Newt Out, Perry In?

With confirmation that Gingrich's top advisers have quite en masse, this obviously means his campaign is all but done, which frankly was only a matter of time and comes as a surprise to no one. The more interesting question for 2012 is what this means for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Sources close to Perry tell me he is now "serious" about a presidential bid. He has been talking with his big money donors for the past week, and they had a conference call on Monday to talk assembling a possible 2012 campaign.

But the rub was this: There was no way Perry would run for president without his top political consultant, Dave Carney. And it also would be nice to have his former campaign manager, Rob Johnson, on board.

Unfortunately for Perry, both of those guys were working on Gingrich 2012. Carney was advising Gingrich in New Hampshire and Johnson was Gingrich's senior political adviser. As one top Republican strategist told me on Tuesday, the canary in the coal mine for a Perry presidential run is whether Carney would leave Newt.

Now, Gingrich's entire team has up and quit. And all of a sudden Carney/Johnson are available. And Rick Perry is for real.

[tsigili]

There is NOT a single good, declared candidate, in the GOP, at this time.

They ALL ascribe to the party platform, which is so bad, it is anti-humanity!

[sjc_1]

If Perry was smart, he would not run. No one ever accused Rick of being smart, you can always tell a Texan, you just can't tell them much.

[quatermass2]

Great! Let all the GOP mouth-breathers form a conga line and let the bright lights shine on each of them. Sunshine always was the best disinfectant.

[mikelpond]

You really think anyone is going to vote for that jacka$$ Perry after all his hot air about texas seceeding? Maybe you can get the SC vote with talk like that - the rest of the country, not so much.

[brian_norwood]

Poor GOP! Still looking for their knight on the white horse.

[thebob-bob]

48 percent of self-identified Republicans say Gingrich has the mentality to be a good president. The same percentage of self-identified Republicans still say that Obama wasn't born in America. It's not just the Gingrich campaign that is disintegrating, it's the fantasy-fueled Republican party. No taxes, no regulations, no government, and an armed population leads to heaven? No! It leads to Pakistan.

Fear, Hatred, Distortion, Distraction and Division is all Republicans have to offer America.

[brian_norwood]

DidHeSayThat:

I agree. Romney has something to offer everyone. If you don't like his flips, you will love his flops.

[34sender]

Newt Gingrich is on the ropes with the GOP because he told the truth.

That is all we need to know about the Republican ideology today.

Rick Perry -- secession, guns in schools, taking Stimulus money greedily while slamming the hand that fed him -- oh this is going to be fun!

I look forward to seeing him implode.

Think of the Dems ads... "America -- So you want ANOTHER Governor from Texas?"

hahaha!