Is Rick Perry The Next Great GOP Hope? Original post by Robin Marty

The Republican Party seems to have a new flavor of the week every time they lose a potential presidential candidate. Now, with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels refusing to run, they're pushing a new governor into the spotlight.

Texas Republican Rick Perry.

Sure he already said he wasn't interested in running once, but does that really mean anything this far out, especially if your party comes calling? The Fix reports:

"Daniels' decision, coupled with [Mike] Huckabee's and Newt's [Gingrich] implosion, will create a tornado-size draft for Rick Perry," predicted Mark McKinnon, a GOP media consultant who worked with President George W. Bush. "He's tanned, rested and got nothing else to do for the next two years."

Matt Dowd, who handled polling for Bush's campaign, made a similar prediction on ABC's "This Week" Sunday. "I actually think that Governor Perry in Texas is probably going to reconsider," Dowd said.

And, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has been touting Perry's "potential to light this up" of late.

Much like Daniels, Perry is indicating that he could be open to a run, saying "I've got my focus on where it's appropriately supposed to be, and that's this legislative session. I've said multiple times I'm not going to get distracted from my work at hand, and I'm not going to get distracted today, either."

But once the session is over? Well, that could be another matter.

Is Perry the right person to turn to? In a startling revelation, it appears he wouldn't even be the frontrunner in his own state. Recent polling shows that Texans actually prefer fellow Texan Ron Paul over Perry, 10 percent to 4. Of candidates who are actually running, Newt Gingrich topped everyone at 11 percent.