Rick Perry can turn his campaign around if he just follows the lead of John Kerry.  In 2004, Howard Dean was leading the Democratic pact.  Kerry, as we all know, is a lousy debater.  He was far behind.  But he turned it around when during a debate he reminded people that they were there to choose a President.

 Here is what Rick Perry needs to say:

 We are not here to elect the Quipster in Chief, but rather the Commander in Chief.  There is more to the Presidency than giving cute 30 second responses to questions on complex and difficult issues.  The real question is which candidate has the experience necessary to handle the job of President of the United States.  This is an executive job which requires executive experience.  That is the reason so many of our most effective Presidents have been Governors of large states.  We have already paid a bitter price for electing someone with no executive experience to be our President.  We can’t afford to repeat that mistake. 

 I have been the Governor of a large state for over 11 years.  My state has prospered during my term in office.  I have governed consistently as a conservative.   If you want to know how I will govern as President, you need only look at my record as Governor of Texas.  My question is:  Are we here to elect a President, or a Chairman of the Debate club?  This election will not be decided by who does the best job in a debate with Barack Obama.  It will be decided by which candidate the American people believe can turn this country around and restore hope in the American dream.  I believe I am that candidate and I ask for your support.

I fear we are on the verge of making a huge mistake because no one is asking the right questions.  Are we really going to let the main stream media, including Fox News, choose our candidate based on this bizarre unending series of meaningless American Idol style debates.  I have never heard one moderator ask the candidates what executive experience they have, yet this is the most powerful executive position in the world.

This is the most important election of our lives.  Shouldn’t we be looking at the best person for the job first?  The American people deserve better than this.  No Fortune 500 Company would ever consider someone as CEO who did not have significant prior executive experience.  Two of our candidates, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have zero executive experience.  It is time to decide if we are choosing a President or a cheerleader?  If the race ends up between Romney and Gingrich or Santorum, we won’t actually have any choice at all, because only one of the three has the type of executive experience necessary to do the job.

TDM