Rick Perry delivered a scathing indictment of Barack Obama on Thursday night in Washington, teeing up a presidential run with a speech that took little notice of presumptive Democratic favorite Hillary Clinton and instead castigated the president as feckless, clueless and gutless.

Just 16 days removed from the 10,000-square-foot Texas governor's mansion, Perry is on the road and shaping the messages that will accompany a White House campaign. He stopped in Washingtonto deliver rhetorical red-meat to a friendly and very conservative audience.

The early going has been kind to the Texan: While reporters can't let go of his calamitous 'Oops!' moment in 2011, he raised political eyebrows on Thursday by unveiling a list of 80 financial power brokers who will shake the trees and make rain for him.

One of those financiers, who requested anonymity, told Daily Mail Online on Thursday – in advance of the governor's address to the conservative American Principles Project – that Perry is confident he can win.

'He and his wife believe they are touched by God, and that this is his time,' the donor said. 'It's like – they can't lose – that's the sense of it.'

'I don't know if he'll win the nomination, but I'm absolutely sure he'll be one of the last two Republicans standing,' he added during a phone interview.

Perry got a warm reception in Washington on Thursday with themes that hammered President Barack Obama and pointed toward a second presidential run

PRESSING THE FLESH: Perry mingled in a room full of hundreds of right-wingers at an event hosted by the American Principles Project, which opposes abortion and gay marriage

Perry shunned reporters on Thursday night after his speech – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal held a press conference after his lunchtime remarks – but his turn at the podium during the nighttime gala brimmed with that confidence – half campaign stemwinder, half inaugural address.

He lifted a line from Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, where the 41st president said, 'There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right with America.'

Perry's version took aim at Barack Obama. 'There is nothing wrong in America today,' he said, 'that can't be fixed with a change in leadership.'

That change is sure to come in January 2017, but it's anyone's guess who will move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

'Our nation is on a slow glide-path to decline,' Perry said Thursday night. And Republicans see eight more years of a Democratic administration as a political doomsday.

The GOP has a deep bench, with no fewer than 20 would-be nominees talking about running. They include governors, senators, former CEOs and diplomats, and a pediatric surgeon.

Democrats, on the other hand, have Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state. And few others judged as powerful enough or daring enough to challenge her.

Knowing who will likely await them in America's political Super Bowl has allowed GOP White House hopefuls to keep their anti-Hillary powder dry and hold their best attacks until 2016 when they will matter most.

Instead Perry and others are focusing their energy on Obama.

The governor's speech on Thursday could have been the one he delivered on the stump in 2012 if his first presidential bid hadn't imploded when he couldn't remember which three federal cabinet agencies he had said he would close if he won the presidency.

He hit Obama on foreign policy, on energy, on the economy and jobs, and on that distinctly Texas concern: illegal immigration.

And he slapped Republicans, as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal had earlier in the day during an American Principles Project lunch, for risking the loss of their congressional majorities by straying too close to the political middle.

THREE YEARS AND ONE 'OOPS' LATER: Perry was all smiles in October 2011 when he filed the paperwork for his name to appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot

CAMPAIGN MODE: The Texas governor wound up his crowd with reliable conservative themes and spent most of his time at the podium railnig against the Obama administration

READY TO RUN? Perry is road-testing themes for future speeches when the political stakes will be as high as any in American history

Americans, he said, rejected the Obama administration in November – citing 'the VA allowing our heroes to die, the IRS targeting citizens, the administration trading five terrorists for a military deserter, the rise of ISIS, the lies upon which Obamacare was passed, (and) the weakest economic recovery in history.'

'But let’s be clear about something,' he said in the Mayflower Hotel just a mile from the U.S. Capitol: 'The American voters’ rejection of the Democrats does not mean they embraced Republicans.'

'A congressional majority is a terrible thing to waste.'

Similarly, Jindal had warned against the GOP slouching toward status as 'Democrat-lite.'

Both men are rock-ribbed conservatives. Along with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, they will inhabit the right flank of the Republicans' march through next year's political playoffs.

Perry spat out a litany of anti-Obama sentiments that could have come out of a tea party convention platform.

'Six years of study on the Keystone Pipeline, and still nothing happens,' he said.

'When Vladimir Putin was invading Ukraine, the president dithered when he could have sent a powerful message to the Russian president.'

'Our broken, outdated tax code has become an incubator of corruption, favoritism and bureaucratic harassment.'

'We need to stop strangling small businesses with over-regulation.'

Perry, seldom soft-spoken, took special umbrage at Obama's plan to mainstream more than 5 million illegal immigrants with residency cards and work permits while hundreds of thousands more pour across the U.S.-Mexico border with drugs and human chattel.

'Those who smuggle children, enslave women, destroy lives by peddling illegal drugs and weapons, they are the face of evil,' Perry boomed.

'Texas has done more to secure the border than any state in the nation,' he exclaimed. 'And the message is clear: as long as Washington will not secure the border, Texas will.'

2016 STARTS NOW: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke earlier in the day to the American Principles Project, the same group Perry appeared with at night

Perry was loose on Thursday night, free-wheeling his words as he boasted about his state's economic boom..

'More people have moved to Texas than any other state,' he said. 'Lemme give you a little news-flash here – it's not because of our great weather in August.'

At times he strayed near the eccentricities of an infamous October 2011 speech in New Hampshire that was so disengaged and free-spirited that political observers suspected he was drunk.

Perry spent a week denying it, and was rescued from the biggest headlines only by businessman Herman Cain's sexual harassment scandal.

The 'Oops' collapse came less than two weeks later. On that occasion, he said later, he was on painkillers for a back ailment.

But Perry has never styled himself as a practiced orator or a charm school graduate.

'If you're looking for a slick politician, or a guy with great teleprompter skills, we already have that,' he said in one 2011 commercial. 'And he's destroying our economy.'