It's official: Rick Perry is running for president!

Natalie Gonnella
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After a swarm of speculation Rick Perry finally put the rumors to rest today, confirming to a crowd of more than 300 conservatives that he is in officially seeking the GOP nomination in 2012.

In a much awaited speech at the RedState gathering in South Carolina, surrounded by American flags and with portraits of Reagan and T. Roosevelt nearby, Perry announced to America that he is indeed running for president.

Stealing attention away from the Ames straw poll in Iowa, here's what the Texas Governor had to say:

Comments

[Matthew Reynolds]

I hope that he wins the nomination and next years election.He would get Congress to pass the Bills needed to slash the deficit & generate jobs.The USA is better than the socialist inspired malaise that Barrack Obama has conspired to create.Under Obama unemployment is up from 7.3% to 9.1%-in Texas they have created 1.1 million jobs on his watch.Since April 2009 half the jobs created in the USA have been in Texas.They have no silly lawsuits,light regulatory burdens and low taxes in that great State of the Union.

The credit downgrade was Obama's fault as he would only concede $2.1 trillion in cuts in federal spending & borrowing.The Ryan Plan called for $6 trillion and Standard & Poor wanted $4 trillion.So if Obama had been prepared to split the difference and allow a watered down version of the Ryan Plan then the Downgrade need not have happened.Mind you had they been following the Rick Perry approach then this mess would never have been allowed.Likewise had voters in Washington State,Delaware,California and Colorado all voted GOP to stop the runaway spending & borrowing and to get a pro-growth majority in then a better deal could have been got.Had the Senate & House been GOP run then something better could have been thrashed out without the downgrade.

Had the GOP had better Senate candidates in 2010 then the Republicans could have won two branches of government rather than two.So it is partly their fault as well.But by picking Governor Perry for the nomination & selecting excellent candidates in tight Senate races they can win all three branches.Then we can get something done !