NPR, part of Your Liberal Media, is more than happy to help write Rick Perry's 2016 scenario:
With An Eye Toward 2016, Rick Perry RebootsThere's going to be a huge GOP field, so I have no idea if Perry can run any better than he did last time (though if he lays off the painkillers he might avoid being quite as embarrassing as he was the last go-around).
Picture the next 18 months of Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry's road to national relevance.
Appearances on the late-night comedy shows, where he'll banter with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno, maybe even Jimmy Fallon.
A rolling, cross-country road show during which he'll tout the Texas economy and charm grassroots voters and deep-pocketed donors.
Mixing it up back home in Austin with intensifying battles to limit legal abortion and push back against "Washington policies."
It would -- it could -- be the equivalent of a reputation recovery tour, says Evan Smith, CEO of The Texas Tribune.
Smith imagines the tour as an opportunity for the governor to erase the big asterisk that appeared next to his name after a disastrous, oops-a-daisy-a-minute 2012 presidential campaign.
"He puts himself in circulation, he extols conservative principles, he laughs about the fact that he had a bad go of it the last time -- but he loves America, he loves Texas," Smith says. "That's got to be the strategy."
Because Perry, who surprised few with his decision not to run for an unprecedented fifth term leading the Lone Star State, clearly wants another shot at his party's nomination....
But I want to make one point about Perry. A number of people think he might have a shot in 2016. Others may think he's a laughingstock and another run would be a longshot.
But what I'm not getting is any sense that he's too old to run.
We all know that there's one likely 2016 candidate who's being described by Republicans as too old to run. Know how old Hillary Clinton is?
Hillary Clinton is 65 years old.
Know how old Rick Perry is?
Rick Perry is 63 years old.
No surprise there -- society tells us that older men are distinguished (though I can't say I've ever heard that about Perry), whereas older women are hags and crones and just, y'know ... ick! ... old.
Rick Perry? He'll turn 66 in his first year in office if (God help us) he manages to win the presidency. That's older thn Hillary is now. And he's nearly a generation older than most of the GOP presidential wannabes. But if he runs, no one will ever call him old.
