Why does everyone underestimate Rick Perry?

[Averroës Nix]

He will attract those who want to see a Christian White man in the White House, and those who vote the way their redneck buddies want them to vote. 

redneck voting peer-pressure?!  how does that work, exactly? may need angus to come up with a believable dialogue between two shEt-kickers so that we can try to imagine it...But I am sure it wouldn't go over well in these parts, probably would be considered equivalent to sneaking a peek at your buddy's Johnson while he is taking a leak.

Casual prejudice against people who live in rural areas in the mass media probably accounts for much of what the original poster perceives as people "underestimating" Perry. Personally, I haven't seen a lot of that on this forum, but this meme does tend to occur everywhere.

I wouldn't vote for him or Romney - but he's a capable politician who might win the Republican nomination. And Romney is only slightly more capable of defeating Obama in the general.

[freepcrusher]

i don't underestimate him but there are several reasons why he could lose to Obama

1. he hasn't won exceptional popularity as governor. 58% in 2002 was his best showing and that was still behind president Bush. He won 39% in 2006 and did about the same as McCain in Texas 2008.

2. He's too much like George W. Bush who is the only thing that americans hate more than Obama. He's not as smart as Bush, more authentically rural and twangy, and just a caricature in general.

3. Cultural perspective. An area like DuPage County which is usually GOP, isn't going to vote for him. I realize he won the suburban counties in his gubernatorial elections but areas like Montgomery or Collin county are different than suburbs elsewhere.

4. Rick Perry is a quantity before quality type of person. His claim to fame is all the jobs he's created in Texas. But what one doesn't realize is that that could be any type of job. I'd rather have 500,000 jobs in biotechnology, software etc than 2 million jobs for ditchdigging, hospitality etc.