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Tonight is Rick Perry night. In a few short hours, all those questions about how the blustery front-runner will fare in an actual debate will be answered. NBC News' Brian Williams and Politico's John Harris will be hosting the hoped-for slugfest at the Reagan Library at 8 pm ET tonight. (We'll be live-blogging the political theater right here.) And pundits want to know all about Perry: Will he say something incendiary? Will he metaphorically knock out Mitt Romney for good? Will he decide to pull his punches like Pawlenty? Or will he establish some other boxing metaphor that bloggers will be able to reference for weeks to come?
In other news: people other than the Texas governor will be awkwardly standing behind podiums this evening. Like Michele Bachmann, from whom Perry seemed to steal all the poll thunder. She really needs to go after the Texas governor tonight in order to "stop the bleeding," figures James Oliphant at the Los Angeles Times. Simply "bashing President Obama and his agenda may no longer be enough." Will she come up with as catchy of a phrase for skewering Perry as her popular "Obama. Will. Be. A. One. Term. President." refrain? We'll see.