Why Perry is the Frontrunner

I don’t have time to fully defend my claim in comments, so allow me to outsource to Jon Chait. Obviously, the fact that Perry is leading in the polls does not in and of itself make him the frontrunner, but I think it should be clear that he’s no Lieberman or Giuliani who has views that are obviously unacceptable to primary voters but looks good because of name recognition. He’s a prominent governor, he can raise money, and (sad to say) he has views and a political style that appeals to Republican primary electorate.

The other thing I’ll emphasize again is that Mittens just isn’t a very strong candidate for the Republican nomination. In 2008 he faced off against a grand total of zero serious orthodox conservatives and still lost badly, and that was before his health care plan became toxic among Republicans. I suppose he could still win by default, but I definitely think it’s Perry’s to lose as of now.