Rick Perry on the air in Iowa

On the campaign trail with Felicia Sonmez

Rick Perry is up on the air in Iowa today with a $175,000 ad buy. In his first spot, which is fairly conventional, he drops the bluster and goes for the basics: jobs, jobs, jobs.

“As president, I’ll create at least 2.5 million new jobs and I know something about that,” he says, looking directly at the camera. “In Texas we created over 1 million new jobs, while the rest of the nation lost over 2 million.”

There is also a “drill, baby, drill" element of the 30-second spot, with Perry promising to create new jobs by opening up oil and gas fields.

It’s a quick, upbeat introduction to Perry, but the attack ads can’t be too far behind.