Texas Is the Top State for Business, for the Third Time

CNBC's list of the best states for business was published today. For the third straight year, Texas is Number One.
Texas Governor Rick Perry was on CNBC tonight to discuss why Texas is doing so well in this competition.
His first remarks sounded familiar because they were the talking points of his short campaign for President during the GOP debate period.
Why is Texas best for business? Governor Perry says it's because taxes are low, laws and regulations are not skewed against business and business knows it can count on Texas government for help but not to unnecessarily interfere.
And, while I've said this before, every time I see Rick Perry and hear him talk, I feel that the GOP lost a real opportunity when it booted him out of the presidential competition. He is articulate, although not Harvardesque. He is easy to understand. He really believes in what he is doing in Texas and it is working. Witness - Texas is the best state for business in 2010, 2011, 2012. Not easy years, but Texas managed to attract companies from other states and around the world, helped them set up in the Lone Star State and it is working. Texans have jobs.
And Rick Perry has a smile that reminds me very much of President Reagan's. I know it's too late for Perry to be a candidate. And Mitt Romney is a super choice, too. Rick said again tonight that he'll support and work for Romney this Fall.
When asked about the possibility of going to Washington to work in a Romney administration, Perry wisely said all the GOP governors, himself included, are working closely with the Romney campaign and will do whatever they can to help because it is imperative that America avoid four more years of an Obama presidency.
Will Rick Perry become the VP. Surely not. But, could he be a Secretary of Commerce? Why not.
On the same day that Texas and Governor Perry were being honored in New York City by CNBC, Mitt Romney made an interesting statement. He said that a Romney cabinet will not be filled with academics and politicians. That was a shorthand way of saying that Obama chose the wrong people to manage the key areas of the federal government and the White House staff.
As for the Vice President choice, I have said again and again that Romney needs to put the VP issue to rest now (the first time I said it was in April). We need to know who his running mate will be. He or she needs to be on point before the convention and be given issues, voter interest groups and regions as areas of responsibility.
Romney is not in a piece-of-cake race in which he can name anyone and still sail into the White House in November. The Vice President will be critical in a way that earlier VP choices were not. And, pitting the GOP VP candidate against current Vice President Biden will not be as easy as we are reading. Joe Biden is a seasoned politician who knows where the blue collar voter hot buttons are and how to use them effectively. That is one of the reasons why having the GOP VP in place early will help - it will force Biden to blow his wad and then actually have to match his counterpart on serious issues, or begin to sound like a broken record. If the GOP VP candidate starts too late, Biden will still have his particular type of homespun powder dry into November.
Come to think of it, Rick Perry would do just fine against ole Joe. It'd be a down home contest to beat all.