The DMN's Rick Perry Problem

Mike Hashimoto, the most conservative member of The Dallas Morning News's editorial board (at least since Rod Dreher left and arguably before), has been beating the drum for the last six weeks to get the rest of the board to encourage Rick Perry to run for President. Only Hashimoto is too cool to admit to driving the Rick Perry bandwagon. Instead, he says:

"My position, in vast oversimplification, is that while I'm not certain he would be the best GOP nominee, the race sure could use what he has to offer."

Whatever. After the jump, how is Hashimoto's drive going?

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The problem for a Perry fanboy like Hashimoto is that the rest of the editorial board members, in their own words, "just don't like the guy." So far, Hashimoto hasn't been able to budge his colleagues from that attitude.

Always the fearless forecaster, here is how I predict this will play out. Sometime in August, around the time of one of Perry's announcements^* that he's in the race, The Dallas Morning News will welcome the Perry candidacy. ( ^* That's right, plural. How many announcements did Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann make?)

That's the easy part of the prediction. The harder part is to predict whom the DMN will endorse in the Texas primary next spring. You first have to predict who will still be in the race. In March or April, the race for the GOP nomination will be down to Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. The DMN editorial board will want to endorse Romney as being better for the country, but will end up endorsing Perry, a decision that will better protect the DMN's circulation figures. They'll use Perry's Texas connection as the deciding factor in Perry's favor to avoid having to endorse Perry's policies. Mike Hashimoto will be on board, too, of course, but he'll come up with some policy reasons to support him. He'll still be too cool to admit he gave his heart to Perry this summer.

Remember, you read it here first.