COMMENTARY | There is little doubt Texas Gov. Rick Perry was encouraged by the turnout for "The Response," the seven-hour Day of Prayer event he openly endorsed and even participated in at Reliant Stadium in Houston on Saturday.
Estimates put the crowd at around 30,000, and although critics will likely be quick to note that is less than half of the seating capacity of the venue (and in Joel Osteen territory, no less), it should be noted that the day of prayer, singing, preaching and exhorting in the name of apolitical Christianity was broadcast on Christian broadcast networks, piped into at least a 1,000 churches and simulcast over the radio and on the Internet. Some might say Perry may have been looking for the answer to whether or not to run for president at "The Response," but the more politically discerning know that he has already begun his campaign.
Perry was simply reaching out to and mobilizing his base.
According to Ben Philpott at T he Texas Tribune , it did what it was supposed to do, bringing people together "to pray for the state of the country -- and tightening Perry's grip on a key Republican demographic."
Christian evangelicals, a critical voting bloc within the Republican Party, are being wooed by all the candidates in the 2012 presidential race, but the response to the field up until the present has been rather lukewarm, without any one or two candidates actually breaking away from the pack to become dominant.
The demographic was basically left up for political grabs when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who was considered a frontrunner for the 2012 GOP nomination, announced in mid-May that he would not seek the nomination.
But who has a reasonable chance of gaining the support of the south's leading demographic? Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has experience and name recognition but many believe loses ground among evangelicals, especially Southern evangelicals, because he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a denomination of Christianity looked at askance by many other Christians (and actually not being Christian, as Fox News anchor Ainsley Earhardt put it a few weeks ago).
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who also has yet to declare her campaign intentions, is also an evangelical favorite but many see her as an unwinnable candidate. Another declared candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who has been very open about her beliefs and where she stands on same-sex marriage and abortion, has courted the evangelical vote as well.
Other candidates, like former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and businessman Herman Cain, are lacking in national recognition as well as their stances with regard to religious beliefs, instrumental to winning the vote of a member of the evangelical electorate.
Something Rick Perry knows all too well.
Although he isn't on the Ames (Iowa) Straw Poll ballot this week, write-ins are allowed, so it will be interesting to note how well the Texas governor does in the conservative state.
A recent Gallup Poll placed Perry second to Romney in preference among Republican voters -- and he only trailed by two points.
Although hailed as an apolitical, all-day prayer for a "nation in crisis," "The Response" was anything but. It was a launching point and a call-to-arms. It was a notification and a mobilization. And even though Gov. Perry only spoke for less than 15 minutes at the event, calling on the nation to pray and follow the will of the Christian god to lead America from its current moral, economic, and political crisis, he never uttered a word about running for president. He really didn't have to.
Adviser David Carney indicated to "The Fix" at the Washington Post that Perry will announce his decision on whether or not to run for president within the next couple weeks.
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