There seems to be a general yearning among pundits and reporters for Rick Perry to play the role of Comeback Kid in the 2016 presidential race. Back in 2011, when Perry launched his first campaign, he was automatically conferred frontrunner status by the media for no real reason other than he was Rick Perry. He flamed out spectacularly and ended his campaign with his reputation in tatters, but that only seems to have served to prime the press to find a new way to give Perry a leg up. “Never under-estimate the appeal of a political reclamation story,” the Washington Post wrote back in July as they proclaimed Rick Perry “So Hot Right Now.”
Perry has seized upon that emerging narrative and has done everything he can to demonstrate to the cable news talking heads who are his primary audience that he’s back and he’s serious. News this week that a man in Texas has been diagnosed with Ebola had Erick Erickson wondering if this, combined with “the border situation,” could be Perry’s path back to the big time.