Even as Huntsman directly takes on his Mormon rival, Jonathan Bernstein won’t count him out:

What we’re basically left with, barring something unprecedented (which could happen, but isn’t likely to), is Romney and Perry. And Perry is untested with a national audience – untested with the national press, untested with national Republican party actors, and untested with voters outside of Texas. Which hardly means that he’s destined to flop, but there sure are a lot of hoops he has to jump through.

And if he falters? Then Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee for president in 2012. Death watches notwithstanding.

Agreed. Perry, in my view, is too extremist for America. Romney is far less grating on suburban ears and eyes. I’ll be live-blogging the debate Wednesday but until we know if Palin is running or not, I think gaming out the race is pretty close to impossible.