 2012 presidential race as he courts party activists, operatives and donors still shopping for someone to back against President Barack Obama.
His appearance Saturday at the Republican Leadership Conference offered yet another tantalizing hint that he is ready to upend a crowded field of candidates who have worked months to amass name recognition, organization and campaign cash. The longest-serving governor of his state drew much interest despite little effort so far to put together a traditional campaign.
“I stand before you today as a disciplined conservative Texan, a committed Republican and a proud American, united with you to restoring our nation and revive the American dream,” Perry said during an address that repeatedly drew the crowd to its feet.
He sounded every bit a candidate. “Our shared conservative values, our belief in the individual is the great hope of our nation,” he said.
Perry has long insisted he wouldn’t run. But in recent weeks, he has softened his refusals, and his advisers have started laying the groundwork for a campaign in Iowa.
They characterize it as a coin-toss whether he enters the field in the coming weeks. The coyote-shooting, tough-talking ex-Democrat has never lost an election. As Republicans try to determine the strongest challenger to Obama, the party establishment and Tea Partyers don’t seem satisfied with their current options.
Absent from the Southern event were the nominal front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was at an event in Minneapolis on Saturday, telling conservative bloggers that Obama has a “morbid obesity when it comes to spending and deficits.”
Pawlenty spoke in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday before speaking to the online activists at Minneapolis’ RightOnline conference.
“The issue isn’t, ‘Can somebody stand up here and chirp and give a speech?’ The issue is do you have the fortitude to do it? Do you have the leadership ability and experience to do it?” Pawlenty said, drawing a polite reception compared with the rousing one given Bachmann hours earlier.
