Ron Paul says Rick Perry was Al Gore's campaign

The band was playing “Deep in the Heart of Texas” when Rick Perry entered the Electric Park Ballroom in Waterloo, Iowa, last night, but I couldn’t stop thinking of Meredith Willson’s magnificent musical, The Music Man.

The charming salesman Harold Hill comes calling, the stubborn Iowa folks are highly suspicious of him, but eventually he wins the affection of Marian the Librarian and (most of) the townsfolk. Instead of “trouble, right here in River City,” we have trouble — big economic trouble — right here in Mason City. And Dubuque. And Davenport. And Clear Lake.

Rick Perry is every bit the charming salesman. He’s gotta give Iowa a try! The stubborn Iowa folks are a bit miffed that he jilted them by announcing his presidential candidate in South Carolina. (Why not in “Gary, Indiana”?) But he’s speaking sweetly to the mayor’s wife, trying to convince the folks in the churchyards that he’s not a bad guy after all.

Gov. Perry for Gore, the former Democratic vice president, not so long ago?

Indeed, as we noted in a 2010 fact check, when Perry was still a Democrat, he was the Texas state chairman for Gore's presidential campaign in 1988, the year before he switched parties in anticipation of running for state agriculture commissioner in 1990.

What brought Perry to pitch in for Gore, whose candidacy washed out after the Tennessee senator failed to do well outside his native South? At the time, many conservative Texas Democrats put stock in Gore’s campaign, among them former Gov. Dolph Briscoe and then-House Speaker Gib Lewis, who flew to Washington to endorse Gore.

Later, Perry said he found out Gore was far from a real conservative. "Going through that (Gore experience) was part of what started me through the process of changing parties," Perry said. "I came to my senses."

In the Texas primary, Gore ran third to Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

In late 2009, Perry revisited his disagreement with Gore over the human impact on global warming. Suggesting he'd seen the light on the climate issue while Gore had drifted into darker territory, Perry joked: "I certainly got religion. I think he's gone to hell.

Per Paul’s comment, Ryan J. Rusak of The Dallas Morning News wondered in an Aug. 11 blog post if it’s fair to say Perry was Gore’s chairman "not too many years ago." Rusak wrote: "Is 23 years really ‘not too many years ago?’ When you're about to celebrate (your) 76th birthday, as Dr. Paul is next week, I suppose not. But in politics, it's a lifetime, no.