A time to run?

摘要

Borrowing from the Book of Ecclesiastes, with yellow bulldozers providing the backdrop, Rick Perry, Texas's Republican governor, told a group of supporters in San Antonio this week that there is "a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance". But if there is a time to declare a second bid for the Republican presidential nomination, this was not it. Instead, the governor merely said he would not seek re-election next year. "Any future considerations," he added, would be announced "in due time". Mr Perry has perched over Texan politics since George W. Bush left for the White House in 2000. His office is weak, but he has stuffed state agencies with loyalists; their influence will outlast his tenure. He has also presided over a booming economy; Texas, he crows, accounts for a third of American net job creation in the past decade (see chart). Since 2007 unemployment has been below the national average even as the population has shot up. (Nay-sayers point to low health-insurance rates and cash-starved schools.)