DO THEY EVEN NOTICE WHEN THEY'RE DOING THINGS LIKE THIS?

Rick Perry is apparently so politically talented, so successful a leader, so gosh-darn handsome -- handsomer and more talented and successful even than fellow Bieber-for-journos Jon Huntsman -- that all he has to do is ponder a run for president and a New York magazine blogger starts spontaneously writing talking points for him, or at least repeating Perry's own talking points verbatim without even bothering to try to hide their provenance.

Emphasis added below:

According to The Wall Street Journal, the governor will only declare a candidacy if he thinks the investment of time and energy would actually pay off in a nomination: He's tasked aides with figuring out whether there's enough time left to raise the amount of cash a serious run would require and has tested the waters a bit in Iowa. Unlike Sarah Palin's prolonged fan dance, Perry's careful consideration mirrors the fiscal prudence that would be one of his chief selling points as a candidate.

The guy hasn't even declared and a New York-based writer is already buttering him up in order to possibly become his Ted Sorensen?

This is a possibility I hadn't counted on: that the neo-Confederate, bigot-coddling, gay-bashing Perry might nevertheless be able to seduce Northeast Corridor "liberal media" types just by whispering sweet (and phony) fiscal-restraint talk in their ears. If that happens, it could conceivably work for him all the way through November 2012. And then America really is doomed.

(Cross-posted at Balloon Juice.)