Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is coming to terms with his "oops" moment, conceding his health — both physical and mental — brought his 2012 presidential aspirations to a disastrous halt.
Gearing up for a June 4 announcementt on whether he’ll make a 2016 bid for the GOP presidential nomination, Perry says things are vastly different this time around, NPR’s
"Morning Edition" reports.
"There were two issues with me in 2011. One is I wasn’t healthy," Perry told reporters in Sioux City, Iowa, referring to back surgery in 2011 prior to his campaign bid, NPR reports.
The other issue was that he wasn't prepared and had not spent the time "on all the issues that are important to a person that's gonna stand up and answer their questions there. And it's across the board: economics, domestic policy, monetary policy, foreign policy."
But on the campaign stump last week in Iowa, Perry spoke of optimism for the nation — and himself. Perry is polling in the low single digits nationally, according to a
Real Clear Politics average.
"I believe with all my heart, as soon as the sun's going to come up in the east tomorrow, that the best days of this country are in front of us," he tells voters, NPR reports. "We're just a few good decisions and a leadership change at the top from the best days this country has ever seen."
He’s making a long climb back. When Perry announced his intent to run for the GOP nomination in 2011, he was leading Iowa polls. Then there was a
deal-breaking November debate, where he forgot the last of three agencies he vowed to abolish as president, trying to laugh off the lapse, saying: "I can't, the third one. I can't. Sorry. Oops."
He finished fifth in the Iowa caucuses, sixth in the New Hampshire primary, and ended his bid before South Carolina.
"I see an absolutely different Rick Perry," state Sen. David Johnson, who supported Perry four years ago and is behind him for 2016 too, told NPR. "He has done his homework. He has studied very seriously the issues, both foreign and domestic, that this country faces."
"He's a governor who doesn't have to govern right now," Johnson added. "He is free to get out there and campaign."
And Perry is making the best of it, NPR reports.
"Executive experience is what's been missing out of the White House," he told a voter at Sioux Center. "After eight years of this young, inexperienced United State senator, I think America is going to be ready for somebody who's got a proven track record and results."
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