It appears I may be wrong

Rick Perry may not be The Third Bush. He may be The Second Thompson. As in Fred Thompson. Joseph Farah is only the first Perry enthusiast to rethink his support for the potential candidate:

I was just dead wrong in all of my conclusions about the governor of Texas. I no longer want him to run and no longer believe he is a viable candidate. In fact, I will do all I can to warn the American people away from him. My view of Perry changed from favorable but skeptical to highly unfavorable overnight this week after I read his comments to GOP donors in Aspen, Colo.

Essentially, Perry said he is just fine with New York state’s decision to approve same-sex marriage.

“Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex,” explained Perry. “And you know what? That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me. That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business.”

Of course, GOProud, the homosexual Republican group, was quick to praise Perry for his stand. I’m sure Perry is very proud of that endorsement. What’s wrong with his answer? So much it would take me more than one 750-word column to explain. But I will attempt to address his cowardly surrender of the national culture succinctly.

If America is to rediscover its greatness, citizens of all 50 states will need to rediscover the common values that brought us together as a nation in the first place – not just all go out and do our own thing, with every man doing what is right in his own eyes. The only viable alternative is, quite literally, a break-up of the nation. What Rick Perry is advocating here is cultural surrender.

Translation: Rick Perry can forget about riding a wave of popular support from the social conservatives who brought Bush 43 to power. It’s not as if he’s got much appeal to the economic conservatives who are increasingly looking favorably upon Paul, Bachman, and potentially, Chris Christie. As for the Fred Thompson comparison, consider the results of the recent polls here and at Instapundit. Due to Instapundit’s larger readership, there were naturally more votes in his poll, with 13,599 votes compared to the 1,873 here at VP.

36% 07% Perry
20% 04% Palin
14% 72% Paul
07% 08% Bachman
06% 01% Romney

Obviously, this is a libertarian stronghold. But what is remarkable is the complete lack of enthusiasm among either readership for the candidate the media imagines to be the “frontrunner”, Captain Underoos. The strong amount of support for Perry and Palin at Instapundit reminds me very much of the enthusiasm for Fred Thompson in 2008, right up until the moment that Thompson actually threw his hat in the ring. I suspect Farah will be far from the only supporter of a hypothetical Perry campaign who will abandon ship as it becomes a reality.

However, I think that Paul’s numbers in the Instapundit poll are misleading, despite the recent poll that showed him tied with Obama among the general electorate. Until I posted a link to the Instapundit poll, Ron Paul was around 4% there; there is probably strong link between the 1,923 votes he received at Instapundit and the 1,353 he received here. Paul will win the general election if he is nominated, it’s winning the Republican nomination that presents the much greater challenge.