Perry Says White House Talk Won't Distract Him

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http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/2012-presidential-election/perry-says-white-house-talk-wont-distract-him/

Most people around the Texas Capitol are taking bets on whether there will be a special session this summer to dig out from the wreckage of a budgetary train wreck. But the chattering class — the political pundits who make a living talking rather than passing (or killing) bills — are eager to make bets on something else: whether Gov. Rick Perry is going to run for president.

Never mind that Perry has said repeatedly, and pretty darn emphatically, that he won’t mount a White House bid next year. He's enjoying another little boomlet lately, what with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s troubles and the somewhat surprising exit from the race by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who might have courted some of the same folks Perry could rally.

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is the latest to jump on the Perry-should-run bandwagon, dedicating 20 minutes of his mega-ditto air time to extol the virtues of the longest serving governor in the United States.

So, of course, Perry was asked about it on Thursday, just as all this high drama is going on at the Capitol. Instead of shooting it down hard again, he just said he wasn’t going to be “distracted” by it.