AUSTIN — As President Obama and Texas Gov. Rick Perry are poised for a face-to-face Wednesday on the contentious issue of border security, politicians and political commentators are duking it out on whether the afternoon meeting favors POTUS OR Gov. Good Hair, a potential Republican candidate for president in 2016.

At the top of the talking-points comments in the hours leading up to the meeting were these about Perry from Democratic Party strategist and former Bill Clinton adviser Paul Begala, who made some unflattering remarks about Texas’ longest-serving GOP governor during Tuesday’s “New Day” show on CNN, as reported by RealClearPolitics.com.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN: John and I were talking. Paul, did Rick Perry just hand the president a big out politically on this?

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I suspect what you’re going to see is Rick Perry bounce right back and say, good, let’s meet, let’s meet on the border, sir. I think it’s — you know, look, Rick Perry is the governor. He’s been a demagogue and frankly a dope about this issue. He’s been totally unhelpful, suggesting darkly that somehow there’s a conspiracy that Barack Obama is behind.

Look, children are fleeing violence in Central America. It has taken a very long time to deport them because of a law that President Bush signed back when he was president. That law was designed to try to protect people who are fleeing violence and to protect their rights, and so, President Obama here is simply caught trying to obey a law that was passed before he became president.

But that line about faith leaders I think is most important. If he’s going to pick Rick Perry’s brain, that is the very definition of slim pickings.

BOLDUAN: Oh, Paul!

BEGALA: There’s a faith leader we ought to be listening to. Mark Sites is the Bishop of El Paso. He’s actually been to the region. He’s been to Honduras and Guatemala. He testified last week before the Congress. I read his testimony. I recommend it to our viewers. He actually knows what is going on. And he explains that it’s like these children are trapped in a burning building, and, of course, they’re going to leap and come to anything that looks comparatively safer, even if it risks their life to do so, I think Bishop Sites is who he ought to meet with.