Rick Perry: Jeb Bush ‘probably the front-runner’ right now

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is openly preparing for a possible run at the White House in 2016, said it’s former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who probably has the edge on the field of possible contenders right now.

“Jeb’s a good man, a good friend. He was a good governor. You know, him getting in the race, I think, helps the field,” Mr. Perry told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I would suggest to you he’s probably, since he said what he said, he’s probably the front-runner at this particular point in time.”

Mr. Bush recently announced he is actively exploring a presidential bid in 2016.

Mr. Perry said he’s opposed to federal Common Core education standards but that he’d allow Mr. Bush — whose support for the standards could rankle some conservative hard-liners — to defend his own position on the issue.

As for the foreign policy experience of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the presumptive Democratic front-runner in 2016, Mr. Perry said that “there’s a difference between traveling a lot and making good decisions, and I think that’s going to be the real question.”

“She’’s got a lot of questions about her performance, about the positions she’s had, whether it’s Benghazi, or whether it’s allowing the Iranians to head towards a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Mr. Perry said the list of her “foreign policy debacles” is long and that Americans want to see a president that sends the message to our allies “every day that there’s two things — America’s best interests, and making sure that our allies know that we’re going to be there with them.

“And this secretary of state, and this president of the United States, both did a miserable job. I would put it in the feckless foreign policy category,” Mr. Perry said, calling the prospect of Mrs. Clinton running on her foreign policy record akin to California Gov. Jerry Brown — who has been a sparring partner of sorts for Mr. Perry — running on his economic record.