Republicans talk about something called “Bush fatigue.” It almost always comes up in relation to Jeb Bush, the brainy and politically talented brother of George W. Bush, who was himself the popular governor of a pretty sizable state. It’s a common theory in conservative circles that while Jeb (everyone calls him Jeb) might be the most formidable candidate out there to challenge President Obama, he is nonetheless cursed by his last name. …

In Mr. Perry’s case, however, the biographical and visceral similarities to Mr. Bush might actually prove harder to ignore.

Leave aside that there’s little warmth between Mr. Perry and the Bush family, especially after the elder George Bush endorsed Mr. Perry’s opponent, Kay Bailey Hutchison, when she tried to unseat him in the 2010 Republican primary. What the country would probably see is another Texas governor with the same Texan talk and Texan swagger, someone who once schemed with Karl Rove and who, as a social conservative, is so reliably dogmatic that he signed a bill that made it explicitly illegal for the state to confiscate your gun in the event of martial law or some kind of federal takeover, or maybe if the British decided to invade again.