Rick Perry Moves Michele Bachmann to Crazy Train Caboose

COMMENTARY | The Tea Party faction of the Republican Party has a new darling candidate, and it's not Michele Bachman or the non-declared Sarah Palin. While the Republican debate Wednesday was largely void of substance, there were clear winners and losers.

Winners - Rick Perry and Mitt Romney

The belle of the ball was definitely Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who came out determined to cement himself into the frontrunner status he vaulted into when he entered the race. He likely accomplished that task but at the same time lessened any chances he might have had in the general election against President Barack Obama.

Instead of backing away from his fringe statement calling Social Security a "Ponzi Scheme," Perry doubled down, according to the Washington Post. Perry can't take the position and win with it in a general election. He will still garner votes from Tea Party seniors and workers who can be counted on to vote against their own interests, but that won't be enough.

Romney, along with Jon Huntsman, won simply by refusing to run to the fringe even more. The debate was held in the Reagan Library, but most current Republican voters would boo Reagan off the stage for being too liberal. Romney was able to keep enough distance between himself and those guaranteed to lose, like Perry.

Losers - Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party

Bachmann saw her 15 minutes effectively come to an end. The exit door for her opened when Perry entered the race, and the Texas two-stepper escorted her all the way out last night. His Social Security comments thankfully injure his chances of winning the general election; some of his other positions are equally troubling. Whether meaning to or not, Perry put himself at the same level as those who for centuries denied the science Galileo showed the world with his simple telescope.

"Galileo got outvoted for a spell," Perry said in the same type of down-home Texas speak we thought left the national stage with George W. Bush.

That's the part of the debate that made headlines in the foreign press. The Guardian UK declares "The world needs to prepare for a climate sceptic [sic] defeating Obama."

Perry may hope that accepted climate science gets outvoted for a spell that's long enough to get him elected, but the world will pay the price if that happens. It's not that surprising Perry's Texas is on fire while he left to join the GOP debate. That in itself isn't a big deal, but the fact that he is staying in California a few more days for fundraisers is likely to raise eyebrows.

Bachmann, who at one point didn't say a word for 20 minutes, discovered there is only room for one engineer on the Republican crazy train. She was the one who kicked Sarah Palin to the caboose, and now finds herself a bunk mate to the half-term former governor.