Perry talks 2012; won’t commit to 2016

During a Monday night event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) skirted the question of whether he will run for president again in 2016.

He said that in 2012, when he made his first run at the White House, he had made the mistake of not being adequately prepared.

{mosads}But he outlined how, for months, he has been meeting with policy experts and bolstering his expertise on matters foreign and domestic.

“Now I may not run for the presidency in 2016,” he said, to audible disappointment from the crowd. “But if I don’t, the reason I don’t run is not because I’m not prepared.”

The comments came at the very end of an event at the library, when Perry delivered an indictment of the Obama years that was both expansive and, coming from the conservative governor, not entirely surprising. He painted a picture of an America in crisis, brought on by a federal government he said was “misdirected in its current state.”

He also touted his own record in Texas, particularly on job creation. And he mentioned his recent travel to Europe — which many have seen as an effort by the governor to burnish his foreign policy credentials in anticipation of another White House run.