Twilight Zone: Is Rick Perry having presidential dreams?

Picture of a man looking at a picture. He sees himself painted on the canvass as the 45th President of the United States. James Richard "Rick" Perry, whose world is centered in the close orbit around Austin Texas, a man whose dreams are tucked away in the safety deposit box of his mind. James Richard "Rick" Perry, who is tempted to open that box and try to parlay his dreams into a seat at a poker table where the players are willing to wager all the the political capital they have accumulated in hopes of winning their nation's top job. For the winner, it means the coveted titles of "commander in chief" and "leader of the free world." But the losers may find themselves reduced to panhandling on the political pavement, trying desperately to fill their pencil cups with the coins of fleeting fame. But those are the risks one takes when the cards are shuffled and dealt... in the Twilight Zone.

Brian Preston advises from Austin that despite a number of former Perry campaign people bailing on Newt Gingrich's stumbling campaign, more than one of his sources inside the Texas governor's circles say “nothing has changed”:

If Gov. Rick Perry gets into the presidential race it’s obviously a game-changer. Perry is the nation’s most experienced serving governor and he has built up an economic record that’s pretty tough to match. That should count for quite a bit as we deal with the worst national economy of most of our lifetimes. And if Dave Carney and Rob Johnson really have left, at least in part, because they’re moving back to the Perry team to power his run, that puts some of the top talent on the GOP side on the Perry team. They know how to run a campaign. They are very disciplined and very very good at what they do. Gingrich wasn’t able to get any traction in spite of the talent he had assembled around him, mostly because of his own record and gaffes coming out of the starting gate; I doubt Perry will suffer from that same problem. If their 2010 run in Texas is anything to go by, Perry’s team will bedevil President Obama at every turn.

You can tell that Preston is decidedly pro-Perry, but he maintains that the governor's decision not to run for president still stands. That contradicts the reading of the smoke signals going up from other quarters however. Jonathon Seidl at The Blaze has a source "close to the Gingrich campaign" who says Perry has offered Rob Johnson his old job back. Johnson was Gingrich's campaign manager until today's walkout, and he help the same position with Perry's campaign:

According to the source, “Rob and Perry spoke last week and Perry told him his old job is waiting for him.”

“I know that for a fact,” the source said.*

The final piece of evidence submitted for your consideration, as Rod Serling used to say on "The Twilight Zone," is furnished by National Review editor Rich Lowry:

“he’s in”: that’s what a TX source who’s always discounted idea that gov perry would run just told me

All of the sources cannot be correct, obviously. But which ones are dispensing reliable information, and which ones are just blowing smoke? Ah, that's the billion-dollar question. With apologies to the late Mr. Serling:

To the wishes that may come true, to the strange, mystic strength of the political animal, who can take a wishful dream and give it a dimension of its own. For James Richard "Rick" Perry, who claimed he had "the best job in the world" as governor of Texas, will he risk all he has to try to win the best job in an alien world, one which orbits around that blazing sun known as The Beltway of Washington DC? It can happen in the Twilight Zone.

- JP