(image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

BY NICOLE THOMPSON

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

You're watching multisource politics video news analysis from Newsy.

And then there were two?
With less than six months until the first 2012 presidential primary, some are speculating the GOP field is already narrowed down to just two competitors - Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

BRIAN MONTOPOLI, CBS NEWS: “We’ve got a two-man race right now - Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.”

PIERS MORGAN, CNN: “Romney and Perry.”

BILL O’REILLY, FOX NEWS: “the Perry-Romney battle.”

Romney was considered the frontrunner - that is, until Rick Perry joined the race. The Texas governor topped Romney in a fourth consecutive national poll released Wednesday.

Romney hasn’t specifically addressed his competition -- but made what some are calling a veiled swipe at Perry Tuesday.

“I spent most of my life outside of politics dealing with real problems in the real economy. Career politicians got us into this mess, and they simply don't know how to get us out.”

And the LA Times notes -- Romney’s making some scheduling changes in response to Perry’s jump in the polls.

“Romney shuffled his Labor Day plans in order to compete with Perry in the first southern primary state. The event, a Columbia, S.C. forum organized by that state’s tea-party senator, Republican Jim DeMint, will showcase six GOP contenders, including Perry and Romney.”

CBS’s Brian Montopoli agrees-- Romney and Perry are leading the pack, but he isn’t sure Perry’s popularity will last in the long run.

BRIAN MONTOPOLI, CBS NEWS: “Perry remains untested. He has a lot of appeal to social conservatives, a lot of appeal to tea party folks, but once people get to know him a little better, it’s not clear that his appeal is going to stand up. He could be a Wes Clark type, he could be a Fred Thompson type - somebody who explodes out of the gate when they get into the race, but that’s it. In any event, this is where things stand - we’ve got a two man race right now - Rick Perry and Mitt Romney - see if any of these folks can break up into the first tier, or at least from the third to the second tier. It’s going to be an exciting September.”

And Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute tells MSNBC-- the rest of the Republican field shouldn’t be written off just yet.

PETER BROWN, QUINNIPIAC POLLING INSTITUTE: “On the republican side, you still have a lot of candidates. The concentration is obviously on Perry because he’s come from not being a candidate to being the frontrunner. But he’s only getting 24 percent of the vote. That’s one in four voters. Romney’s at 18, and behind that is Palin, and Bachmann and Santorum and Huntsman etc., etc.”

But who’s to say it has to be just one or the other? CNN’s Piers Morgan talks to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker:

PIERS MORGAN, CNN: “You’ve cited Romney and Perry. Could you see a situation where they come as a double header, regardless of which way around. In other words, a moderate and a tea party candidate may well be the best force republicans have against president Obama.”
SCOT WALKER, GOV. WIS.: “I absolutely think you’re right about that.”

A fun fact -- the owner of the web domains perry-romney2012.comand romney-perry2012.comis asking for $50,000. 

 

Transcript by Newsy.