Saw Texas Governor Rick Perry give the keynote talk at the annual Manhattan Republican Lincoln Day Dinner tonight.

Perry sure sounded like a candidate to me. His speech was all jobs, jobs, jobs, which happens to be both Texas’s strength under Perry — his state leads the nation in job growth — and the top national issue leading into the 2012 presidential race. It’s an enviable coincidence.

One small criticism of Perry, though.  He gave a 12-minute speech in about 22 minutes. Must be a Texas thing.

My great grandfather was a Texas Sheriff (Duval County) and my grandfather was a Texas lawyer, but my ears were trained in rat-a-tat-tat New York. Our ears aren’t geared to pregnant pauses, and I found myself compiling shopping lists in my head between the governor’s words. So maybe a little more pep north of Mason-Dixon would be in order should he run for the White House.

Perry’s line of the night:  “I’m honored to be here in stead (he conspicuously split that into two words again) of Donald Trump” (who pulled out of the dinner some weeks ago.) “Donald Trump got famous for saying ‘you’re fired.’ In Texas, we’re famous for saying you’re hired!”

Not bad. On message already.