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By Root 80 0

to learn that Jason Cherkis, a Huffington Post reporter, was in Austin prowling around on a story that had been gossiped about for years in the Texas capital: is Perry gay? The episode illustrates the kind of off-the-wall queries that campaigns field. A Perry official described the rumors as “bullshit”: the governor has been married for twenty-nine years to Anita Thigpen—the two met at an elementary school piano recital. But that hasn’t stopped the gossip around the Texas capital, where a detailed story about a supposed assignation with a former state official continues to make the rounds. Perry aides feared the distraction and tawdriness of the story line Cherkis seemed to be pursuing. They took comfort in the Huffington Post’s roots on the left, which gave the Perry staff hope that mainstream outlets would ignore the story. The Perry official said that Cherkis at one point approached the campaign about the story: “[T]he problem we had was he had unnamed sources. We felt it was shoddy reporting. He used an example of someone who wouldn’t answer his question, so that means he’s confirming.… He would interpret that as ‘Ah-ha!’ ” Cherkis left Austin and wound up posting a harmless rehash, “Rick Perry’s ‘Texas Miracle’ Includes Crowded Homeless Shelters, Low-Wage Jobs, Worker Deaths.”

In late September, the campaign was caught by surprise when a Washington Post reporter called to ask about a Perry family hunting camp that was known as “Niggerhead,” with the name at one point painted on a rock at the entrance. The reporter, Stephanie McCrummen, later told a blogger that the name was “pretty much common knowledge among people who knew Perry and his father, Ray.”

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Watching Perry flub his attacks on Romney at the Orlando debate, the mood in the room was “ecstatic. I was coming out of my shoes,” a Romney confidante recalled. “I’m like, This is awesome. We’ve won.” Watching Romney with an admiration verging on awe was Tim Pawlenty. In early October, Pawlenty sat down with us and contrasted Romney’s performance with that of every other GOP candidate, including himself. “I think he’s put on a clinic, the varsity versus the junior varsity. The others aren’t even in the same league,” said Pawlenty.

After Pawlenty dropped out of the race, Romney asked him and his wife, Mary, to come up to Lake Winnipesaukee, in New Hampshire, to spend the weekend with him and Ann. There were boat rides, just the four of them, and a quiet dinner on Saturday night. Pawlenty came back impressed with his host. “There’s this theory that somehow he’s different in person than he is in public,” Pawlenty said of Romney. “That’s just not true. He is a perpetually optimistic, upbeat, gracious person. Mary and I went up to his place in New Hampshire and spent some time with him and Ann. They’re just gracious, fun, upbeat people. And this idea that he’s somehow always stiff and there’s a dissonance between his public life and how he behaves in other settings, I just don’t buy that.” Romney later asked Pawlenty for his endorsement. Pawlenty said yes.

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The 2012 GOP campaign would be remembered for the candidates who didn’t get in the race, predicted a veteran GOP operative. Wooed by GOP heavies from Henry Kissinger to Nancy Reagan, New Jersey’s Chris Christie stirred one last will-he-won’t-he drama by playing coy in late September.

But Christie’s “heart wasn’t in it,” said the operative, who spoke to Christie several times (“though he did have second thoughts after talking to Nancy Reagan”). The operative wrote a 120-day fundraising plan while other operatives worked on getting Christie on state primary ballots. A person who knew Christie’s mind phoned us to say why he wouldn’t take the bait: “One, he genuinely believes that he’s not prepared on an issue and substance basis to address all of the things you have to address as a candidate, and he’s leery of learning on the fly. Two, the performance of Perry [in the debates] shows the dangers of late entry. And while others use that as a reason for him to get in, for him, it’s the opposite—it’s the reason