The potential problem for Perry is not their shared West Texas roots. It's the Bush baggage.

Bush left office as the least popular president since Richard Nixon resigned, polling showed. The economy was in its steepest collapse since the Great Depression. And most Americans had grown tired of the nation's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter the longest conflict in U.S. history.

While Perry is well-known in Texas, where his 10-year record as governor stands on its own, he will have to define himself before voters can decide whether Bush's former lieutenant governor is a chip off the Bush block or his own man.

"I don't know him well enough," said Ovide Lamontagne, a prominent New Hampshire conservative and former Republican gubernatorial nominee. "It will depend on how he presents himself. Until he gets here, it will be difficult to know."

That presentation could prove pivotal to the launch of Perry's possible presidential campaign.

"It's hard to shake loose of these things once they take hold," said Chris Edelson, a government professor at American University. "People hear these things over and over, and if you're pigeonholed in these sorts of things, it's distracting."

Political pedigrees

To former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, a Dallas Democrat, the flashbacks begin every time Perry talks on TV: "If you close your eyes, he sounds exactly like George W. Bush," he said, "down to the inflections and the dropped 'G's.'

"I think it would be very hard for another Texas governor to be elected president right now," Frost said. "I think there's a clear case of Texas fatigue."

To University of North Carolina political scientist Thomas Carsey, the similarity starts with their political pedigrees.

"As conservative governors of Texas, they come from a similar political background," he said. "It obviously connects them in people's minds."

Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's faux conservative commentator, summed it up thusly: "This man needs to be president. We haven't had a Texas governor in the White House for almost three years."

Democrats will do their best to brand Perry, who became governor when Bush left Texas for Washington, with a scarlet "B."

"Being seen as the protégé of the worst president in history cannot be advantageous for Perry," said Democratic consultant Paul Begala, a native Texan. "The problem is more about Bush than about Texas per se."

He's not from Washington

Partisan wishfulness aside, are American voters ready for another Texas Republican as president after two Bushes?

"Probably not," said Rice University political scientist Robert Stein, "but Rick Perry will work hard to avoid being a presidential candidate from Texas. His moniker will be a presidential candidate who is not from Washington, D.C. - and a governor who created jobs and avoided the spending excesses of Washington."

Perry strategists are convinced that the governor's home address won't affect his electability.

"Do I think America is searching for a leader with the record, experience and vision to restore her to economic greatness and provide an environment so the private sector can put America back to work regardless of their (candidate's) ZIP code?" asked senior Perry adviser David Carney. "Put me down as 'yes.' "

As Perry talks to GOP leaders across the country, he is not encountering any resistance based on his residence, said Carney, adding, "I don't sense that at all."

Perry is not seeking to distance himself from Bush and is "proud of his time campaigning with and serving together with George W. Bush," said Carney.

He suggests, however, that Perry "will be judged on his entire record" and not on the "personalities" of the current and past governors.

Their records differ

That Perry record, Texas politicos and academics agree, is very different from the 43rd president's.

"Rick Perry has done a lot to distance himself from the big budgets and big deficits of the Bush presidency," said Texas A&M political scientist George Edwards III. "He has taken a hard line on an activist federal government of the type that brought us No Child Left Behind (education reform) and prescription drug coverage under Medicare" during the Bush years.

"He is no compassionate conservative. In addition, he is much more likely to focus on social issues than was Bush," said Edwards, who added that Bush took conservative stances but also "was opposed to gay bashing, supported civil unions for gays - against the wishes of his party - and was generally not animated by such issues."

Perry and his strategists consider his record as a job creator in Texas to be one of his most important assets.

"Outside of Texas, all the public knows about Rick Perry is that he's been a successful governor elected to three terms," said Stephen Wayne, an American government professor at Georgetown University.

Perry has underscored his Texas record in conversations with key grass-roots activists in early presidential showdown states. And GOP leaders who have talked to Perry have come away impressed.

"I don't think it's fair for anybody to make a comparison," said Judy Davidson, chairwoman of Iowa's Scott County Republican Central Committee. "(Candidates) should earn their vote based on their individual identity."

Contributing to this report are Will Tucker, Andrea Vasquez and Jeanna Smialek of the Washington bureau.

richard.dunham@chron.com