Halperin's Take

The three biggest questions in the Republican nomination fight right now are (1) how will Rick Perry perform as a candidate?; (2) can Bachmann continue to demonstrate enough strength to stop a "Romney-Perry two-man race" theme from taking hold?; and, (3) will Sarah Palin run? If Pawlenty wants to stay in the race, he'll likely have to do it with a very skeletal campaign operation. The press shouldn't badger him out of the race, but his bundlers just might. Perry's 718 write-in votes hint at the support he might be able to build (will HAVE TO be able to build) in a big hurry in Iowa. If Palin runs, the Palin-Perry-Bachmann three-way in Iowa could well be epic. Even if Palin passes on the race, Perry-Bachmann will be pretty darn epic too.