Rick Perry has decided to continue his campaign.
http://www.politico.com//blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/perry-here-we-come-south-carolina-109574.html
This is only a sensible move given the weakness of the other candidates and the chaos of the race. Even a pathetic character like Perry can comeback. The only thing for certain is the Republican's will nominate one ridiculous and terribly flawed candidate. It might as well be Rick Perry.
With Michele Bachman out, the only competitors to Romney remaining are the unelectable Santorum and Gingrich. This is a smart move on Perry's part.
He has 3.5 million to spend and a good chance of seeing his campaign resurge like Gingrich's did.
Santorum has a huge problem when it comes to stature in the race. He is a defeated former Senator who, for good reason, never was taken seriously until he got the endorsement of evangelical leaders in Iowa. He has little money (although he's likely to raise some with his Iowa showing) and no endorsements from Republican leaders. Santorum simply looks like a loser against Obama.
Perry has money, endorsements and stature as a 10 year governor of a major state. His poor debate performances can be remedied with better more recent performances. His poor debate performances are a curable fault.
The strong anti-Romney conservatives and Ron Paul supporters almost guarantee that Romney will not get more than 50% of the delegates so the field remains open for the anti-Romeny's to get behind a single candidate. Gingrich is on a revenge mission against Romney and Santorum will join that movement. Perry can certainly win South Carolina and that will make him the one anti-Romney candidate.