Musing on 2016, Texas Gov. Perry strays from GOP corral

TAMPA, Fla. – Oops!

Conventions are about one thing: Message, message, message.

The point, to use the familiar metaphor, is for everyone – from the speakers on stage to the lowliest delegate buttonholed by a reporter – to sing off the same proverbial hymnal.

Here in Tampa that message is: Mitt Romney’s great! President Obama’s awful! On to victory, strong and true, on Nov. 6!

But Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who waged a pratfall-prone campaign for the GOP nomination, may have failed to get the memo under his hotel door.

PHOTOS: The protests of the GOP convention

Snagged by NBC’s Chuck Todd on Tuesday night for a convention-floor interview, Perry said he would most certainly consider another presidential run four years from now.

“Oh, absolutely,” Perry said. “There’s a long time until 2016 and a lot of good things can happen.”

Perry did add that for right now his plan “is for Mitt Romney to win and for him to get this country back on track.”

The Texas governor has previously indicated an interest in running again in 2016, presumably for an open seat to succeed the term-limited Obama, as opposed to running an insurgent campaign against an incumbent President Romney. (Although maybe not; Perry did once wink at the notion of Texas seceding from the union.)

He started as a front-runner in the GOP presidential field but soon fell out of serious contention.

PHOTOS: Scenes from the GOP convention

Perhaps the most memorable moment of Perry’s candidacy was a brain freeze in the midst of a debate, when he failed to remember the name of the third federal agency he proposed eliminating as president.

Perry snubbed Romney and endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich after dropping out of the race in January. When Gingrich quit in April, Perry formally came on board with Romney.

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mark.barabak@latimes.com

Twitter: @markzbarabak