Free Republic

1 pm EDT -- moments from now -- awaiting Perry speech announcing he is officially running for president

Gov. Rick Perry now leads Mitt Romney in an ongoing 2012 presidential poll run by iRepublican.com a social network for influential Republicans. Sarah Palin is currently third. Rick Perry has not announced his candidacy for President yet and he's well liked by the Tea Party. Yet he seems to appeal to moderate Republicans as well, especially considering that http://www.irepublican.com started in liberal Manhattan. "Coincidentally, Romney went from first to second the same day he commented on the Debt Ceiling Deal", said Marcello De Luca, founder of iRepublican.com. iRepublicans, as this network's members are referred to, continue to vote and results...

Tim Pawlenty implied Tuesday that there are some less-than-serious presidential hopefuls eyeing the race, with a quip that seemed to lump Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Donald Trump together with wrestling icon Hulk Hogan. "You're going to have, you know, Mitt Romney who will start out as the front-runner with the most name-ID and money..." Pawlenty told CNN’s Piers Morgan in handicapping the race. "And on the other end of the continuum, you'll have perhaps Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump, or I don't know, maybe Hulk Hogan will get in the race too. Who knows? But I think in...