I think the debates may matter more than you think. They have served to make Romney appear far less objectionable than he did previously. I know Mitt is a flip flopping chameleon, but I've gotta say his effective debate performances are probably changing a lot of other peoples minds. If conservative media starts really warming up to him, he could do much better in some of these primaries than you think.
Romney will lose everywhere that matters in Republican primaries. Romney can not win in the south or the west,
I'm not so sure. Had Perry even held his own last night I'd continue agreeing with you here, but man, Perry was awful. Not only did he not debate well, some of his statements were down right offensive. The idea people don't have a heart if they don't support Texas's version of the DREAM act was just....well, really bad.
I agree with TexasFreeper2009 that this is still a two-person race, Perry and Romney, but I also believe Perry put a bit of a pinhole in his bouncing tent.
He needs to get out there, patch his little hole, and give his supporters some fresh air after last night's debate so that little pinhole doesn't get bigger and his supporters won't hyperventilate after last night's less-than-stellar performance; and he needs to start focusing on getting "himself" out there instead of comparing himself to Romney.
If you can, please check out post 80 of this thread. If Perry were giving out INFORMATION and correcting the falsehoods out there on some of his vulnerable issues, I think he would still have lost some on this one issue, but he would not have done the damage that he did last night with his "heartless" comment.
When the issue is properly explained 99% of the people agree with Perry’s possition.
You have to remember that this passed the Texas legislature (one of the most conservative in the country) with all but 4 votes out of 150 voting for it. You couldn’t pass hardly anything with that kind of support anywhere much less Texas.