If Rick Perry wins the 2012 presidential election, he will make George W. Bush look like Abraham Lincoln.

I still bank on Michele Bachmann, although her $2 a gallon gas promise further sabotaged her bid; but despite Perry’s outrageous comments the past week, he will be a force in the Republican presidential primary.

I will leave it up to the red-blooded political bloggers to Rick Perry’s record on Texas.

What is curious is despite Rick Perry’s stance on the EPA, climate change, and just about every other issue for which this site proudly stands, Rick Perry has a decent record on wind power.  Under his watch, Texas met its wind power goals several years early.  As Kate Galbraith in a guest article on the New York Times covered yesterday:

Arguably, Mr. Perry’s most interesting energy efforts have related to wind power, which has boomed under his administration. Today, after a decade of rapid growth, Texas is the nation’s wind leader. The groundwork was laid by Mr. Bush, who in 1999 signed a bill that — besides deregulating the electric sector — established a renewable-energy requirement that kick-started wind development.

Of course, Governor Perry has not been as kind to solar and other clean energy initiatives.

Perry’s record of giving plum government positions to the highest bidder and indulging in crony capitalism put him all over the map.  It would be interesting to see who does some digging and explores the methods and means behind Rick Perry’s embrace of wind energy.

No matter where your politics may lie, pop some popcorn and sit back the next several months.  This Republican primary is going to make the 1980 and 2008 Democratic primaries look like a cheap telenovela.

Photo is of the Desert Sky Wind Farm in Texas, off of I-10, courtesy Wiki Commons (click to expand).