AdWatch:
Rick Perry's new ad, 'Doer'

[November 01, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- TITLE: "Doer"

LENGTH: 30 seconds.

AIRING: In Iowa broadcast television markets and on cable.

KEY IMAGES: An upbeat Perry, wearing a light blue shirt, speaks directly to the camera. "I'm a doer, not a talker," the three-term Texas governor says, contrasting himself with others who are "slick" and have "great teleprompter skills."

"We already have that, and he's destroying our economy," Perry says, referring to President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

Perry then repeats his oft-stated claim that 40 percent of the new jobs created in the U.S. since June 2009 have been in Texas. He notes that under his leadership, "We cut a record $15 billion from our state budget." He concludes by saying, "They say we can't do that in Washington. Well, they're wrong, and they need to go."

ANALYSIS: Perry, who has seen his poll numbers slide after a series of weak debate performances, is seeking to recapture his campaign's central message on job creation. He tries to turn his debate stumbles to his advantage, suggesting that even if Obama and some Republicans are smoother talkers, Perry has a record of results.

Perry's claim about trimming the Texas budget by $15 billion is accurate. The state's biennial 2012-13 budget, which went into effect August 31, is $15 billion less than the state's previous biennial budget. Lawmakers did not seek additional revenue and chose to cover the state's revenue shortfall solely through cuts, primarily to public education and its Medicaid program. But they also relied on some budgetary gimmicks to bring the budget into balance, such as delaying a $2.3 billion payment owed to public schools by one day to Sept. 1 so that it won't be counted until the next biennial budget.

It's true that about 37 percent of new jobs created in the U.S. since June of 2009 have been in Texas, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But that number hasn't kept pace with the state's population increase. And Texas ties Mississippi for the highest percentage of hourly workers paid at or below the minimum wage, at 9.5 percent.

In a recent debate, Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for the GOP nomination, referred to a report released in September by the conservative Center for Immigration Studies suggesting many new jobs in Texas were taken by illegal immigrants.

Perry's claim that Obama has wrecked the U.S. economy is not supported by facts.

Most economists argue that the president's $825 billion stimulus plan, plus bailouts begun under President George W. Bush of troubled financial institutions and the U.S. auto industry, along with monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve, helped prevent a total economic meltdown and kept the recession from being deeper and longer than it was.

It's true that the national unemployment rate is 9.1 percent now as opposed to 7.7 percent when Obama took office. But the bulk of the 7 million-plus jobs lost in the recession, which officially began in December 2007, came while Bush was still president and in the earliest months of the Obama administration before his initiatives had a chance to take hold.

It's not clear who Perry is referring to when he suggests some say the Texas record can't be replicated at the federal level. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has said Texas's Republican legislature, loose regulatory climate and right to work laws had given Perry some advantages in pursuing his agenda that other governors don't have.

[Associated Press; By BETH FOUHY]

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bfouhy.

Associated Press writers Chris Tomlinson in Austin, Texas, and Tom Raum in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.