Meet Rick Perry.

Lots of good stuff there on Perry's record as Governor of Texas, so go check it out, but here's a taste.

Transcript of Dowd's remarks from ABC News:

TAPPER: You -- you followed his career in Texas for a long -- probably longer than you want to admit.

DOWD: Twenty-five years. Twenty-five years. I took his filing when he was a Democrat, ran as a Democrat at the Texas Democratic Party.

This guy is an incredible campaigner. And for me, having watched George Bush and having worked for George Bush and having known Rick Perry, he is actually a better campaigner at this point than George Bush was. Now, part of his problem is, he sounds a lot like George Bush. He looks like a president, though, if you look at the picture, but he sounds and has similar mannerisms to George Bush. I don't think that's as much of a problem in the Republican primary; it could be a problem in the general election. But don't underestimate this guy. This guy took apart an incumbent Republican U.S. senator who had an 85 percent approval rating and beat her by 20 points in the primary by being tea party before tea party became cool.

And on a final note to Matt Dowd, being part of that astroturf "tea party" ain't exactly looking so "cool" right now. Their disapproval numbers are climbing after this debt ceiling debacle and I suspect they're going to go higher as they continue to prove themselves to anyone who is paying attention as not having the interests of working Americans at heart. And as Karoli already noted here, it seems they're having a bit of a problem with attendance at some of their rallies as well.