What is the most important question to ask ahead of the 2016 elections? Apparently not whether the candidate has the book smarts to be the next U.S. president.
Instead, Texas Gov. Rick Perry believes that life experience is way more important than having a great IQ.
"Running for the presidency's not an IQ test," the Texas Republican governor said in an MSNBC interview published Thursday. "It is a test of an individual's resolve. It's a test of an individual's philosophy. It's a test of an individual's life experiences. And I think Americans are really ready for a leader that will give them a great hope about the future."
Speaking at the Governor's Mansion, Perry said he believed his chances at winning the White House in 2016 were positive since he was no longer the same candidate who ran in the Republican primaries in 2013.
During a November 2011 Republican debate, he failed to remember one of the federal agencies he planned to dismantle and famously uttered "oops" on a primary debate stage, according to The Washington Post. But now, he probably has less "margin for error."
"I think, over the course of the last two years, people realize that what they saw in 2011 is certainly not the person they're looking at 2013, 2014, 2015," he said.
His allies previously had raised questions about Perry's intelligence and policy chops. "If he should know about John Locke, he'll know about John Locke," lobbyist Bill Miller told Politico in a 2011 story headlined "Is Rick Perry dumb?" "If it's not on his schedule, it's irrelevant to him."
"We are a substantially different, versed candidate," Perry told The Washington Post's Phil Rucker during a 90-minute interview this week.
Although the 64-year-old will decide next year whether he will run for president or not, he believes he will have no problem trying to convince Republicans to vote for him in 2016 since potential backers "are pouring in here to sit down with us, to talk to us," NBC News reported.
