Truth is, many of the most virulent Perry bashers were Palin supporters who viewed his conservative credentials and successful executive experience as a threat to her non-candidacy.
The same ones went to Cain and then to Santorum, and they transfered their vile hate for Perry, over to Newt and his supporters.
(That one is as plain as day to figure out.)
Yup, this is what I saw as well. Lots of people who thought Palin was going to run wanted Perry cut down to size because he appeared to be the only serious threat from the right. They assumed Palin would deal with Willard easily later on since he was a the RINO candidate and this was supposed to be a Tea Party primary. What these people missed was that Palin was never going to run. Had she not run her endless "will I or won't I run" tease campaign, Perry would have likely been spared a lot of venom on these forums.
With that said, nothing the Palin loyalists said did Perry in. Perry was the best candidate on paper, but he completely lacked the communication skills to succeed at the national level. Like them or not, Gingrich, Santorum and Romney are all capable off-the-cuff orators and in a primary with 20 debates Rick Perry simply couldn't compete. Maybe he will be better in a future run, but this time around his communication skills were insufficient to the task.