Perry's Prayer Rally - Epic Fail ?

Rick Perry thought he had come up with a brilliant way of propelling himself into the GOP presidential race. He would appeal to his right-wing fundamentalist base by holding a huge prayer rally in Houston's Reliant Stadium. The pictures of him waving to many thousands of adoring christian teabaggers would surely show that he was the chosen one. And to show his leadership, he invited all the governor's of the other 49 states.

I don't think he expected the Democratic governors to show up, but just hosting the GOP governors would show he was a mover and shaker in the party -- a force to be reckoned with. But the governor has been given a rude awakening. It seems he's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. Maybe he forgot he had only scored an unspectacular 2.5 average in college (those are his college pics above).

Perry has not only driven the Texas economy into the dumper (regardless of what his GOP cohorts claim), but it now looks like his huge prayer rally will be a dud. Reliant Stadium holds about 71,500 people, but it doesn't look like he'll be able to even fill a quarter of it. Only about 8,000 people have registered for the event. That stadium is going to look like a ghost town.

And it gets even worse. Not a single governor from any of the other 49 states is going to be at the prayer (and fasting) rally. For a while it looked like Brownback of Kansas and Jindal of Louisiana might come, but both of them have now found something else (anything else!) they would rather be doing. Scott of Florida is sending a videotape, but won't be coming anywhere near the nearly empty stadium. I think most of the GOP governors took a look at the vicious right-wing fundamentalist speakers Perry had lined up and decided they could do without being tarred by that brush.

Several groups (like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Texas Freedom Network, and the People for the American Way) have organized efforts to combat the prayer rally, but they needn't have bothered. It looks like Perry didn't need any help screwing this up. The governor is even trying to back out of it himself -- saying his part in it was not important, and he might just be an "usher".

Perry won't be able to avoid going to this ridiculous event since it was his idea to hold it, but it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't limit his participation to a short welcoming speech -- and then duck out early. His grandiose scheme is turning into a humiliating failure.

Instead of propelling him into the GOP race for the presidential nomination, this silly rally might just have national Republicans wondering if he really has what it takes to lead the party into the next election.