It really is extraordinary that a country of 300m people cannot produce an opposition candidate of any obvious merit.
Here's an amusing (and completely withering) quote from the Economist, exasperated by Perry's attempt to make a virtue of his utter uselessness as a candidate - Perry apparently now claims that he's a doer not a talker:
"Not to be overly pedantic, but talking is a kind of doing. Indeed, talking is primarily how one gets things done in politics. How does Mr Perry convey that he is a doer, and not a talker? By talking. What else is there? Interpretative dance?"
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/10/rick-perry-0
I actually snorted in trying to imagine that.