Rick Perry looms large over Mitt Romney, GOP

With Mitt Romney still the GOP presidential frontrunner following Thursday's debate in Iowa, the next big item on Romney's to-do list is figuring out how to deal with the nascent candidacy that Texas Gov. Rick Perry will launch Saturday in South Carolina.

Politico explores the Romney-Perry dynamic at length in an article published Friday morning.

"The Texas governor may present the last best hope of beating Romney, the tenuous but still dent-free frontrunner. … Romney's high command wasn't ready to directly contrast their candidate's record with Perry, but they were happy to begin laying the groundwork for a campaign that will portray the decade-long Texas governor as a career politician running at a moment of maximum skepticism toward politicians."

The Associated Press also provided an analysis on Perry's possible impact on the race, saying the Texas governor may pose the biggest threat to Romney's campaign.

A glimpse of Perry's campaign message can be found in Mike Allen's latest Playbook column for Politico, where Allen includes an excerpt from "a late draft of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential announcement speech to be delivered in Columbia, S.C., (Saturday)."

"The change we seek will never emanate out of Washington. It will come from the windswept prairies of middle America; the farms and factories across this great land; the hearts and minds of God-fearing Americans — who will not accept a future that is less than our past, who will not be consigned a fate of LESS freedom in exchange for MORE government. We do not have to accept our current circumstances. We will change them. We're Americans. That's what we do. WE roll up our sleeves, WE get to work, WE make things better."

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