Rick Perry’s Iowa pitch: ‘I know how to create jobs’

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, having just launched his presidential bid, took a quintessential swing through the Iowa State Fair on Monday, sampling pork on a stick, speaking at the Des Moines Register’s soapbox and visiting the famed Butter Cow.

Concentrating on economic issues, Perry said his record in Texas showed why he ought to be president.

“I know what this country needs and we need to get America back working. We need to be able to create an environment in this country where anyone who wants to work can find that job,” he said, noting that the bulk of job creation in recent years has occurred under his watch in Texas. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done in the state of Texas over the last decade… I know how to create jobs.”

He was interrupted twice by hecklers during his speech at the soapbox, including one man who repeatedly shouted, “Who would Jesus bomb?”

Perry was not fazed, noting he was an Aggie from Texas A&M.

“That may not be an Aggie over there,” he said, as the crowd hooted.

After delivering a short speech at the soapbox, Perry wandered along the fair’s main concourse, greeting voters at the state GOP booth and stopping at a local TV station’s booth where passersby could deposit a dried corn kernel into the jar of their preferred candidate.

Perry kissed his corn kernel before plopping it into his jar, and looked pleased that he already had two jars full of kernels, more than nearly every other candidate.