Will He or Won't He? Rick Perry Rumors Won't Die

The Rick-Perry-for-president buzz whipped up again today when the Texas governor said, "I'm going to think about it," reports the Dallas Morning News. It was a marked departure from his previous denials, though he qualified it by adding, "I think about a lot of things." After the comment generated headlines, a spokesman emailed the National Journal with a dose of cold water: "Nothing has changed. The governor has no intention of running for president." Maybe, but the buzz isn't likely to die down. Rumors have been floating around for weeks, and Peter J. Boyer at the Daily Beast explains why Perry's supporters want him to run.

"This year’s legislature, under Perry’s cajoling, delivered on some of the right’s most cherished ambitions—a law requiring doctors to run a fetal sonogram before performing an abortion, a measure requiring voters to present a photo I.D. at the polling booth, and a version of loser-pays tort reform," he writes. But the big one was "a budget deal that covered a revenue shortfall through spending cuts, without raising taxes or touching the state’s $9.4 billion rainy day fund." He quotes a GOP lawmaker from California who watched Perry's business-friendly policies lure away companies: “I think that Rick Perry is potentially the next Ronald Reagan for the Republican Party." (Click to see the surprise front-runner in CNN's latest poll.)