Longtime Republican campaign consultant, Mike Murphy, thinks that Governor Rick Perry may have a tough go beating Barack Obama in a 2012 General Election matchup.  Writing for Time, Murphy opines: Anyone who watched Rick Perry destroy Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Texas gubernatorial primary last year should have no illusions; he knows how to win a GOP primary. Whether Perry can win a general election or not is another matter. Most senior GOP strategists have major concerns about running a twangy Christian conservative Texan as the party's nominee against even a weakened Barack Obama. Count me among them. Ah, those unnamed senior GOP strategists that writers like Murphy are so fond of citing.  Most of those anonymous Republican strategists are Washington-based, meaning, they can be more than a little myopic and insular in their outlook.  And being Washington strategists, they likely have their own agendas, which may or may not dovetail with a favorable opinion of...(Read Full Post)