Free Republic

Today is the last day of Gov. Rick Perry's pre-Christmas Iowa bus tour. Perry will return Friday to Texas for a brief Christmas break, then it's back to campaigning. The Perry campaign has called the bus tour a chance for Iowans to give the Texas governor a second look. As the tour progressed, Perry refined his message and appeared to excite crowds, and by Wednesday afternoon he had assumed the role of a political outsider, which he used at each campaign stop. “We need someone who will walk in who has the discipline, who has the courage to break up...

Now that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has announced he will not seek the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, all of the Republican donors, elected officials, and party activists pining for a savior to jump into the race must face the reality that the field is set. They need to channel Stephen Stills: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” No doubt the fundraisers for Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are tying up the phone lines into New York’s financial district, wooing donors who had either been holding out for Christie or had used...