Rick Perry the Frontrunner?

According to a Gallup poll Rick Perry has overtaken Mitt Romney and has a 12 point lead. Ron Paul is third and Michelle Bachmann looks to be a fairly distant fourth.

The poll also shows that virtually all of Perry’s support comes from the extreme Right Wing of the Republican Party.

So now comes the question, can someone who is so extreme win a presidential election in the United States? The conventional wisdom used to be that neither an extreme right wing nor an extreme left wing candidate could win. But that was before Evangelical Christians organized themselves into a political power and the economy fell on its face.

Here’s the deal, some people are going to vote for Perry no matter what and some people are not going to vote for him no matter what. That leaves the so-called middle of the road moderate voters.

Obama has not done a great job. He especially has not done a great job with the deficit in particular and the economy in general. I now think that Mitt Romney could beat him. But could Rick Perry beat him?

I have my doubts unless Perry shifts toward the center in the general election and gets the electorate to buy it. The American electorate is certainly gullible enough to buy such a shift and the big business faction of the Republican Party still has enough clout to force it so you never know.

I find it utterly appalling, that in the 21st century, a man who believes that “Intelligent Design” is science and should be taught along with evolution might end up as president of the United States.