Did Rick Perry have hopes for a presidential run in 2016?

If so, they’re probably gone.

Perry’s speech was rather good in terms of content – but it didn’t rile up the audience, save for a few sparse moments where the ballroom grew loud with applause.

Introduced by the song “God Bless Texas,” Perry marched right on up to the podium and opened with a simple line: “God bless Texas.” Going on to say how much he enjoyed visiting DC, Perry joked about how surprised he was when his United flight landed and he saw that everyone was still here, despite the sequester, which he called President Obama’s “best idea. Not really.”

The joke drew only a few laughs.

Governor Perry listed qualities that make Texas seem foreign to many Americans: a budgetary surplus, more jobs being created than in any other state, and a part time legislature that only meets for 140 days every other year – a legislature which then “goes home to live under the laws they pass.”

Perry continued on the topic of the sequester.

“We’re getting a lot of hysteria right now from a president more concerned about the next election than saving programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security for the next generation.” Criticizing the President’s “portrait of pain,” in which Obama used figures such as air traffic controllers and Capitol janitors to make the emotional argument against the sequester, Perry went on to say that this is a “federally sponsored jailbreak….where everything goes to win the next election.”

Perry wasn’t short on criticism of the Obama administration: “For every dollar we spend, 40 cents is borrowed from some bank in a place like China.”

“My question is not with the legitimate role of government, but the limited role of government” stated Perry. “Instead of allowing states to become laboratories for reform, Washington’s central planners are co-opting the responsibilities reserved to the states under the tenth amendment of the United States Constitution.”

He further asserted his points on entitlement programs – if he was looking for applause, he didn’t get much though. Asserting that “a fiscal policy of coercion is now at the heart of the debate of Medicare expansion”, the governor went on to focus on Medicaid. “If you don’t believe if Medicaid is broken, just ask our president.” Quoting President Obama from four years ago: “And I quote, ‘we simply can’t put more people into a broken system that doesn’t work.’ And yet that’s exactly what he’s trying to do in the case of Texas. No program has grown faster at the state level than Medicaid.”

Even an animated moment, however, failed to rouse the audience. With a loud slap on the podium, Perry demanded: “Give states like Texas the flexibility to fix Medicaid.”

Perry also turned his speech to energy and government’s role in the economy. “We don’t believe in growing government to grow the economy,” he told the audience. “Job creation, not higher taxation!” he proclaimed, to an audience that finally seemed alive and excited. “Common sense tells us it is time to drill for American jobs and American prosperity!”

Drawing from Texas’ long Hispanic history – a group who was there ages before Sam Houston – he went on to lecture conservatives on what the movement needs to do to reach out to Hispanics: “Let me say what appeals to Hispanics like those in Texas. It’s policies that value the family unit as the best and closest form of government…it’s the belief in life and faith in God.”

Perry wrapped up his speech with an overview of what the conservative movement really is about: “We’re the people who say everyone deserves a shot, but success is only the product of high work and determination.“

The speech looks good on paper for a conservative speech, yet it failed to rile up the CPAC audience. It looks like the Lone Star governor was outshone by rising Senatorial stars Rubio and Paul, who spoke earlier to overcrowded ballrooms and audiences that delivered standing ovations and wild applause.