When your record does the talking there really isn't much to say. Pawlenty? Gingrich? Santorum? Where's the beef. They can talk a good game but who among the "top Republicans" has Perry's record to run on? He even crushes Palin in that department.
My thought is Perry will step in and take the whole damn thing over simply on his record and back story.
Pawlenty and Santorum are in the same group as Perry.
No one has heard of them before. Now is not the time to get famous enough to win this year.
Perry, Pawlenty, Santorum, they can all run, and through running, will make themselves more well known for later on, 2016 or later. Perry, by running now, can make himself into a Romney of 2016 or later.
Gingrich did Contract With America in 1994. Everyone knows Gingrich. And Contract With America was certainly seen by Republicans at the time as a very good thing. That’s Gingrich’s case.
“Who is going to win” is much easier to figure out when you understand that the Republican winner is the one who is most able to persuade the most people that he (or probably she) is the “top” Republican. And top doesn’t mean “best”. Top means most famous, as a Republican. Who would be seen as the “leader of the Republican Party”? One year is not enough to go from being not famous enough to being “top”.
And it ain’t Perry, or Pawlenty or Santorum. It could be Gingrich or Romney or even Paul. Most likely Palin.