>> this week on the journal editorial report. rick perry, we'll take a look at the record of the texas governor and top tier presidential candidate. plus, if the g.o.p. primary field is set. why are so many big donors sitting on the sidelines. is there room for one or two more in the race? and obama's midwest tour, the president visits three states, he he won handily in 2008. why it won't be so easy this time around.

>> welcome to the journal, editorial report, i'm paul giggo. first up this week, who is rick perry, the three term texas governor jumped into the g.o.p. presidential race last weekend and quickly established himself as a front runner. and those ten years in the governor's mansn,ion, they've given his critics plenty to dislike, supporters plenty to make and texas insiders, plenty to fight about. here to sort it out. deputy editor, dan henninger. and editorial board member, jason riley. so, dan, the texas governor got in, saying, looking, look at my jobs record. i can bring this texas record to washington to the rest of the country, the left is saying, it's all a mirage. sort it out for us, who is right? >> well, i think governor perry gets the best of this one, paul. in june, the net job increase

over the last 24 months in texas was about 261,000, 700 jobs, which is about half of the new jobs created in the united states over that period. now, the criticism is, there are some that are great jobs or so forth. >> paul: a lot in energy, or expect texas to grow because the population is growing. >> that's the point, in the last ten years, texas population increased 21%, which is new york, has a low unemployment rate has been losing hundreds, tens of thousands of people over that time. so, new york has the greatest welfare system in the united states, and texas is criticized for its social services, but people are pouring into texas for jobs, so if the issue right now at this point in the campaign is can i get a job, then i think rick perry has a pretty good story to tell, jason. >> yes, and this argument that this job growth has nothing to do with the tax or the regulatory structure in place in texas that perry helped to

create and preserve is ridiculous. >> what are the secrets of that success? no income tax, no income tax and low regulation. and anything encouraging businesses to move there and encouraging people from other parts of the country for being there. >> what about tort reform. perry points to that and look, we've got lawsuit reform and the rest of the country could use. >> that adds to the business climate, and unemployment rate below the national average. >> put a cap on damages, pain and suffering damages. >> medical malpractice and 26,000-- >> and haley barber, told rick perry, if you pass that you put a turnstile and people roaring into the state. >> and all of the jobs are not in the oil and gas industry, almost a third, 31% are in he health care. >> and losing pays, if you sue and lose your case, you have to pay the court costs of the people you sued, which is the british system. and is, it's a major, major reform, so, what are the

perry's other strengths as a candidate, james? >> well, i think you saw some exuberance, and people might say a little bit of an over the top campaigner, but this is a guy who's done this a lot. he's never lost an election, and's been in office 11 years and he campaigns hard and effectively and he knows how to do the give and take with the crowds as he he moves through a state fair, this kind of setting. so, i think you're seeing a first tier candidate in terms of experience, in terms of run a big state and also, political conservatives, he has, there won't be any doubts about social conservatives, where he stands. so, he can assume a lot of that support, but what about his weaknesses, jason? >> well, he's from texas, and george w. bush was from texas and a lot of people say that that's a nonstarter and the country has had enough of that, but, you know-- >> why would that be? because bush was not seen as you successful. >> bush left office as a deeply unpopular president and how much of that will carry over on to rick perry's

shoulders, but they're very different candidates. not only by graphically, bush grew up privileged and perry grew up poor, but also in terms of some policies and we've had an incident, with ben bernanke, recently on monetary policy where perry said some things and didn't put them well, but the bottom line, he showed a difference between his beliefs on monetary policy and bushes. bush pushed easy money, he pushed a weak dollar. and perry's comments made it clear he believes in a strong dollar and doesn't believe we can piston more money to bring prosperity to the company. >> the cliche, is perry is bush on steroids. to elaborate on the point. >> the milwaukee, dollar bush. >> milwaukee, montgomery county, philadelphia. is that going to play in those suburbs? >> i don't think that's going to play. the intellect issue, he has kind avapro pensty for mal proppism. and says weird inninthings and

jumps out. and i think they're going to throw the religious right thing at him big time. he leads the prayer meetings and prayer rally and if you're going to try to disturbing independents you're going to try to attach him to the religious right label which hasn't been around for quite a while. >> paul: what about the crony capitalism issue, james, an episode involving an issue involving the hpv virus, when one of his staffers was linked to the-- >> gardasil and that's a crony capitalism problem and a problem with the religious right and i think that won't be an issue for him on the campaign. and basically, goes to sort of his philosophy of governing what he's doing with the vaccine is basically trying to dictate that all teenage girls would get the vaccine that really is only applicable to ones that are sexually active and the idea that the government was doing this was offensive to a lot of people and he backed off. you have the same issue with the crony capitalism charge,

does he really see himself in a limited role as the government of the state where he has been managing investment funds, putting a lot of money into companies and some of them led by people who donated to his campaign. i think that's going to be a big, big vulnerability. is rick perry the last candidate to head into the ring or just the latest. when we come back, big republican donors are sitting on the sidelines, so what or on the sidelines, so what or who arardudududududucts from body and bath shops? with olay get what you love at half the price with new olay body collections, tantalizing fragrances and olay moisturizing ingredients that transform lathering into lavishing. olay body collections. ♪

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. . >> jamie: a new poll shows rick perry taking the top . . >> jamie: a new poll shows rick perry taking the top tier along with presidential hopefuls and mitt romney and congresswoman michele bachmann. many donors are on the sidelines perhaps waiting for a late comer to jump into the race. is the field set or is there room for one or two more? so, jason, who is the front runner now, coming out of iowa where bachman won narrowly over ron paul and knocked tim pawlenty out of the race? >> i think that romney remains the front runner, but also remains the weak front runner, up until now he's been able to run a general election campaign, ignoring his rivals, now that perry is in the race he can't do that. he has to take on perry. at the same time his strength is his electability and when

you look at president obama's poll numbers falling high 30's, federal reserve saying we're going to keep easing money going for a while and unemployment is probably going to be around where it is 15 months from now on election day. wow, maybe electability is the not enough to go with romney. >> paul: anyone who gets it is going to get the nomination. is it going to come down if the field is it is, bacmitan and perry, who is the main challenger to romney. >> i think you could get another challenger. >> paul: let's say-- >> assuming no one else gets in, i think that's basically your contest, for the but onservative, your basic republican primary voter is not comfortable with romney so that's the opener here. >> why is he the front runner? >> because he's got the name and he's been there, he's put a lot of money into it, he's got a lot of endorsements and better than anyone, he's gone around the country and built relationships with republican state county chairman,

everywhere, so he's got the machine. what he doesn't have is the heart of republican voters and that's still up for grabs and you're seeing bachman and perry fight over it. >> i think that perry is going to knock bachman out. i think it's going to be perry and ro tiey. nichele bacmitann is essentially a angn anger and but andidate. rick perry has it the thing he has that she doesn't have is experience and governing but redibility. >> nearly 11 years-- >> pawlenty and santorum are right, not much in the record. >> that didn't help pamanenty, knocked-- >> rick perry is not tim pawlenty, rick perry is a mbilh more charismatic candidate and i think he's going to trump bachmann's strength. >> i think that dan is right. perry and bachman, that works to romney's advantage. he likes three horse race and

perry and bachmann can splinter a vote. evangelical christians and people without a college degree. to extent that they split that vote, romney's he's gvantage. >> sng fner or later one denuld emerge and one-on-one con tellings going into new ham hire or-- pl> sng fner other later, but perry's time spent upon bachmann. >> i need to shift gear, james, to the donors are sitting on the sidelines and saying we don't like, we really don't lbachmae this fiel what is it that's, that this field doesn't have and what are they waiting for? pl> well, i think that there's a sense that we're-- this bizarre point where most of the stars of the republican party are not in this race and you think about paul ryan in teetts of among the washington heased. >> house budget chairman. >> elected officials, house bun themment intellectual force on spending, and chris christie

in new jersey, kind of the defacto leader the republican party nationwide and making the case against government emplayieemac and mons and overspending and i think there's disstation that we're not seeing the republican rearty's field right now. >> paul: the a-team. do yod ithink that either christy or r3 tn could get in at this stage, dan, and really have a shot at the nominationry >> yeah, i think they could both compete. i think that ryan more so than but ann'isty and relates to th but ontributor. they've got two attributes. they're fighters and they really want to fight and fancy them avenues as policy wonks, they do pay attention to poli3 i and in the candidates weage,e got now, they see neither one of those things. mitt romney for whatever reason isousind of gliding forward. and so, if you've got a fighter like perry, theristre going to wait and they lbachmae that, but wait to see what his policies are. with ryan, you get both a fighter and a guy who can talk policy the way that the contributors want to talk

reolicy and cann'isty is a fighter as well. if either one got into the race. the money would come in heehind. >> i think a lot of republican would say for ten years how we haven't really hhe's g a candide who could articulate the conservative vision of ashonomics and make the case intellashtually against barack obama or any of the democratic but andidates and r3 tn and but ann'isty. you have candidates who really know the substance and can really go agser obama on the merits. so you really have one heck of a debate. equity is getting in late. would they have enough money to do it and number two, ryan has bhe's g voteach he voted for tarp, for example, for the auto bailout. christy is, he's only about 50% even in new alsrsey. >> mentioning the votes that ryan has had to make as a house member. this is something that michele bachmann's going to have to deal with, too, and why historically members of the house htatie not successfully run for president. >> i don't think the field is done ye a that's the last word. when he we come back, president obama visits tann'ee states he won handily in 2008, but things may not be so ease

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>> we have to abbing acknowledge we're got big challenges, some of the challenges are not of our own making. we had reversed the recession, avoided the depression, got the economy moving again, created 2 million private sector jobs over the last 17 months, but over the last six months we've had a run of bad luck. some things at that we could not control. >> that was president obama, defending his economic record on a three-day bus tour of minnesota, iowa and illinois this week, but when it comes to jobs, midwesterners don't have much to be grateful for. all three of the states the

president visited have seen increase in unemployment since he took office. in minnesota 5.3% to 6.7. in iowa, 6.4 to 9.2%, what does the president have to offer the midwest, let's ask michael barone, senior only list for the washington examiner and co-author of american politics. great to have you back with us. >> nice to be with you, paul. >> paul: what do you think about the president's bus tour, did he accomplish what he he wanted to. >> he took a bus tour through some of the rural and town counties in one splotch of rural and smalltown county areas that he carried in 2008, but i don't think that he accomplished very much. a run of bad luck is not an alibi that i think that most americans are going to accept and the policy ideas that he he ladled out were pretty thin

gruel. i mean, we're going to attract more doctors to rural counties and stuff. this is the sort of thing a congressman runs on, not a president. >> paul: let's step back and look at the big picture. you wrote this week in the journal in 1970 when you started following some of the american politics for a book you wrote, that the economic model in the midwest that was involved, big companies and big unions really seem to be the future of america's political economy, but it hasn't turned out that way. what's happened? >> well, the michigan model, as i called it, a name for my home state, which is sort of an extreme example where you had the big three auto companies that were behemoths in the american economy and they can sell as many cars as they want to, they can do manipulative. and nearly 2 million members and they thought they'd have a lock on the economy and this is the progressive way to run a country and you have to have high taxes and you have to have high government spending on schools and unionized

teachers and so forth to progress. there was another model called the texas model, and i remember reading texas liberal writers back then and texas needs to catch up with states mi like michigan, didn't have unions, and texas adhered to the model and the census tells the story in michigan in 1970, 9 million people n 2010, 40 years later there were 10 million people minimal population growth. texas in 1970. 11 million people not much more than michigan in 2010, texas had 25 million people, americans and immigrants have been voting with their feet for the texas model and that's been generating most of the jobs, or nearly half the jobs in the country. since the end of the recession officially. >> but the president would respond, i think, and say, look, we helped the auto companies come back with their government rescues and been

investing in green jobs, so the government can direct companies into companies and battery companies for electric cars, for example, wind power, solar power and that's where the future job growth is going to be, is that something that can sell in that, in those current industrial states? >> well, i don't think it can stand up in the light of day. i mean, the other day i read a story about one of the the green job companies going bankrupt and another one has generated as many as 14 jobs. the fact is that you know, the green job thing is basically a hype. the government is not proven to be a good investor over time, but in fact, what this administration has done with the nlrb is to tell one of our major companies in our number one exporter, boeing, he can't blind a plant in south carolina, already more than halfway built. somehow it's got to go where the union tells it to go. >> that's the national labor relations board. now, how do you read the outcome in wisconsin after all

of the last six months of fighting and the recall elections where republicans held the state senate, but lost two seats. still held the majority though, what ultimately. what's the meaning of all of that? >> well, i think the meaning is that it's a severe defeat for public employee unions which have been a mainstay of the democratic party and a mainstay of today's midwest, the old private sector unions like the united auto workers have really been replaced by teacher unions, they poured huge amounts of money, millions of dollars into wisconsin, 30 million dollars by some estimate and they ginned up a lot of enthusiasm the in the state capital of madison, which is basically a state government and a major public university town and a left wing street culture that we saw in violent action. they were unable to whip, convince the people who voted for barack obama in 2008 to recall the republican state

senators and give the democrats control. i think it's a major defeat for the public employee unions, in effect, a reversal, paul of the 2005 referendum in california which arnold schwarzenegger tried to limit the power of the public employee unions and they spent 100 million dollars and walloped them. this is a reversal, a defeat for the public employee unions. >> thanks for being here. >> thanks for being here. we have to take one more having her is amazing. we made a miracle. and we got onesies! sometimes miracles get messy. so we use tide free. no perfumes odyes for her delicate skin. brad. not it. not it. just kidding. that's our tide. what's yours? two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands ojobs.

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>> time now for our hits and misses of the week. >> exxon made what looks i to be the biggest oil find, a billion barrels of oil. the last i looked the gulf of mexico is not in saudi arabia, a good thing for the united states. not for the obama interior department ruled that exxon's lease expired, a technicality.

exxon along with its partner is suing the interior department to get back for the lease. rather than drilling for billions of oil, exxon is going to disappear in the black hole, sounds like a miss for me. >> jason. >> michael nutter after rioting for black youth. the mayor spoke out how ghetto culture is a black to a major economic, what bill cosby said, and nice to see the politician. >> this is a hit to eli manning, the giants quarterback, new york giant football quarterback saying he's in the same class as legendary quarterback tom brady. some claim this is going too far, but i think it's nice to