republicans in iowa. for folks like tim pawlenty and michele bachmann, the big event is the trial ballot, which is a big test, activist level momentum at this point. rick perfectly will show up on sunday, he officially hasn t announced his candidacy, but what will the quote/unquote perry factor have on pawlenty and bachmann? there s some move to get a rick perry write-in effort, so we ll see how much that registers, but certainly the fact that periodry looks like he ll enter the race as early as next week, perry is a conservative, tea party friendly candidates, somebody who expected to play well in iowa. whoever the winner is on saturday, in some ways they re earning the right to go head to head with the governor of texas. what happens, for instance, if pawlenty doesn t play in the top two, or if bachmann doesn t take the top spot. what happens?