The Rick Perry indictment isn’t even getting support from the places you expect. It’s reasonable at this point to expect Alan Dershowitz and Jonathan Turley to criticize it. But it’s not even getting cheers from more reliably toe-the-line lefty places.
When even David Axelrod seems skeptical, it’s obvious that this dog won’t hunt.
The indictment emerges out of local Texas politics, but it’s not impossible that it also has roots elsewhere in the Democratic Party which is becoming increasingly worried about Hillary’s weakness.
Of the two governors who are likely 2016 GOP candidates, both have been targeted by dubious state investigations accusing them of abuse of power. That may be a coincidence. More likely it isn’t.
Perry is a likely 2016 presidential candidate and with the border crisis, he’s been picking up a lot of publicity. That hasn’t translated into much in the way of poll numbers yet, but he’s doing somewhat steadier positive numbers than he used to.
It would have been the kind of platform he could have used to launch a national presence. But now that’s been undermined. Or has it?
An indictment is normally a prime way to sabotage a presidential bid. It’s about the best way to do it.
On the other hand, being seen as the victim of a dubious politically motivated prosecution can make a pol into a hero.
Christie mishandled the bridge nonsense and the media embraced the narrative early and often. Here though Perry has a stronger position. The DA in question was a mess and the case starts looking like Troopergate which couldn’t get much traction outside the loonier fringes of the left because it would have made Sarah Palin look good.
It’s not impossible that Perry could end up riding this case to the 2016 nomination.
