海角大神

Rick Perry is not letting an indictment on felony charges slow him down. Not in a political sense, anyway. Days after a Travis County, Texas, grand jury voted to indict him on charges related to his veto of funds for public corruption prosecutors, Governor Perry is in New Hampshire, running for president at full tilt.

He鈥檒l tramp through the key early-voting state Friday and Saturday, meeting top local operatives while attending a series of Republican fundraisers and other events.

Yes, we know the convention is to describe trips to this state as 鈥渢esting the waters鈥� or something like that. The conceit is that candidates want to see how much appeal they have and whether a try for the Oval Office is feasible.

But we say that right now, Perry鈥檚 position is similar to that of Hillary Rodham Clinton: The default is 鈥済o.鈥� Both are planning on running, unless some obstacle arises that causes them to change their minds. One lesson of recent presidential nomination cycles is that winners start early.

And the New Hampshire trip is probably intended to help Perry with his biggest problem, presidential-wise. That鈥檚 not his indictment, at least for now. He鈥檚 used the publicity surrounding his legal woes to portray himself as a governor who is being pursued for openly doing what he thought best for the state. The conventional wisdom of the punditocracy appears to be that so far, this is working.

No, Perry鈥檚 biggest challenge is that GOP primary voters are not excited about his nascent candidacy. That鈥檚 been true for quite some time. Many voters remember Perry鈥檚 disastrous 2012 run, highlighted by his infamous 鈥渙ops鈥� when words failed him in a debate.

The Texas governor has got to figure out a way to pump supporters up. Maybe vowing to fight the indictment 鈥渨ith every fiber of my being鈥� will work.

Or maybe not. Look at the polls to see what we mean: In the of 2016 GOP nomination surveys, Perry is sixth. He trails New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

At this stage, voters remain fickle and their political attachments can change, so a back-of-the-pack position isn鈥檛 fatal to a candidate鈥檚 hopes. But it鈥檚 not a positive. And Perry trails rivals from the whole spectrum of the party. He鈥檚 behind establishment guys, tea party favorites, and a moderate Northeasterner. There鈥檚 no clear base for him to build upon.

A , which helpfully breaks respondents into various subgroups, shows what we mean: The only category where Perry outperforms his overall average is 鈥渋ndependents,鈥� where he gets 11 percent, as opposed to his 7 percent overall share. That might be great in a general election, but GOP primaries are dominated by true believers.

Perry鈥檚 hope might be that he鈥檚 both well known and relatively well liked in the party. A shows he has one of the highest name-recognition rankings among possible candidates (64 percent) and one of the highest net favorable ratings (+46 percentage points).

That means he鈥檚 positioned to be the second choice of many voters if their first choice falters or they change their minds.

鈥淭here is no clear leader at this point on the Republican side 鈥� indicating that the race for the GOP nomination is essentially wide open,鈥� writes Gallup chief editor Frank Newport.