There's no time though. If Gingrich bombs on the 10th or 15th, Paul or Romney win Iowa.
This I think sends the GOP in two directions. If Paul wins Iowa, and Romney wins NH (which is almost assured currently) Gingrich then implodes. If Romney wins Iowa and NH, Gingrich is also doomed. He needs Iowa I think, if something derails him before Iowa there's the possibility.
If Newt loses, Romney wins. Paul is never going to win the nomination unless everyone else decides to share a plane and it crashes in Canada somewhere.
Santorums chance IS Iowa, if he wins there or say Paul wins and Santorum gets third that helps Santorum and hurts Newt. We'll see if he has a chance in the next couple weeks, if he starts surging like Huckabee and Edwards randomly did, I have to imagine that means something good in Iowa.
Perry is done. I can't think of anyone who entered a race and shot to a massive lead, then lost it in all the course of two weeks to become bottom tier and held on to win. Who is going to bother throwing more money at that disaster?
Endorsements, in my opinion, aren't that important in a setup like this (in Hillary v. Obama, yes), people will side with Newt because he's the anti-Romney but if Santorum or Paul do well enough they could derail that enough to give Romney the win.
I still irrationally consider Santorum the dark horse if Republicans decide Romney won't cut enough taxes, Newt won't round up enough gays (reverse the last two depending on the week) and Paul won't kill enough foreigners. And I may only say that so I can yell "I TOLD YOU SO! I TOLD ALL OF YOU!" in a few weeks if it happens.
Newt obviously has the inside track if nothing changes this week probably. (And I've seen the change in the "I'm not a Republican but I'd vote for..." from Perry to Cain to Newt. They're adamant about no-Romney though.)
It's just weird. Weird. Weird. Weird.
It's 2012, not 1996.
And lots of humiliating Obama in the debates talk. I don't get where this comes from.
I'm pretty sure I could "dominate" the three Presidential debates with any of these candidates including Obama because I don't give a shit about winning votes. But apparently they still score these elections on that archaic system.