Of course, Romney’s vulnerable. BUT, so long as 3 non-Romneys are in the race, he still wins. Leave aside Ron Paul, who really isn’t a non-Romney, but who pulls @ 15-20% of the vote.
Let’s say Romney’s base is @ 25% and Paul’s is 20%. That leaves 55% to be split among 3 candidates who are acceptable in varying degrees to the vast majority of those Republican voters who don’t want Romney. Who wins? Romney.
The one purpose the IA caucuses serve is to ‘winnow out’ candidates as the process moves on to more meaningful primaries. In the case of the GOP, that’s SC and FL.
Usually there are 3, sometimes 4, ‘tickets out of IA.’ Perry didn’t get one. If his position and Newt’s had been reversed, Newt would have been the one expected to drop out.
I can’t imagine hat ‘way forward’ Perry sees for himself, but he’s now in the position of strengthening Romney.
Worst of all, the longer R’s beat each other up in the primaries, the better it is for vulnerable Obama.
Newt and Perry finished with 35 difference between them.
At one point it was 2%.
Why should either bow out?