Does Rick Perry really want to be president?
| Washington
Watching Rick Perry鈥檚 debate performance Tuesday night, Decoder (along with many ) was struck by how itching-to-get-out-of-there uncomfortable he looked. It was like watching someone鈥檚 half-hearted attempt to engage in polite conversation at a dinner party he was only attending as a favor to his wife.
Which has led us today to this fundamental question: Does Rick Perry really want to be president? Or, more specifically, might the Texas governor regret his decision to jump into the race?
Tellingly, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie offered up his reasons for passing on a White House run, he said he鈥檇 tried to imagine himself in a hotel room in Des Moines 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 5:30 in the morning and it鈥檚 15 below, and it鈥檚 time for me to get up and go shake hands at the meatpacking plant.鈥�
His point? To subject yourself to the true grind of a presidential campaign - with the loss of privacy, the discipline of having to be always on message, the tedium of giving the same speech over and over, and the out-and-out hard work required behind the scenes - you have to really, really want it.
And almost by definition, a candidate who jumps in only after some arm twisting by supporters - as Perry did and Christie did not - probably doesn鈥檛 want it that bad.
Ironically, despite the fact that Mitt Romney鈥檚 opponents consistently try to mock the fact that he鈥檚 been running for president for at least 6 years, it鈥檚 that very combination of outsized ambition and superhuman focus - that wanting-to-be-president-more-than-anything-else - that, while less than poetic, has ultimately proven to be Romney鈥檚 strongest asset. On some subconscious level, the were probably planted way back when his father failed to secure the GOP nomination in 1968. Certainly since 2003, when his strategists began , the former Massachusetts governor鈥檚 focus has been single. And it shows.
Which leads us to another question: If really, really wanting to be president is a necessary component of a successful run, is it perhaps an even more necessary component of a successful presidency?
It鈥檚 worth remembering that Barack Obama鈥檚 decision to get into the race in 2007 in some ways resembled Rick Perry鈥檚 more than Mitt Romney鈥檚 - he was answering the call and responding to the moment, rather than systematically carrying out a lifelong plan.
Back in August, after the debt ceiling debacle, the New York Times鈥� Maureen Dowd penned calling for Obama to be 鈥渕ore alpha,鈥� and questioning how much he really enjoyed the job of president. She wrote: 鈥淚f Clinton wanted to be president 25 hours a day and W. wanted to be president four hours a day, Obama wants to be president for about 14 hours a day. And that鈥檚 fine, as long as you don鈥檛 look like you鈥檙e phoning it in when the country is dialing 911.鈥�
But at a time of economic crisis, we wonder if the country may in fact demand a 25-hour-a-day president. At the least, a candidate who looks like he鈥檚 phoning it in at the debates and on the trail almost certainly isn鈥檛 going to cut it.
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