Gov. Perry Ventures Back Into Texas Public Eye

WILL WEISSERT

ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) — Rick Perry acknowledged Monday that he's not used to losing but also vowed "I'm not slipping off into the sunset" while promising to battle federal energy and environmental policies he says would cost Texas jobs.

Making his first speech in his home state since abandoning his foundering presidential run nearly three weeks ago in South Carolina, the governor invoked his alma matter, Texas A&M, saying "all Aggies have a really interesting way of admitting defeat. You know, we've never been outscored, we just ran out of time.

"The fact is I'm really not used to running out of time," Perry said, "but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world."

Perry had never lost an election, an unbeaten streak that had stretched back to 1984, when he won a Texas House seat as a Democrat. He switched parties and captured his first statewide post as agricultural commissioner before being elected lieutenant governor, ascending to the governorship when George W. Bush left for the White House in December 2000 and winning election to three full, four-year terms.

He said America could not afford another four years of the Obama administration's "misguided, socialist policies" and that conservatism "is bigger than any one man."

"And let me add this: I'm not slipping off into the sunset," Perry said. "We've got plenty of work to do right here in the state of Texas. I've got plenty of fight left in this old 61-year-old body."

Perry appeared loose and confident — regaining a trace of the swagger that so eluded him while running for president — as he spoke for 31 minutes at a Williamson County Republican Party dinner in Round Rock, north of Austin. The adoring crowd of about 400 gave him a standing ovation as the emcee thanked him and his wife, Anita, for their "sacrifices" in recent months.