In most of the old TV Westerns, there was a moment at the end where the cowboy rode away. He’s delivered justice, empowered the townsfolk and ended the crisis. The good guy knows he will be needed elsewhere.

It’s mythology, of course; the historical American West was bloody and brutal and often without honor. But there were still a lot of people who hoped the cowboy icon was precisely the self-image Texas Gov. Rick Perry was realizing as he took the stage to make an announcement about his “exciting future plans.”

But this is not the scene where the cowboy rides away. It’s a bit more like the one where he refuses to leave the saloon and has to be thrown out onto the street.

In spite of promoting his Monday event in San Antonio for a week, Perry didn’t speak in any detail about his plans. Democrats and progressives had a bit of excitement, however. The governor said he was not running for re-election to the state’s top political job. It will be 18 months before Perry leaves office after a 14-year tenure as the longest-serving governor in Texas history. And that final year and a half and what he’s going to do with it is where Perry exercised his skills at being politically vague.

Which is why pundits tend to say Perry is hard to predict. But he’s not. Since the day he switched political parties under the tutelage of Karl Rove almost a quarter century ago, Perry has been an extreme conservative who gave away hundreds of millions in taxpayer money to corporations. And when the tea party metastasized into Texas politics, he walked his conservatism over to the right edge of the flat earth.

His lust for guns and God and his hatred of abortion rights and gay rights make him a strong Republican primary candidate among the activist voters, but an unlikely voice for most of America seeking a president in 2016.

But he’s still going to try, bless his heart.

Perry will use his remaining time in office to raise money. The signal for this was the site of his announcement, which was a Caterpillar plant outside San Antonio. The manufacturer’s chief executive reportedly has given Perry more than $680,000 since he became governor, and Caterpillar received millions in tax abatements and a $10 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which has disproportionately awarded money to generous Perry campaign donors.

An Emerging Technology Fund and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas offered the same fiduciary delights for GOP business leaders that are believers in Perry. In fact, the institute’s operation was so political all of the top scientists drawn to the project resigned and the district attorney in Austin launched a criminal investigation. When the district attorney was arrested on a driving while intoxicated charge, however, Perry vetoed funding for her unit, which was investigating his potential misconduct. Case closed.

More from James Moore@ CNN

Posted by Libergirl