Perry’s lack of business experience noted — by Republicans

August 17, 2011

If you followed at all the teapot tempest over the false claims that President Obama’s cabinet lacked business experience (also here and here), this headline must have made you guffaw:

Kay Bailey Hutchison won’t endorse Rick Perry for president, says she wants someone with private-sector experience

No love lost between Hutchison and Perry.  Hutchison opposed Perry for the Republican nomination for governor of Texas in 2010.  Perry was brutal in his criticism of her, and he defeated her in the primary.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry should not count on the support of his state’s seniority senator (and his 2010 Republican gubernatorial rival) if he decides to run for president.

(Polaroid photo by Sarah Tung/Hearst Newspapers)

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas, told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell today that she is looking for a Republican candidate with private-sector experience as her choice for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination.

Perry is a career politician who has held elective office since 1985.

“He certainly has got government experience,” Hutchison told Mitchell on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” this morning, adding that “we need people who have been in the private sector, as well.”

The Republican senator’s comments hint strongly that she’d prefer one of the GOP candidates who has run a business: former Winter Olympics organizer (and venture capitalist) Mitt Romney, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain or former chemical company executive Jon Huntsman.

Hutchison said she has no immediate plans to endorse any candidate.