At one point in 2012, Perry was far ahead of all the other Republican contenders.  Then he went brain dead on national TV.   His failure to remember which Department he wanted to eliminate was painful to watch.  Perry never recovered.   Many people thought he never would recover.  They could easily be wrong, because of the gift Barack Obama handed him this week.

Obama met Perry in Dallas and he treated Perry as an equal.  While Obama followed his typical pattern of trashing Republicans in congress, he admitted that Rick Perry had a point.  Then, incredibly, Obama asked Perry for help in getting Republicans in congress to pass immigration reform.  If you are a Perry fan, he couldn’t have scripted this any better.  Obama did more for Rick Perry today than Chris Christie did for Obama following Hurricane Sandy.

The all too public Perry collapse was so painful that one would be foolish to think he has put that entirely behind him.  But it would also be foolish to ignore this man.  Rick Perry is someone who absolutely can energize the base.  He just may be the best politician in the country at selling conservative values.  The man can bring a crowd to its feet.  In addition, he has been a very successful Governor of Texas and that is a solid resume when one is running for President.  A strong charismatic governor from a big state can be a formidable candidate.

I remember when Ronald Reagan was running for President.  For a long time the pundits in the main stream media always described him as just some actor.  Then one night I heard one of the news anchors throw out the typical class “B” actor slam, but then he paused and said:  But Ronald Reagan was also a very successful governor of California for two terms and we cannot ignore that.  That was when I realized that Ronald Reagan was going to be the next President of the United States.

There is a long way to go and among other things Perry is capable of another act of self-destruction.  He is not yet there, but he is off the mat and back in the fight.

TDM