Rick Perry Needs a Miracle

“Here is what you need to impress upon your readers,” Rick Perry said, putting down his barbecue to jab a finger at me. “What happened in Texas over the last decade is not a miracle. Miracles are things that happen, and they’re unexplained. Miracles are what God does.” He grinned. “That’s not what we did. What we did happened because of our philosophical refusal to spend money we didn’t have or raise taxes.” He glanced around the table at his aides and cocked another grin. “Now, you’re welcome to call it that,” he said. “But just say that the governor didn’t agree.” Everybody broke up laughing.

Only Perry wasn’t really joking. He would return to this theme again and again during our September lunch at a Texas-style barbecue restaurant he’d chosen in New York—Perry doesn’t shy from stereotype—because his claim on the White House rests on his record as the three-term governor of Texas. Over the last two years, as the U.S. struggled to emerge from recession, Texas created half the new jobs in the country. Perry’s supporters have dubbed this the “Texas Miracle,” although many other people, including some of the state’s top business leaders, are less rapturous. When the governor got in the race in August, he shot to the top of Republican Presidential polls on his reputation as a potential savior whose know-how and conviction could turn the economy around. That’s Perry’s promise: He’ll do for the country what he’s done for Texas. “I’m the guy who led what many would consider to be the greatest resurgence in America during the 2000s,” he told me. “That’s why I think Americans look at us and go, ‘You’re the guy we want leading America.’ ”