Reading through the debate reviews, Josh Marshall scores it as a win for Romney on the grounds that Perry's plan to kill Social Security makes him unelectable:
But Perry doubled down, maybe tripled down on his frontal attack on Social Security and science in general. Romney moved in, in essence, to egg him on in that process. And the Romney press office let loose a fusillade of attacks in emails to the press.In other words, if the GOP primary electorate lives in the same reality as the rest of us, Perry is toast. Oh my: If that were true none of the GOP candidates would stand a chance.
Josh is probably right that Perry can't win the nomination, but that does not mean that Romney has to get the nod instead. Romney can only win as long as he can stay in the race at the head of the field. It is really hard to see him making a comeback if he fell to third or fourth place. Once the aura of inevitability is stripped off, Romney is just an ex-Governor with a track record of saying anything that will get him elected who wouldn't even win his home state in a general election.
Perry could well take out Romney before reality catches up with him. Which would leave Bachmann and Paul.
