GOVERNOR RICK PERRY the Man with the CHUTZPAH TO GET IT DONE!!!
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The Milken Institute released its annual rankings of the best cities for jobs, and-- no surprise-- Texas cities dominated:
The Milken Institute's annual survey of Best Performing Cities reveals that, for the second year in a row, other states can't mess with Texas. This year, San Antonio topped the list of 200 large metros, and Houston scored No. 1 among the 10 biggest U.S. metros. In fact, Texas metros occupied four of the Top 5 positions (vs. three last year).
Read the Milken study here:
Numbers one, two, four, and five. That is thorough domination.

ALSO RELATED: As noted in this space yesterday, there are a lot of fact-free rebuttals of the Texas jobs story. Another dumb rebuttal is that of course Texas has a lot of jobs, it's the second largest state in the country. The easy answer there is that Texas has 8.1% of the nation's population but has created more than 2/3 of the nation's new jobs over the past five years (more than all others combined times two). Moreover, Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. (ESMI) looked at state job growth (or lack thereof) to see which states have overperformed or underperformed. Texas came in second place in terms of overperformance from 2007-2011:
Texas is also the only large state in the entire top ten of overperforming states. It's easier to be a small state and overperform, percentage-wise, on a rating like this.
Looking at the entire top 15 overperforming states in percentage terms, Texas is the only state with 6-digit job overperformance, with 880,586 more actual jobs than models would predict:
Even more, there were 23 underperforming states and 27 overperforming states (plus Washington, DC). The overperformers had 1,781,984 more jobs than expected, and the underperformers had 1,781,984 fewer jobs than expected.
Texas' more-than-expected 880,586 jobs account for 49.4% of the entire national overperformance. A bit wonky? Sure. But you know what isn't wonky?

• That Texas has added more than a million jobs while the rest of the nation has lost more than two million.
• That Texas added more jobs than all other states combined since the beginning of the last recession.
• That Texas added almost as many jobs as all other states combined under Rick Perry's entire tenure as Governor.
• That Texas has added more than half of all new jobs in America since Barack Obama was sworn in as President.
• That there is still a land of opportunity in America, and it's called Texas.

Governor Rick Perry hasn't just "not messed up" a good thing he inherited in Texas. He's accelerated Texas  ascendancy. Tort reform. Balanced budgets, with a growing Rainy Day Fund. An upgraded Texas bond rating. Cutting taxes 67 times for $14 billion in taxpayer savings. Keeping spending in check-- fewer government employees per capita than when he took office. Cutting unnecessary regulation and job-killing regulators, all while cleaning up the air. Rejecting "free" federal dollars with strings attached.

Rick Perry has been a warrior for the conservative movement in this country, on fiscal issues and social issues alike. He's really the only true comprehensive conservative in the race. And the proof that conservative ideas work is in the pudding. Under Rick Perry's leadership as Governor, Texas is thriving.